Yesterday I sent off a money order for this guitar, a Gibson Melody Maker.  I got a pretty good deal on it (if you’re looking for one, I might know how you can still get one) and it is the first time I have bought a new guitar in five years.  I’d be much more excited about it if my plan weren’t to strip the finish off entirely and recover it with some custom graphics.  These guitars come with what Gibson calls a worn finish.  Basically it feels like they apply the paint to the guitar without grain filler and don’t clear coat it.  This makes it more economical and gives it a faux vintage look.  I’ve always wanted to custom paint a guitar and this is going to be my guinea pig.  I won’t know exactly what I’m going to do to it until I evaluate the figure of the wood beneath.  It’s solid mahagony, so unless the current finish has left the wood horribly stained somehow, I think I’m going with a transparent cherry finish and the graphics will be screenprinted or hand painted on.  If the grain looks really excellent, I’ll try to come up with a design that doesn’t cover it too much.

Any ideas for a subject matter?  Abscract seems too easy.  Guitar playing robots seems too redundant.  Maybe some flying saucers in a War of the Worlds kind of motif.  If I really bond with this guitar I may sell my current Strat, but if I don’t click with it I’ll sell it as a piece of functional art.  I rather like the idea of someone having a totally original guitar that I made, but I also like the idea of that someone being me, so I’m not sure what to root for here.  I’ll post progress as I can, but I won’t even have it until next week.  In the meantime I’ll be working on my new web site.  Got some ideas on paper during lunch today.  Look for a whole new site Sunday!

Filed under: Art, Materialism by John