Drak

That's hilarious you just said that. I was just watching him 10 minutes ago. I was watching their version of Thela Hun Ginjeet.

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 $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.

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

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...

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Lets see, a few more things off the top of my head, feel free to disregard everything if its not needed in your case. When the first color is applied (in my case black), I let it dry and fine sand it until its baby-smooth perfect. There's no room to 'fix' anything if the substrate is bumpy or has imperfections of any kind. So, in my case, the black is fine-sanded absolutely perfectly 100% smooth before I even think about the white. The white is getting laid down on an absolutely 100% perfectly smooth and sanded (black) finish. I usually use a new 320 Abralon pad followed by a used 320 Abralon pad, those are my two 'finish finesse' pads. Also, any pigmented color you use means most of the color is sitting at the bottom of the can. Pigments are different than dyes, pigments are solids that need to be constantly stirred up to keep them in solution. Even in aerosol cans, a lot of it is sitting at the bottom of the can. More than you might imagine. And it may need far more shaking than you might imagine if you could see inside of it. To really invigorate the pigment into the solution, otherwise you wind up with a weakened spray. And people who use aerosols don't typically sawzall their cans open to see all the pigment sitting in the bottom. But I do, as I'm mixing from cans, and can see how much sits at the bottom until really thoroughly stirred (or shaken). Pigments (of which all whites, and some blacks are pigments) are solids, and take some serious agitation to really get them dissolved thoroughly. And when doing a black/white thing, you want to use only as much as is needed. To reduce the difference in height between the black and the white once you pull tape and are ready for clearcoats. Because any difference will need to be sanded equal before the end of the road, so the less, the better. Which means, you want as much white per coat as you can get out of your can, or gun, or whatever.

You know what's funny? I'm also doing a black and white guitar at the moment. So everything is right at the top of my head right now. Just finished taping off the black substrate for the white that's coming. The Sonic Crayon has a black/white theme to it, ...tho nothing like what you're doing. I've done black/white before, a few times (all lacquer)...the only thing I'll say is that the eye will catch every single little imperfection. You can get super frustrated because every tiny little imperfection stands out like a glaring all-seeing eye looking right at you. So...the tape job and pulling tape at the right time and the ability to do clean-up detail all need to be built in. Like...I'll spray 2-3 clearcoats to separate the first color from the second to give me some insurance room. I have 2-3 fine-tuning/patchup/repair/finesse tools I always have ready for the black/white things. A brand new never used razor blade or two (or utility knife blade, but it must be brand new) 320 grit Abralon pads (or 600 wet/dry) But, I don't know with yours, maybe imperfections add to the 'rustique' of your job... I just know anytime I've ever done black/white jobs, there's always a finesse phase after tape pull, no exceptions, something always needs attention. I've never just 'pulled tape' and had it look perfect, never once. Drives me crazy, but it's worth it when those lines are pristine clean and sharp.

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.

I've shot several of my Maple necks over the years, the two in the middle I shot, the two outer ones are not shot (by me, anyway) They work perfect for my 'Cowboy Sunset' Tele builds. So I found this YT as a recommended link as I was looking up Masayoshi Takanaka (I used to listen to him a lot in the 80's) And found this link to Toshiki Kadomatsu and his Aquamarine Green necked guitar. Cool! Look at the Neck! What do you think is the reason we don't see more of this? Purple, Blue, whatever, I'm down with it. But...I always like what everyone else is NOT doing, and right now Roasted necks are 'the thing', and so I don't really like them. I like this approach more. As soon as PRS (ever) jumps on this, it'll sweep the guitar world like the plague, so get in before the wave! They probably won't, because I think it will create warranty issues which a large company would never create on its own. They want to avoid warranty issues, which roasted necks are creating anyway, they're so brittle, by what I read all the time...

Love both of them, the 'rustic' look. There are a few over on the TDPRI like that that are just gorgeous in their 'rusticity'. I'll see if I can find 2 or 3 and I'll post them her for ideas. I still think you'd have to burn yours a bit to get the pores to open up and move yours into that ballpark, yours has pretty smooth grain to it.

