tc-10

Waiting for the TC-10 to arrive!

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I’m eager to star the project, but I’m committed to taking an appropriate amount of time to do things correctly. In my case this means slow! I’ve jumped into research and design, heres some of what I’ve produced:

Design:

I decided to mock up the look I’m going for in photoshop (the base image is from fenders website, I photoshoped the pickgaurd). I landed on a fiesta red(ish) color, an lp pickgaurd that I saw online a while ago and reliced edges and hardware. I’ll cut the saga headstock to as much a tele shape as possible. Ironically I was having a hard time finding a good pattern image online and then I looked at the licensing agreement between marmoth and fender and it has a great tele headstock drawing in the PDF! I plan on using the stock hardware with the exception of new tuners and brass saddles in the bridge.

Logo:

I liked the angry angus logo. It honest in it’s appearance. I landed in between with my first name, Franz, in a Fender script. I used illustrator to create the graphic working from a photo of a tele headstock. I traced the F, moved the r, scalped the d to make an a, moved the n, and constructed a z by tracing a script font and “fendering” the edges to make it fit the design. It’s shown above in the header graphic, it’s a little rough but I think I have the right idea in place.

Research:

I started with the relic process, I found a great tutorial on youtube from howaudio.com and I took the $20 plunge to subscribe for a month to see the complete tutorial. Youtube also had several other relic tutorials that ranged in quality. HowAudio also had a good series on basic guitar setup.

GuitarAttack has several pages dedicated to TC-10 builds and I’ve started reading them picking up details on assembling the kit.

James Egold wrote a great artice in the September 2008 Premiere Guitar on building a Esquire clone “on the cheap” I found this article very helpful.

Heres a great site with info on fender finishes and custom colors.

Finishing is going to be a challenge. Fortunately I teach in a vocational high school and our auto body instructor is a wealth of knowledge. He was actually working on a cracked finish on a car when I went to ask him about technique for checking a nitrocellulose finish. Needless to say I’ll be talking with Mr. Holley in the future. I’m going to get a jumpstart searching youtube for a quick finishing “primer” pun intended.

tc-10

I want to build a guitar!

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Why Build a Relic?

Two events inspired the construction of the TC-10. I stopped by my local music store, swampdog music and I played an angry angus tele. This guitar knocked my socks off, it was a new guitar but it looked felt and sounded old, with a gorgeous checked nitrocellulose finish and heavily worn edges. The only down side was the $1500 price tag. I believe that it’s worth every penny I just can’t find room in the budget.

I’d recently read an article about Eddie Van Halen and the process he’s gone through modifying his equipment over the years. I really like the concept of playing a role in the creation of the instrument you play. The Angry Angus experience and the EVH article spun into the idea of building a guitar and an amplifier.

What Type of Guitar?

My taste in guitars goes back to 1985 when I saved lawn mowing money for a summer and bought a well used 74 tele custom from Williams music in Worthington, Ohio. At the time neon color guitars and big hair were all the rage and the tele was a steal at around $350 with case. This was my first real guitar. I spent countless hours studying the battle scars on the old guitar and even adding some of my own. A relic tele was an easy choice.

Side note: Premiere Guitar recently featured a fender custom shop “telemaster” Jazzmaster body with a tele neck and tele style electronics. That is a cool guitar, but I decided the first venture should be low budget.

I priced parts on warmoth.com and I decided that I wanted to start with a less expensive option. I wanted to develop technique with something cheap where I could experiment a little. Google lead me to guitar attack and I found the TC-10 kit from Saga. I bought it now on eBay for $120 shipped and I’ve been continuing the research waiting for it to arrive.

recipe

A Very Rough Weekend

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Ok… I eat allot of racy food. I’m not afraid of a rare steak, sushi, I’ve eaten 4 dozen oysters on the half shell in the past month (none over the past week) It was a Philly cheese steak and fries that got me. Out of commission all weekend. After about ten rounds in the porcelain ring I was left with almost 24 additional hours of sweaty chills. Euch…. food poisoning sucks. On the bright side I would have been heartbroken if it would have been a favorite food, it took a friend over a year before they could stare a dragon roll in the eye after a bad sushi experience.

