This isn't me

Well, here goes the story, but first a little background on me, specifically my woodworking. I started cutting wood seriously about 22 years ago. For as long as I can remember I always wanted a tablesaw, it probably goes back to my youth in Oregon working with my stepdad in construction when I was in my teens, and to high school woodshop. My stepdad brought me home a old Craftsman tablesaw in 1990, it was in pieces in boxes. I put that thing back in working order just in time to make a changing table for my first child Eric. I kept cutting, and kept garage sale-ing till I had a nice selection of tools. Fast forward to 1996 when I decided that I was going to be the next Jimi Ray Vaughan Zappa ect. I bought a new Fender Strat, then another guitar, more guitars, and a few more. I told my wife that I had a eye on this really must have guitar. She put a eye on me that said I was full of shit, and that it wasn't gonna happen. She told me to get out in the F8cking garage and make one with all those tools that you had too have!!! I thought and said, great idea! So out to the garage I go, completely clueless on the process. I went and found a book, it seemed easy enough, plus I would just buy the neck/necks ready to go. I made the first one in 2000, then another in 2003, then I stopped. I kept cutting wood, but never attempted another guitar. I enrolled in the Wood Technology program at Cerritos College in the fall of 2008. I'm still enrolled, I will complete the program next fall, it's the best thing I have ever done for my woodworking skills. During my years at Cerritos the desire to build guitars returned, for me it's a natural fit, I love to cut wood, I love guitars, and all the amazing guitar players through the ages. So I get this completely insane idea last year that David needs me to build him a guitar, he just doesn't know it yet. So after the gig at the Coach House last Dec. I approach him and a tell him that I want to make him a guitar, a Tele clone, and ask him what his preferences are, and he tells me what they are. I'm thinking he would say "no", it's cool dude, but he answers my questions. So I'm driving home that night thinking WTF did you just commit yourself to do you idiot, you have no clue how to build a "complete" guitar from scratch, you can do the body, but the neck is a art, a art your clueless on. So two nights later we have tix to see the fellas in Riverside. I'm with my brother, sister, and the spouses. It's basically my birthday, so they are treating. The guys are in line to get some beers and I figure I will get me a shirt coz I didn't get one at the Coach House, and coz the guy at the merch table has no one there, it's the perfect time to get one. So I ask the guy at the table how the show was the night before (The Fillmore), he tells me it was great, the boys were on fire ect. I tell him my name is Mike, he says his name is Myles. I tell him I recognize the name from the Boots. I tell him how I told Dave the other night that I was gonna make him a guitar. Myles tells me that DH just "loves guitars". I tell Myles that I have a few more questions to ask David about the guitar, Myles tells me to just talk to him, that he will answer my questions. I tell Myles that I would love to, but, they are only scheduled to sign for the VIPs, Myles tell me that they will sign for who's ever left after the VIP thing and that he will tell David that I have more questions. So we wait, they come out to sign, and Dave tell me that Myles told him that I had more questions. I get the info, DH asks me if I know how to get ahold of him, I tell him I will through Myles, He says cool, perfect! Then Cesar wanted one too, ha! So now I'm all excited, I'm gonna make a custom guitar for one of the best in the business...but I don't know how!! So after the New Year I kinda pushed it to the back burner, " I'll get to it soon", "I'll look it up online", "how hard can it be", blah, blah, blah. Well now it's April and I need to get moving on this thing, I make a real effort to figure this thing out...with google, and just got more confused! Now it's May, I got nada, I need to buy a chisel for one of my school projects. While at the store my wife finds a postcard from a organization called "Simscal"- Stringed Instrument Makers of Southern California. I dig into that thing and find a guy that teaches solid body electric guitar building classes for $325.00 for four weeks...but his classes start in January! I call, never get a answer, so I drive down there, tell Jim that I'm building a guitar for David Hidalgo. Jim is completely excited, big fan of the guys, he tells me sure, I will teach you. I'm on my way!! So I start In July, and it's going nowhere fast! I'm two weeks in and we have barely started, I'm freaking out, "is this the right guy", "where's his tablesaw"? Jim tells me that he feels bad, that he will give a extra 3 weeks...no charge. Things start to happen, I'm making progress, I'm teaching Jim techniques, it's not as hard as I convinced myself it was, and most important me and Jim are becoming friends. Now it's September, my time is up, I'm not done, and Jim never mentions it, he just keeps giving me tools to borrow and my assignments to be completed before class the following week. He's asking me about the rest of the guitar, what wood, hardware, ect, he's completely into the build. He tells me I better get started on the rest of it asap, coz December will be here soon. he was right! Rewind back a little, I was doing research on what pickups I was going to use on the guitar, I stumble upon the Seymour Duncan Forum and I see a name- Maricela "MJ" Juarez, I had just recently heard a boot where the boys were on the Mark and Brian show and Maricela called into pester Cesar about when they