A full behind the scenes run through Strip Law episode 106

A hands-on editing tutorial of masking a character’s actions mid-scene

An appreciation for Jeff and Casey and their song “Pizza Party”

Behind the scenes tidbits from editing Strip Law Episode 104.

Behind the scenes tidbits from editing Strip Law Episode 104.

I started jotting down some thoughts/experiences as I did it, then decided to publish it onto the site with some photos/video of the progress.

Day 1 (of actual building) 1/21

• Did the fretwork and neck prep as directed. Wasn’t sure as much about the tools and technique but did the best I could.

• Got as far as the body build stuff, but found I didn’t have the right Rule to measure 16th of an inch, so had to run to the DIY center to grab one

• Realized I had measured incorreclty once I did have the right Rule, and had to re-set pilot holes

• Finished by having both strap mounts screwed in

Day 2 1/22

• Re-looked at the strap mounts and realized I had screwed them in on the wrong side, so I re-worked those into the proper place

• Had to go out and get another tool - 1/4” countersink drill bit before moving forward with next screws

• Screwed 2nd set of screws in but had trouble with how deep to go without spitting the wood (ominous overshadowing)

• BIG SETBACK - next step was putting the neck into the body, but with wood shifting presumably in the changing weather, it got lodged and then next thing I knew, a small part of the neck snapped on me.

• Was able to get wood glue and a make-shift clamp, leaving it for a day to see if it is salvageable to move forward

Day 3 1/23

• Luckily/thankfully, the wood glue took and the neck was stable enough to continue the build.

• Today I finally decided to take some photos of my progress.

• Photo 1 -

• The next few steps involve measuring, drilling pilot holes, and screwing in the next few elements.

• Next I had to start to fit some of the electronics elements - control knob, input jack and pickup.

• Next step included putting the sound holes into the pre-cut slots. Seemed simple enough but I had to carefully sand them down to make sure they fit snug.

• One of the last steps was to screw in the back of the cigar box, as seen below -

Day 4 1/26

• Next for the final “dry build” steps, installing the tail piece, strings and bridge.

• Next, I finally got to temporarily tune the strings and try it out to play. See video below!

Josh tests out the strings on the cigar box guitar

Update 2/24

The next steps involve staining and/or coloring the wood, which also involves deconstructing the whole build to paint and let things dry. Then once that happens, I’ll rebuild it and solder the electronics for the final steps. As deciding and procuring the right colors/paints will take me a few days to collect, I’ll return to update this post as I get more into that part of the build.

But for now, I have a functional, acoustic cigar box guitar!

Painting

The next process took me a few weeks to sort out/have the time to do.

I researched and decided to paint the body the simple way - an oil-based wood stain plus a wipe-on polyurethane coating. Since the build and guitar concept are so DIY, I thought it would be fun to preserve the original look of the wood, just get some sheen on it for the finishing.

The Setup:

I made a makeshift painting set-up in my garage, so I would be able to leave the pieces outside in a semi-ventilated space, instead of my small 80 square foot office.

Wood Stain

I used the rag method to apply the stain, after sanding the pieces a good amount to get them smooth.

Wipe-On Polyurethane

Once I got to the polyurethane, at first I started with applying with a brush. After two coats, using my drying method seen above, I noticed there were some paint drips that happened due to the pieces not being flush.

I tried sanding some of those drips off, and then applied a 3rd layer. The neck, I used the rag again to try to get into the specific curves of the neck. With the body, I stuck with the brush.

Two coats happened within a day or two of each other, then I had to wait a week or so before I had the time to apply one more coat.

Video showing the final sheen from the paint job

Next Steps

Now, I have to re-build the body and prep to soder the electronics in.

Update 3/2

Rebuilding/Soldering

One the paint dried, I quickly re-built the pieces I could prior to soldering the electronics.

Soldering

I have not soldered anything since middle or high school, so I had to do some online video tutorials to get re-familiar with the process. I also did some research into which type of solder was preferred for pickups/guitar electronics.

Despite doing that research, and after coming up blank at my local hardware store, I reached out to my local buy-nothing Facebook group to see if anyone had any spare solder. Someone offered me a few feet of some, but was unsure of the exact type of solder it was. But, it being free and him assuring me it was used for audio/electronics, I thought it would be good enough.

I was too nervous to take any progress photos as I was going through the soldering steps, but skipping ahead - once I finished, the instructions said to test it out by plugging in the guitar into an amp and tapping a screwdriver against it to see if it makes sound. Once the volume was turned up, sure enough it made sound. Keep in mind, this was before re-stringing, so that’s how you’d have to test it.

