What's this for?
Although it is normal to find a model designation and serial number on mass produced instruments, and even on some from a series of just a few, on one of a kind instruments there is no real need for them. Now if a builder wants to serialize every instrument regardless, then there is nothing wrong with that, they may have a good reason. Serial and model designations can be found in different places, using different media depending on the maker, you have seen the stampings, stickers and decals sporting them right? Well here is something totally different:
When I saw it, I was like: "What the FXXX is this?" Mr. X said "That's what I asked myself too, when I saw it!" We both agreed that it was JLH's designation for a model and it's serial number, what we were both asking was why it was there and not somewhere else, and on a huge chunk of wood, in such a way that it looked really bad.
Well for me it was easy to figure out, going by what I had seen so far, and I told Mr. X, that JLH placed the bridge to far forward and cut the neck pocket wrong, and this was his way of fixing and hiding it. I took of the neck and viola', there was a huge gap between the neck and the body, and a piece of sanding paper for a shim. Despite his efforts to fix his mistake and conceal it, it still failed, as the instrument could not have it's intonation set right, due to the fact that the neck had to be set back even further. There should be no need for a shim either, had he been diligent with his measurements. You may also see that he did not crown (round) the frets after sanding a large portion of them away, in an attempt to get them level, which he never achieved.
The Icing on the cake came when I discovered one of the YouTube videos JLH had made showing off his craft, in "this video", published on Apr 13, 2012. You can see him showing off an obvious copy of a G&L Rampage Jerry Cantrell signature model, with the neck pocket cut out, the neck screwed in, the bridge and locking nut in place, all before he has the truss rod installed and the fingerboard attached. That is completely backwards, no real luthier does it that way! No wonder he failed with that, the neck should be all done before cutting it's pocket in the body, and the bridge gets placed last, so that it can be placed precisely even if something else is off a little.
Add to that, he shows an obvious flaw in the truss rod groove, and blames his dad for it, but the one thing that tells me there is really something wrong with this guy, is the part where he says that he rounded the whole neck using 100 grit sandpaper! Then he goes on to say that he did not use other much more suited tools, in an effort to make it sound like he is keeping up some time honored luthier's tradition, and keeping it real!
Not only should he not be admired for what is most likely a big lie, but he should be called downright stupid if he actually did that. No luthier would spend the hundreds of hours it would take to carve a rounded neck from a rectangular board with any sandpaper, not even 20 grit. As a matter of fact, a good luthier can get a neck really close with other tools, in under an hour, and just clean away the tool marks with sandpaper, or preferably scraper blades. Also, you shouldn't even start carving the neck until the truss rod is in, and the fingerboard is glued on.
The Stewart MacDonald "Hot rod" truss rod he uses on his guitars, is cheap, badly designed and poorly made, has mostly unfavorable reviews, and is prone to breakage, and yet he acts like it is the choice of every great luthier, it is not. He also failed to read the part of the instructions where they recommend a strip of wood above it, so that gluing on the fingerboard does not also glue the truss rod to it, and that you should not use wood glue, but rather polyurethane or high strength epoxy, or else risk the fingerboard popping off, which is exactly what happened.
One more observation: when using sandpaper on bare wood, sanding it to 400 grit is as far as you would ever want to go, anything finer like the 1500 grit JLH professes is "Going to make it play like a bitch" will make no difference at all before finishing. As a matter of fact it can and most likely will rub the fine sand that comes off of the paper into the pores, which is near impossible to remove. I must also strongly question weather he really did any of the major woodwork himself, but instead started with prefab parts. Going by the skill or lack thereof on this guitar, I have my doubts weather he did the artwork on the G&L copy. I could not find a follow up on it on YouTube, nor on his Facebook page. Since the video was published on Apr 13, 2012, I searched from then up, but nothing to be found. I wonder why? He must have finally put the fingerboard on it and Oh well, another one for the trash.
And what's this?
Earlier I said I would come back to the mysterious addition of the huge brass logo plate, that the guitar came back with after Mr. X sent it back for warranty repair, and here is what it covered up:
Why yes, that is just a good for nothing hole in the back of a $1700 "world class" guitar. I will assume that your next question is: What is it for? Well, Mr. X demanded an answer for it from JLH, who told him that it was to reduce weight. When Mr. X told me that, I did not know if I should laugh or cry.
This again begs me to question Jesse Howard's sanity, for a few reasons. First of all the plate weighs about the same, or more than the wood he removed in such a crude fashion, and if that was the real reason, then why did he not cut it out closer to the edge of the plate, and much deeper? I suspect a hint of vanity, OK more than a hint: So he get's a guitar back that his client is highly dissatisfied with, he doesn't fix it right, but spends valuable time to slap on a huge logo, essentially rubbing it in Mr. X's face with some kind of twisted misplaced pride!
Most of all, why would he spend money he should be using for real luthier classes, on brass embossed logo plates? I can imagine that most people would not want one on their instrument, nor the instrument itself for that matter. Add to that they really are too big to fit anywhere else on a guitar but on the back, where few will ever see it, smart move JLH!