Drak Build: The Sonic Crayon

[Drak]

What do Adrien Belew and Paul Gilbert have in common (besides the Sonic Crayon)?

Well, you may find nothing, but I have uncovered something quite interesting that ties them together. They're both kind of ...'schizoid'... by nature.

Call it a 'wackiness' (that I adore about both of them, it makes them who they are), they're brains are always going in 20 different directions at the same time.

And to prove it, they both wear red and yellow outfits.

No one else does that. No One Else. It's a dead-giveaway.

Maybe Steven Tyler, but that just drives the point home even further.

You could call me on Jimi, but, again, kind of proves the point, out there on the edge.

Notice their guitars...which also have a kind of 'erratic' schizoid-ness to them, which is exemplifying their personalities perfectly.

It's all hidden right in plain sight.

Welcome to the Sonic Crayon build, where we paint with sound, we make crazy aural soundscapes with wild dashes of colors in sound.

 

[Drak]

So my initial intentions were to use these two guitars as an influence.

Of course, I don't straight-up copy anything, but I love using influences and twisting them around to suit my own schizoid style.

This one is going to be bold, in its own way, that's part of the strategy.

After the past 3-4 builds which were traditional colors and themes, time to liven things up a little.

[Drak]

This one hasn't been sitting for 10 years like some others were, but it's probably 3 years old-ish.

So the basic outline: I drew up a new body style and pickguard, nothing ridiculously different, but I like it.

Mahogany body, Floyd equipped.

Sealed, pore-filled, (CA glue) black paint applied and sanded smooth for the first step.

 

 

[Drak]

The weather has been cooperative lately, so I just shot the white and clearcoats.

So the basic theme of the Sonic Crayon.

The curves 'kind of' make the body into the shape of an artists' pallette. Kind of.

And the pickguard I chose looks exactly like an artists' pallette too, with the paints dripping and whatnot.

So, there's the 'theme' for you, of the Sonic Crayon.

Probably should have shot the pic from the bottom edge so the paint dripping makes better sense.

I have yellow DiMarzio pickups for it which pop the color palette even a bit more.

[Drak]

As much as I like that, when I slapped my blue leopard pickguard on it, I said WOW.

Maybe I'll buy another blue leopard blank and do it that way, I love the bold colors.

These shots really don't do it justice, the angle just isn't presenting it as it really looks.

I'll take some more from a better angle

[Bizman62]

7 hours ago, Drak said:

So the basic outline: I drew up a new body style and pickguard, nothing ridiculously different, but I like it.

I like it too. As long as we can't change the design of the player, there's certain aspects in the guitar to take into account - balance, weight, contours etc. Your new body looks like like you've thought about all of these. The influences can be seen but you haven't gone where the fence is the lowest.

[Gogzs]

Looks really clean and nice and the artistic pickguard really makes it pop. And please, please, please, not the blue leopard pickguard, let's not get back to the "old ladies of the night" discussions again.  

[Drak]

I adore leopard prints and guitars. I can say no more...

I will add this tho. This guitar has sat and sat and sat whilst I tortured many brain cells to find a way to incorporate the 'zany' color scheme of Belew's various guitars. It nearly drove me mad and quite pissed me off for awhile. I just couldn't find the right pattern, or scheme, that agreed with me. His guitars look exactly like his personality, they reflect him brilliantly and fit him like a tailored suit. Paul Gilbert as well, in a different way, but they suit his personality.

When I did the steerhead, I looked at shapes and figures and symbols for a few months before the steerhead hit me. Nothing else did, no symbol, no shape, no figure, nothing else came close. And I looked at hundreds on top of hundreds. But when I hit on the steerhead it completely agreed with me because it agrees with my own nature, I 'am' that.

I finally tried 2-3 things, and nothing worked, all fails. To the point I had to strip the guitar back down and re-do the black-white theme, to 'get to ground zero' again. Which is never fun or enjoyable to go backwards and have to re-do something. Then it kind of hit me, that the black-white theme (which I really love, the curves, the shape) is open to any pickguard. I can put nearly anything on it and it will 'work'. So the 'zaniness', in my case, is wrought in the pickguard selection, which I can change up.