I learned most of my finishing techniques from two VHS tapes I bought about 25/30 years ago from StewMac/Dan Erlewine/Don McRostie. Spray Finishing Basics and Spray Finishing With Colors. He outlines how to do the PRS faux binding in them, and how you outlined it is exactly how he describes it and how I do it (which is very rarely anymore) I took a turn in the road a long time ago, that anything that looked like PRS I didn't want to imitate, as I don't like making 'copies' of what someone else came up with, but that's just a personal thing of mine. So I don't do the recessed control knobs or faux binding anymore. To me that's like PRS peeing on the ground and 'scent-marking their turf', and I prefer to pee on my own turf, so-to-speak. The automotive masking tape used by custom automotive detailing shops being the primary aid. It will bend around almost any corner and finish just can't get underneath it so you get the clean lines. And he always used clear lacquer, but yes, sanding sealer (which is clear lacquer, basically) would work too. He also would take a posterboard or cardboard and cut out a 'spray-shield' for the rest of the interior so you didn't have to use so much masking tape, which I adopted as well. And you know, I've eased up on the perfectly flat mirror-gloss finish in the past few years. Just depends on the look I want, but I just did an acoustic makeover where I didn't pore-fill the back and sides and you can see the grain. I like it that way. The top is mirror-smooth, but the back/sides you can easily see the pores, and I like it like that. Gorgeous build and finish!

Pfft...Kate Beckinsale wannabe...

Wow, just wow. No wonder I have no interest in these kinds of contests. I don't have the boobs or botox receipts for it! You Sir, may be in Deep Elm Shit then. Re-Name yourself Tantric Sex God and post this on your front page. Should be good for a few dozen votes then...

Whoever runs that contest (IMO) needs to clarify and tighten up the entry format. The first thing I should see is a clear, simple, straight-ahead pic of a well-lighted instrument and nothing else. Not your sausage mitt hands, or your girlfriend's toenails, or your dog Scruffie, or your Yin-Yang poster, or your cool Hipster beard and trendy glasses. Yours is exactly that, a dead-perfect shot front and center, with obvious YT links to follow if interested. Perfect, effective, well-lit presentation, are you in sales? I don't have time to click on seven f-ing pages worth of links just to see what it looks like. I should be able to see what it looks like at a glance, then follow links if I want to see more. I hold the contest managers responsible for that, not the entrants. I saw some really cool and inventive things there. And I also saw many people who simply have no eye for design detail. I don't think you need to sweat the teenage chicks unless they have a huge following somewhere. Yours is right there with the best of them, from what I saw, but there are some seriously cool builds there. I didn't read the rules, please tell me the winner will be chosen by a respected group of fair and non-partial humans and not social-media driven.

Eddie's guitar was a straight-ahead trem I guess, ...no locking nut action until...?

No major manufacturer uses roughcast UOA5's, its just another option known among the mag swappers and suppliers out there. I didn't really realize you were going for a 'relic'd' Frankie. Interesting...

I was shooting for a sort of Bowie-Glam look...Maybe play some Rock-N-Roll Suicide on it. Now, where did my leopard spandex pants get off to? Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth You pull on your finger, then another finger, then cigarette The wall-to-wall is calling, it lingers, then you forget Ohhh, you're a rock 'n' roll suicide

Great Idea!

So, nearly done now, all glossied up. You can see the yellow isn't overbearing at all. Blends in quite nicely I think and gives the green guard the correct background color from which to pounce. I thinned down the pickguard to about 1/2 the original thickness. And any hint of that crack is history.

We're not going down that road again, haha! Well, you have a good point there, except I don't have any super-long jawed (acoustic) clamps. But, it was worth the investigation, if I really needed to, I can come up with something. So I did a little recon this morning, which I probably did a year ago too when I started this and just forgot. There is really nothing I see on the underside that tells me any attention need be paid to it. If I saw Anything that would alarm me, I would do something about it. But I got nothing, nothing at all, looks clean to me from the underside. The pickup hole that I suspected is on the right, sitting 'up front' of the bridge pin holes, closest to the X brace. I see absolutely nothing to suspect there, not a thing. And I repaired the top with a thin bead of thin-bodied CA glue before the refin, so it should be sealed up pretty well now. From the top, you really can't see a thing anymore, looks new now. Maybe the guy didn't keep it cased and it was the start of a humidity issue, so I think if I just keep it cased and humidified like all my other acoustics, should be OK.

Well Hell, you're already there then, you know exactly what I'm talking about then. Mine was (is) a CC too. A roughcast UOA5 is closer to an A2 than it is an A5, like an A2 with a bit more definition and tightness. I actually have already swapped in a roughcast UOA5 in it, but I just don't really have a home for it at the moment. So...I have my 'Eddie' sitting in a drawer, just waiting for an opportunity, ...along with probably ~70 other pickups.