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Drak Build: The Sonic Crayon


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Art really should be a zero-compromise venture. I wonder how many lauded artists' works have flaws and faults that the artist secretly acknowledges to themselves but are otherwise unknown to the outside world? Internal consistency within any one workpiece is a high standard to reach.

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It doesn't take a 'lauded artist'.

I see guys building beautiful guitars all the time who will immediately point out every area of imperfection no one else would ever see.

It's kinda normal.

That one area is already fixed, the back is now done, I got one clearcoat on the whole thing before the end of the day.

Rainy temps for the next few days so no more finish work for a bit.

But the pickguard material is here so I can finally bang that out and that's what really brings everything together.

This thing is more a total of the sum of its various disparate pieces.

When you see it all put together I think it will all come together and make sense.

 

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I mean the sort of artist whose work is recognised, and once it's out in the public sphere they lose control of it....imagine if there was that one thing which bothered Da Vinci about the Mona Lisa. Something that only his eye and intimate knowledge of the piece could discern....yet the rest of the world is so crazy about it that he can never tell a soul.

The art owns the artist.

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2 hours ago, Prostheta said:

imagine if there was that one thing which bothered Da Vinci about the Mona Lisa. Something that only his eye and intimate knowledge of the piece could discern....yet the rest of the world is so crazy about it that he can never tell a soul.

There is an entire Ancient Aliens episode dedicated to Da Vinci and all the secret messages hidden among his works.

They claim he was 'connected', and had special powers, connections, and abilities...if you know what I mean...

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3 hours ago, Prostheta said:

I mean the sort of artist whose work is recognised, and once it's out in the public sphere they lose control of it....imagine if there was that one thing which bothered Da Vinci about the Mona Lisa. Something that only his eye and intimate knowledge of the piece could discern....yet the rest of the world is so crazy about it that he can never tell a soul.

The art owns the artist.


 

“Art is never finished, it is merely abandoned.”
- Da Vinci

That is one of my favourite quotes. I can attest that as an artist (music, visual, written), getting a work to a place where it is “ready to be released to the world” is a difficult endeavour. It’s never truly ready, in the artist’s mind/eye. There’s a striving for impossible perfection and the artist has to be at a point where they let it go.  I can almost guarantee that there is one or more things about the Mona Lisa that bothered Da Vinci that he felt he could never get “quite right” but reached a point where he was able to abandon it. 

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10 hours ago, JAK said:

It’s never truly ready, in the artist’s mind/eye. There’s a striving for impossible perfection and the artist has to be at a point where they let it go.

I've read that Terry Pratchett couldn't leave his books, there was always something to improve or add. The publisher almost literally had to steal the manuscripts to get something printed and published. I believe that served us readers better than waiting until his death to get one single almost perfect novel out.

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So, marching on.

Or...should I say everything is going just swimmingly...😇

I'm really getting behind the seaweed thing, the green really agrees with the color scheme.

I tried to make the bottom half of each seaweed a bit darker than the top half.

Not really obvious, but there all the same.

A week ago I could never have imagined it would be looking like it is now.

And I'm keeping 3M in business, never used so much tape before.

Once this dries, I cover up the green bits and shoot the rest black.

Fascinating.

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Yet another disparate part, adding its part to the Big Picture.

I can get away with this much, but no clearcoats, too humid lately.

BTW, the pickguard is finished minus mounting the hardware to it, completely cut out, routered, drilled, and done.

I think we're rounding the last curve headed toward the yellow tape and finish line!

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So I needed to line up and connect the neck seaweed with the body seaweed.

Even though the neckplate will cover most of it, it still has to line up and connect.

The back of the body came out a little more like trees than seaweed I think, but I still totally adore this build.

I didn't give as much thought and time to the back as I did the front, kinda rushed it a little, but everything can be fixed in the mix.

As you can see by what I'm doing here, its pretty easy to edit black wavy lines.