I felt confident enough I had done enough to solder the electronics, plus it was unclear in the instructions how to “fix” or re-adjust any of the connections, so I moved forward.

Re-Stringing/Testing

Next was to finish rebuilding and restringing the instrument, tuning and checking string-to-neck measurements along the way.

An interesting thing about this guitar is that the bridge is not a permanent fixture, it’s a block of wood with a screw on top, that you can slide around under the strings as you’re tuning. One fun step toward the very end was to shift where the bridge is on the body, including moving it on a diagonal, so each of the 3 strings could be as close to perfect intonation.

Finally once it was strung, I got to re-test the electronics and try to play it.

At first, nothing was coming out. I toyed around with the levels on the guitar/amp, and eventually got it to pickup some sound, although I had to boost the gain/overdrive on the amp to 10.

See video below:

Josh samples the final result of the guitar build

And that’s it! Feeling proud that I finished the project, a little bit of a learning curve (a lot at times) and some very fun elements, like the painting.

I can finally share a previous project I had finished in 2024 - “The Sisters Grimm,” which will premiere on Apple TV+ on October 3rd.

Apple TV+ Press Release

Today, Apple TV+ announced the all-new animated fantasy adventure series “The Sisters Grimm” to premiere globally on Friday, October 3. Based on Michael Buckley’s New York Times bestselling book series, “The Sisters Grimm” is a journey of adventure and heart about sleuth-solving sisters descended from the Brothers Grimm who, while very different, make a pretty great team.

Two orphaned sisters navigate a town full of people torn straight from fantasy and fairy tales, confronting heroes and villains alike, while investigating the mystery of their missing parents. “The Sisters Grimm” blends discovery, fantasy and adventure to deliver important lessons for all ages.

The series is led by a stellar voice cast, including Ariel Winter (“Modern Family”) as Sabrina, Leah Newman as Daphne, Laraine Newman (“Saturday Night Live”) as Relda, Abubakar Salim (“Raised by Wolves”) as Charming, Billy Harris (“Ted Lasso”) as Puck and Harry Trevaldwyn (“How to Train Your Dragon”) as Mirror.

Looking forward to everyone getting to finally see the hard work the team put into this show!

See some more press images below:

Animation Magazine

Deadline

IMDB

The Movie Blog

What’s On Netflix

Cartoon Brew

Animation World Network

See some more press images below

View fullsize

View fullsize

Variety Article

…Netflix has commissioned the 10-episode series, which is slated to premiere on Feb. 20, 2026. The voice cast of the series includes Adam Scott (“Severance,” “Parks and Recreation”), Janelle James (“Abbott Elementary,” “One of Them Days”), Stephen Root (“Barry,” “Office Space,” “King of the Hill”) Shannon Gisela (“M.I.A.,” “Chasers”), and Keith David (“Platoon,” “There’s Something About Mary,” “They Live”).

The official logline for “Strip Law” states, “Uptight lawyer Lincoln Gumb (Scott) is too boring to win cases in Vegas until he teams up with local magician/hedonist Sheila Flambé (James) to bring some flash and pizzazz to the stupidest cases the city can throw at them.”

The series hails from creator and executive producer Cullen Crawford (“Star Trek: Lower Decks,” “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”). Steven Fisher and Trevor Engelson also executive produce along with Chris Prynoski, Shannon Prynoski, Ben Kalina and Antonio Canobbio for Titmouse Inc.

“Getting to make this show with a metric ton of geniuses has been my favorite thing I’ve ever gotten to do,” Crawford said. “I hope people find watching ‘Strip Law’ to be the joyous chaotic distraction from our grim reality that making it was for me -and also, that I live to be one thousand years old.”

I’m excited for everyone to see what we’ve been laughing about for over a year. Stay tuned February 20th 2026 on Netflix. Will continue to share any further news to come.

This was an exciting night, and although myself and the other editors did not win our Emmys’ category, nor did the show win best Preschool Animated series, we are all so proud of Mark Evitts and his music team for the amazing honor.

This week I’m featured in Cinemontage’s “What Our Members Do” -
https://cinemontage.org/what-our-members-do-josh-glass-animatic-editor/

Congrats to Daniel alongside Nick Veith and I, who were nominated for the same category last year.

Frog and Toad Nominated for a TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Children’s Programming!

• Apple TV+
• Behind the Scenes
• Editing
• Netflix
• Strip Law