Boldness is always divisive, it is never middle-of-the-road, its not designed to appease the masses. You either really dig it or you really don't, and that's OK.

So this one, the black-white theme is the 'layup' for the pickguard to 'grab the mic' and be bold and make the statement. That's the conclusion I finally came to.

Between the pickguard, pickups, and controls, there's a lot of room to make a colorfully bold statement.

 

[Drak]

So, I think I found the right Belew 'compliment' pickguard.

That brings the 'zany whack' to the black-white.

The 'grab that mic' colorful antagonist to the stern order of the black-white supporting cast.

Oh yess, My Preciouss...I think so...

 

[Georg_Figel]

I should definitely go find some nice red pants and a yellow shirt.

 

Also, I like the first pickguard more than the leopard one.

Regarding the last 3 pickguards: I guess it's a question whether or not these designs can be found as an uncut sheet, so you can cut out your special pickguard shape

 

 

[Drak]

Yes, they're all from Greasy Grooves, where I get most of my guards, and yes, they do uncut blanks.

[ScottR]

Wow!

I like the first pick guard best as well. It ties back to the black body nicely.

SR

[mistermikev]

um... apparently you aren't a big fan of devo? (red and yellow).  

name two guitar players I totally respect but can't listen to their (solo) stuff?  odd, I love bowie and talking heads... and I've loved some of the guitar tutorials I've seen from belew... love his crazy trem antics... but that's about as far as it has gone for me.  similarly, gilbert... one of the most exacting incredible speed players... and he's strangely versatile and also into the beatles... i guess I should give them both more of a listen.  

so far... i'm seeing more belew than gilbert... so no faux f holes?

 

[Drak]

You know what they say, your best ideas are always your first ideas, and everything else is just second-guessing yourself.

So thank you all for weighing in and giving some weight to my first original idea (that's already done), makes everything easier for sure.

I need to get a much better shot of it for you to really see it like I see it.

So I'm going to save the money and just go with the original 'spilled paint' guard, seems everyone likes that as well

And that obviously was my first idea and its already cut out and ready to go.

I just shot the neck today, did the black early on this morning, hit it with the white early afternoon, and have a few clearcoats on it now.

The truss is at the top so I can make a matching truss rod cover to bring the 'slurpy paint' theme up to the neck, I always like doing that.

 

1 hour ago, mistermikev said:

i guess I should give them both more of a listen.

Not really. I have a schizoid side to me just like both of them, so I 'get it', where I understand a lot of people wouldn't, perfectly OK.

I lived on King Crimson's Discipline (1981) with Belew and Fripp (and Banks, and Levin) at opposing extremes of guitar mayhem back in the day and still love it.

But that's just me, I love all that frantic crazy shit, (along w/ the Talking Heads period) and a lot of people don't. Totally fine w/ me.

And Paul Gilbert, that dude always has me ROTF laughing my ass off. He's a hysterically funny guy. The one G3 tour I saw was with Gilbert.

They may be idiosyncratic and each a bit crazy, but they're both completely genuine to themselves, there's not an ounce of  fakery in either one of them.

Even as they've both aged, they're still totally their real selves. And I always dig that about a person.

2 hours ago, Georg_Figel said:

I should definitely go find some nice red pants and a yellow shirt.

I think the regular old $8.00 Fruit of the Loom red sweatpants and $6.00 plain yellow T-shirt is probably more in order.

Cost you maybe $15.00 out the door, ready to rock.

 

[mistermikev]

3 minutes ago, Drak said:

You know what they say, your best ideas are always your first ideas, and everything else is just second-guessing yourself.

So thank you all for weighing in and giving some weight to my first original idea (that's already done), makes everything easier for sure.

I need to get a much better shot of it for you to really see it like I see it.

So I'm going to save the money and just go with the original 'spilled paint' guard, seems everyone likes that as well

And that obviously was my first idea and its already cut out and ready to go.

I just shot the neck today, did the black early on this morning, hit it with the white early afternoon, and have a few clearcoats on it now.

The truss is at the top so I can make a matching truss rod cover to bring the 'slurpy paint' theme up to the neck, I always like doing that.