were coming back to Santa Barbara to play a show. So I send her a email inquiring info on what kinda pickups David would use in a Tele, she replies "send me your Name and address", I'm thinking she replied to someone else, but I reply with my info, she replies "great, I will send you a great set"! I can't believe it, so I reply with thanks, she replies back "anything for David"! I keep going at the neck while starting the body. I tell Jim my wood selections, he's not convinced about the sycamore as a tone wood. I tell him that I wanna make something for David that he doesn't have, and I'm going forth with my choices. It's now October, the body is chambered, glued up and ready for cavity routing, Jim saw it and just started smiling, he loved it. the neck is basically done now, I'm now concentrating on the the body, on my choice not to use the traditional metal control plate, mine will be outta wood, recessed, custom shit. Me and Jim disagree about my choice to do a oil finish on the guitar vs lacquer, again he relents. I get all the routing done, I get the neck to fit the body, basically all I need to do is to get all the hardware together and finish the guitar. I bring Jim the guitar, he hasn't seen it yet with the two pieces mated to each other. He sees it, sits me down and tells me that in the the nearly 20 years that he has been building, he's had many students and employees and that I was the best one who has ever walked into his shop. That the guitar was going to be as good as anything that he has ever done and as good as any that he has seen in all the high end custom builder shows. I was floored! He then told me that he would be very upset if I quit building again. Blew me away. Now it is Halloween, I haven't heard from Maricela, so I call her. I get a message that says she will be outta the office till Nov. 12. So I figure I need to find a new source for the pickups, I'm delivering some cabinets to my daughters school and Maricela calls, she asks me what kinda pickups I want, I tell her you the expert, she says ok I will send you these such and such, I'm stoked! I thank her again and she tells me "anything for David". Thanksgiving comes and goes and I get a call from Maricela on the Monday after Thanksgiving, she asks me if I got my pickups yet? I tell her no, and I asked her when she sent them. She had sent them the week of Thanksgiving, I tell her they probably got delayed coz of the holiday. I had school that night after work, I got home about 11p.m. and the pickups were sitting on the wall next to my garage. I was so pissed at UPS for leaving them there, but also happy as hell that they were finally here, now I could finish the guitar...only one problem...it needed custom wiring to get the most outta those pickups. The next morning I make a call to a wiring wizard out in Florida, I tell him my story, he tells me to ship him the custom wooden control plate and he will do the work and pay for the shipping back for a FREE because he is a huge fan of the band, and that it would be a honor to contribute to the DH project, crazy shit right? So now I have everything, all the parts, materials to finish, it's time to move my ass and get this thing done. I have two weeks to apply the finish and assemble the guitar, I also have three major, 15 hour days events at my park coming up, but I got this shit, it's in the bag! Everything was going good till Thurs, Dec 6th when I put a big dent in the guitar after 9 coats of oil. I wanted to cry!!!! That Thurs and Friday would have been the last day to apply the oil, Saturday and Sunday I had to work the two 15 hour days, and Monday night I would start assembling. Now I had to get the dent out, and reapply 9-10 coats of oil in 4 days which wouldn't have been a big issue except for the fact that i would not be home till 10p.m on Sat & Sun. I slept 16 hours the next four days getting that thing back in order. I got it assembled on my birthday Dec 11th just before midnight. I plugged it in and played it till 3 in the morning, I slept with it that night on the couch coz I didn't want anything to happen to it. What a fucking journey that was. I took it to Jim the next day for the final set up, get it just right. Jim hadn't seen it in a month. when I took it outta the case he was like a proud papa, his smile was huge, he loved it, loved the sycamore, the oil finish, he played it and just glowed! So now all i gotta do is get it to DH on the 16th. Myles got me set up with Mando to see David before the show and give him the guitar. It didn't go as planned, I finally got the guitar into Davids hands just before the encore, he asked me if it was "in tune", I told him it was close, he took it, strapped it up and killed it. Took some serious huevos for him to play that thing sight unseen...unheard. Mando gave me back the guitar as we went backstage to give it to him proper. I don't think David really believed that I made it for him to keep. I told him I made it for him, he said really? I said really! he thanked me then just kept checking it out, asking questions. He told me it sounded great, looked great, and played great. I truly hope he likes it, that he gets to play it in a different setting to explore what that thing does, that thing has some serious mojo. I told David that while making this gift for him that he gave me a gift back, and that the gift he gave me was to focus my remaining years building guitars. That I never would have got back into it if I didn't commit to building it for him, and while doing that I discovered that my true woodworking passion was to make guitars. I hope my story didn't bore you all to death. Just wanted to share the journey with you all, Happy New Years! So Thank You Mr Hidalgo! Maybe one day he will play Just A Man on it for me!