I’ve been doing well getting my exercise back on track – barring this weekend. I have 15 miles on the new treadmill and I think it’s level and running smooth. I’m banking a few calories for this tasty looking dish:

Blue Cheesecake

Serves 12 to 16
Ingredients:1-1/2 cups water1/2 cup medium-grind cornmeal1 tablespoon chopped garlic1 tablespoon dried basil, crumbled (optional)1-1/2 teaspoons herbes de Provence, crumbled1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt Three 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature1/2 pound Oregon Blue Vein, Oregonzola, Gorgonzola, Roquefort, or other high-quality blue cheese, cut into chunks, at room temperature 3 large eggs1/4 cup (1 ounce) freshly shredded Parmesan cheese1 head garlic, cloves separated and roasted (See Cook’s Hint, below)1/2 cup whole hazelnuts, pine nuts, or almonds, toasted Crostini or crackers, for serving, optional

Directions:1. Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Slowly stir in the cornmeal, stirring in one direction to avoid lumps, then add the garlic, basil (if using), herbes de Provence, and salt. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until smooth and creamy, stirring occasionally and adjusting the heat as necessary so the polenta doesn’t overcook or bubble up and splatter, 12 to 15 minutes.
2. While the polenta is cooking, place the cream cheese and blue cheese in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs one at a time and mix by hand (if you are very strong!) or beat with an electric mixer until the eggs are thoroughly incorporated. Set aside.
3. Arrange the oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9-inch springform pan or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
4. When the polenta is done, remove it from the heat and stir in the Parmesan cheese. Let cool for 5 minutes. With a rubber spatula, press the polenta into the bottom of the prepared springform pan and set aside.
5. Pour the reserved cheese filling evenly over the polenta crust. Tap the pan lightly on the counter to remove any air bubbles. Squeeze the garlic cloves from their skins and arrange them around the perimeter of the pan at equal distances. Sprinkle the hazelnuts evenly in the center of the cheesecake.
6. Place the cheesecake on a baking sheet to catch any drips, transfer to the oven, and bake for 1 hour, or until the cake springs back when lightly jiggled and the internal temperature on an instant-read thermometer reaches 160 degrees F. Cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour.
7. To serve, release and remove the sides of the springform pan. Serve the cheesecake warm or at room temperature, cut into slices as an appetizer or spread onto crostini or crackers for a more rustic look. The cheesecake can be covered and kept in the refrigerator for up to 1 week (its flavors meld and deepen the longer it sits). If serving from the refrigerator, slice and warm it in a 350 degree F oven or microwave briefly before serving.

Cook’s Hint: To roast individual cloves of garlic, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Remove as much skin as possible from each clove, place in a small baking dish without crowding (a pie plate also works well for this), cover tightly with aluminum foil, and bake until the garlic is very tender and easily squeezed from the skin, 35 minutes.

Juice Dujor – Apple carrot fennel ginger yo bananna fo

exercise

Cold Running and a SAD lamp

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I logged one run this week, a chilly Sharon woods loop with Bill, Jeff, Wendy, and Mona. It was a warm 30 degrees and the trail was a crusty dry mix of well packed ice and snow. Large bits of ice fallen from tree limbs gave the trail a sugar frosted appearance. The meadow after the third hill was beautiful. I feel sorry for people who’ve never experienced a run in winter.

My toes were not so happy about the experience. I’m finding that its not necessarily the temperature but the length of exposure to cold. I should have changed into dry socks and shoes before breakfast. A good dousing with salonpas was necessary later that evening to mask the joint pain.

Another revelation has been in the form of a 10,000 lux daylight balanced light. Amazing stuff. A 1/2 hour a day in the morning has doubled my energy over the past two weeks. More to come on this one.

Juice Dujor – Apple, Carrot, Pear, Vanilla YO, bananna, FO (very tasty with the pear!)

recipe

Recipes for the week

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Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (Galumpkis)

Cabbage Rolls:
11/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Splash dry red wine
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups steamed white rice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 large heads green cabbage, about 3 pounds each

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Remove the large, damaged outer leaves from the cabbages and set aside. Cut out the cores of the cabbages with a sharp knife and carefully pull off all the rest of the leaves, keeping them whole and as undamaged as possible, (get rid of all the small leaves and use them for coleslaw or whatever.) Blanch the cabbage leaves in the pot of boiling water for 5 minutes, or until pliable. Run the leaves under cool water then lay them out so you can assess just how many blankets you have to wrap up the filling. Next, carefully cut out the center vein from the leaves so they will be easier to roll up. Take the reserved big outer leaves and lay them on the bottom of a casserole pan, let part of the leaves hang out the sides of the pan. This insulation will prevent the cabbage rolls from burning on the bottom when baked. Use all the good looking leaves to make the cabbage rolls. Put about 1/2 cup of the meat filling in the center of the cabbage and starting at what was the stem-end, fold the sides in and roll up the cabbage to enclose the filling. Place the cabbage rolls side by side in rows, seam-side down, in a casserole pan.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Pour the remaining sweet and sour tomato sauce over the cabbage rolls. Fold the hanging leaves over the top to enclose and keep the moisture in. Drizzle the top with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Bake for 1 hour until the meat is cooked.