I can re-tape and quick-shoot to alter them a little more like realistic plants or seaweed.

I might also enlarge/enhance the green seaweed bits a little too.

And you haven't even seen the pickguards yet. But I have 😇.

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6 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Your weeds sure add a nice twist to the strictness of the red and black!

Yes, I'm quite pleasantly surprised by what that wound up adding to the recipe.

Remember the point where I said it was nearly too serious (and it was, way too serious).

And it needed to take a hard left turn in the direction of frivolousness and '80's fun from that point forward.

The weeds and the yellow brick road definitely did the trick (for me).

Many disparate, seemingly disjointed and disconnected parts.

But they do seem to add up to a particularly pleasant sum, which was exactly the goal starting out.

I'm now officially ga-ga over it, which every guitar I build must achieve or I won't finish it.

And there's nearly No green and Zero blue yet.

One can only wonder what could possibly be coming next...

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A leopard cannot change its spots! 😆

The pickguard definitely suits the superhero reference you mentioned earlier. And it suits the theme as having "serious" elements mixed with "lighthearted" ones - I can see heraldry, cartoons, flora and finally fauna there. I know and remember that you very much hinted to this direction, yet I was fooled by the seaweed so much that I was actually awaiting green pearl/swirl/marble instead of a fur pattern.

That's a balanced piece of hilarious art there, Sir!

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When I did the 'yellow brick road', I already knew the neck pickup was yellow and black.

So I was tying that into the body purposely.

And the yellow/black pickup ties in really well with the green guard.

If you look at the guard closely, there's blue spots interspersed, so the blue knobs and pickup coordinate with it.

These guards are a thin layer pattern over white plastic, so I sprayed the sides and all the routed edges black, if you happen to notice.

Bridge pickup is a DiMarzio Gravity Storm, neck pickup is a DiMarzio Fred.

The interesting thing, tho, is you could apply several different color combinations of pickups and knobs and they would all work.

I could have done a Blue Leopard guard w/ yellow knobs, would still work.

And so the rear pickguard is also green leopard, as well as the truss rod cover.

When its all put together, it'll look even more in your face colorful than it does here w/ body only.

There's a lot of color, but...that was the plan all along.

Would it look better with a Black Floyd? It was a tossup between gold and black hardware...

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I'm finally getting a chance to see these pictures.

Wow! While paint in general is not really my thing, I'm impressed by the track this took to get to this work of art. And the yellow and blue pickups and knobs, plus the green leopard totally multiply the effect I wonder where green leopards live.....

Maybe the part that impresses me the most is the purity of the white.....at least the way it comes across on my monitor. It is too bad you can't find a porcelain white bridge. I think that would tie it together even more.

SR

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44 minutes ago, ScottR said:

It is too bad you can't find a porcelain white bridge. I think that would tie it together even more.

Well, there is one area left for further artistic interpretation.

Some people put a foam tubing (usually a piece of auto transmission line tubing) on the Floyd arm.

You see it done 'occasionally', tho I kinda like the idea.

I could maybe do that and spray it white, or do another seaweed black/white pattern.

I wonder if Satchel would approve? (Steel Panther)

This is a manufactured piece (with blatant marketing) for another kind of trem, ...but you get the idea.

Vibramate - Mini Grip for Floyd Rose Style Locking Tremolos | Amplified  Parts

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34 minutes ago, ScottR said:

It is too bad you can't find a porcelain white bridge. I think that would tie it together even more.

Now that you said it... I wonder how a porcelain bridge would work.

I found out that Gibson had a plastic bridge with a porcelain saddle back in the day, and that it wasn't as good as expected. But how about a compensated porcelain bridge to be used similarly to those used on mandolins? Like a Tune-o-Matic without the adjustability, either with a tailpiece or a trapeze? Have such been ever made? - I already can see some potential issues with such, the glaze would wear off at some stage which would lead to highly increased friction; the exposed abrasive clay would eat the strings alive!

 

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