'Bubbles,' as a guitar project at this time, is dead. I may, at some future point, do some research into how Van Halen fanatics get those crisp, even lines on their tape-job Frankenstrats and try again, but each individual kit can only be salvaged so many times if mistakes are made. To save the kit enough to at least have a guitar in the end, I'm sanding off the armor pattern. I considered basic matte black for the front, but another fellow's kit Les Paul had an interesting front paint job, while discussing spray paints and options in a D.I.Y. guitar FB group. Automotive metallic glitter paint. I've got an errand today that will take me past an Autozone, and I'll check their stock. The gold front I saw was quite nice, but I'll be looking for a shade of red compatible with the apple red on the back/neck of ex-Bubbles, since that simpler job's flaws are ones I can live with and there's no cause to erase it.
I still haven't made up my mind whether I want to put the same hardware on the basic, sparkly, two-tone red final guitar that I'd planned for Bubbles, as these things are more expensive than they seem at first glance. Yeah, the kit itself is $100-175, or a bit more for specialty lines, but if you want to improve on the stock hardware it adds up. Fast. For anyone considering one of these kits, hopefully to use their own, or one of my, QC AI theme ideas, the total price is something to keep in mind, though a kit can also be a multi-month project, letting you spread out the expense. I added things up, and I've spent about $310 on this project so far, and fully outfitting it with a shadow tuner, a string butler, and a kick-ass set of pickups will add at least another $200. You could get a Gibson (pre-owned, Tribute series, but still a Gibson) for the price a well-built kit adds up to... but it can be worth it if you consider a project's value as an adventure. This adventure didn't lead where I expected, but at least I didn't get eaten by a grue.