Chilled Beet Soup

3 pounds beets
1 tablespoon light olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 to 3 cups water
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
2 to 3 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Rice wine vinegar or Champagne vinegar
Sour cream
2 teaspoons fresh dill

Trim beet greens at the base of the beet. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the beets. Reduce the heat and cook, uncovered, at a low boil until tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Test the beets by inserting a paring knife or skewer. If there is no resistance, they are ready to be drained. Drain when tender and allow to cool or run them under cold water to cool them quickly. Peel, cut into large pieces, and set aside.

Heat oil in a small saute pan, add the onion and 1/4 teaspoon salt, cook until tender, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 2 more minutes. Combine the onion/garlic and beets in a blender or food processor. Add 2 cups stock and puree until smooth. Add water 1 cup at a time until desired consistency, being careful not to make soup too thin. Add the orange juice, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, 2 teaspoons vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt, and a few pinches of pepper. Season if needed with lemon juice, vinegar, salt and pepper. Chill the soup, ladle into bowls. Garnish each with a swirl of sour cream and a sprinkle of dill

exercise

Chilly to the gym

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I ran an icy 4 miles around sharon woods Sunday and a 5k on the treadmill this morning. I need to cut down my evening snacking and get rid of a few pounds added back over break. I’m definately feeling the effects of the cold on my joints. I’m feeling very stiff in the morning after I get up. Running feels fine after I get a 1/2 mile in.

apple and carrot juice blended with a bananna, yo, flaxseed, and fish oil.

exercise

Crawlathon 2k.9

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Bill a running group friend mentioned caving and an upcoming event in Kentucky. As a die hard experience junky I jumped at the chance to go! This will be my first experience caving other than simple walking tours. I’ve signed up for three trips below. I’m also acquiring the necessary gear!

Saturday 10:00am
TRIP #32: Adult Only Bat Cave Backdoor (Level 2) – Duration: 3 hours – Limit: 20 people – Status: 9 Spots Open
Adults Only. This trip starts with a 1/4 mile hike to the cave entrance from the maintenance parking area. Bat Cave is completely wild with the exception for the cave gates. You will be required to navigate through some walking passages, climb over breakdown piles and do some hands and knee crawling. You get the whole package with the cave being a combination of dry, muddy and wet. How wet you get depends on how merciful your guide is. Meets at Lodge; Transportation Needed.

Saturday 1:30pm
TRIP #60: Adult Only Cascade Gone Wild (Level 2) – Duration: 3 hours – Limit: 30 people – Status: 12 Spots Open
Adults Only. This is a tour through Cascade Cave, the largest and longest commercial cave in Carter County. Along the route you will see parts of the commercial route, but you will also venture off the beaten path to visit some of the wild sections of the cave. This is a good tour for beginners or those with assorted aches and pains. Meets at Lodge; Transportation Needed.

Sunday 10:30am
TRIP #101: Visit To Cascade Cave (Level 1) – Duration: 2 hours – Limit: 60 people – Status: 13 Spots Open
Cascade is the largest commercial cave in Carter County. You will experience large cave passageways, bats, beautiful cave formations and finish with a look at a 30 foot underground waterfall. This is a walking tour with some stooping and bending. MEETS AT THE WELCOME CENTER; Transportation needed.

exercise

Getting back into the swing of things..

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5k on the treadmill and quick weights today and 4 miles around sharon woods on Sunday (Bill held me to an 8:30 pace!)

apple carrot banilla flaxseed smoothie, leftover pasta for lunch, and grilled chicken breast for dinner.

My digestive system is thanking me in advance! Two weeks of holiday festivities left me feeling terible.

I’ve also signed up for crawlathon 2k.9 and I have three spelunking adventures planned for later this month!