 

Not really. I have a schizoid side to me just like both of them, so I 'get it', where I understand a lot of people wouldn't, perfectly OK.

I lived on King Crimson's Discipline (1981) with Belew and Fripp (and Banks, and Levin) at opposing extremes of guitar mayhem back in the day and still love it.

But that's just me, I love all that frantic crazy shit, (along w/ the Talking Heads period) and a lot of people don't. Totally fine w/ me.

And Paul Gilbert, that dude always has me ROTF laughing my ass off. He's a hysterically funny guy. The one G3 tour I saw was with Gilbert.

They may be idiosyncratic and each a bit crazy, but they're both completely genuine to themselves, there's not an ounce of  fakery in either one of them.

Even as they've both aged, they're still totally their real selves. And I always dig that about a person.

I think the regular old $6.00 Fruit of the Loom red sweatpants is probably more in order.

 

it's odd... I absolutely love the guitar player from primus.  NO ONE is that schizzo, so it's not that I don't like belews oddities... and on the other hand paul gilbert is just an amazing player... and I like lots of amazing guitar players... just haven't spent all that much time listening to either for some reason.  love the talking heads esp the wierdness!  (where IS my beautiful wife).

btw totally agree on the first pguard.  don't overthink that.

[Drak]

1 minute ago, mistermikev said:

it's odd... I absolutely love the guitar player from primus.  NO ONE is that schizzo,

That's hilarious you just said that. I was just watching him 10 minutes ago.

I was watching their version of Thela Hun Ginjeet.

[mistermikev]

7 minutes ago, Drak said:

That's hilarious you just said that. I was just watching him 10 minutes ago.

I was watching their version of Thela Hun Ginjeet.

yeah, that guy is something else.  he must be an incredible player to sound like that... diverts all his talent into sounding odd.  I sometimes wish he would quit primus just so I could see some other guitar player try to cover him or fill that space... I imagine it would be one hell of a train wreck.

[Drak]

5 minutes ago, mistermikev said:

I sometimes wish he would quit primus just so I could see some other guitar player try to cover him or fill that space... I imagine it would be one hell of a train wreck.

No way, he's the perfect muse for Les. Those things don't happen by accident. Even Metallica wouldn't take Les.

Too cliche, too perfect hair metal for Les.

 

This always leaves me completely on the floor laughing.

Paul

[Workingman]

This is very cool.  I am Facebook friends with Adrian Below (only met him once)  I would like to share pics of the finished product with him with your permission. 

[mistermikev]

53 minutes ago, Drak said:

No way, he's the perfect muse for Les. Those things don't happen by accident. Even Metallica wouldn't take Les.

Too cliche, too perfect hair metal for Les.

 

This always leaves me completely on the floor laughing.

Paul

well... kind of tru for any great player - other players make space if they are good. you couldn't put victor wooten in metallica either!  or marcus miller... or flea for that matter!

i can't help but feel larry really developed his 'primus style' to fit that band.  I haven't heard much of him outside primus... but he's really a great guitar player.  

 

 

[mistermikev]

you caused me to research the origins of larry lalonde... he was in a punk/speed metal band before primus: (just thought you'd find it interesting)

 

[curtisa]

And his guitar teacher was Joe Satriani. 

One of Joe's other students around the same time was a young Kirk Hammett.

Small world.

[mistermikev]

3 hours ago, curtisa said:

And his guitar teacher was Joe Satriani. 

One of Joe's other students around the same time was a young Kirk Hammett.

Small world.

well I knew kirk/steve vai but learned larry today.  

[Drak]

7 hours ago, curtisa said:

And his guitar teacher was Joe Satriani. 

Thank you for that layup.

The pickups going in it are a DiMarzio Fred (bridge) and Satch Track (neck).

Both Satriani-approved.

[Drak]

OK, updated pics so you can see the properly oriented pickguard 'paint dripping' effect.

And the neck, so far.

I'll probably blacken out the Floyd cavity soon.

Just have to decide what switches I want for the pickups and drill them.

Probably not doing a slide switch here, either a 3-way toggle or 2 mini-switches I think.