machinehead!

Silver Star Tele pickguard. Starting to get there anyway.

Alright…

I finally made another attempt at the silver leaf pickguard and this time it came out more as I intended. Still not very good leafing technique but now I understand what I need to do to leaf a guard. It still needs to be cleaned up but I have to wait until it dries.

The main problem this time was that the size on the pickguard was still a little too wet in places so the silverwork looks a little “smudged” here and there, but after it sets in about a day I’ll try burnishing and shining up the silver. I might also add a sulfur solution to oxidize the metal to give it a weathered industrial look. Haven’t decided yet. Finally I’ll put nice automotive clear poly finish on it. I’ll put up some pics of it on my trusty old American Standard Tele when it’s done.

Now I know I can do all kinds of cool custom pickguard guitarshit which, incidently, will be the topic of tomorrow’s post!

another direction

Perhaps I should tie things in with the Mother Company? Hmmm… What to do?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet."

As I design and create more and more accessories, I am increasingly thinking that I need a website devoted entirely to the guitar accessory side of the business. I will probably still sell some in the Hell Guitars shop however I think they need to be more visible and distinct.

In choosing a name for the shop I have decided (I think!) that calling it something like “guitarshit” would be both visible and very distinct indeed. So that’s what I think I’ve decided to call it. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s either a brilliant or irretrievably stupid idea, which makes it worth trying if only for the chance to feel the thrill of being right. Anyway, not a name easily forgotten and the domain was curiously available for every dot extension imaginable.

Now, I hear some of you asking, why would a perfectly fine URL like www.guitarshit.com go unclaimed? The only reason I can think of is perhaps because businesses tend to shy away from including any references to elimination in their corporate identity (of course IBM being one notable exception).

I have for a few years now become increasingly interested in how far one can go with establishing a brand. With so much repetition and competition, sometimes the only way to stand out is to adopt the decidedly unconventional and try to make it mainstream. I remember that Virgin Records was a company whose name was rather scandalous when it came out, but established itself in the rather liberal record business before moving on to publishing, airlines and spaceships. It is now perfectly mainstream and the name itself has no scandal left to it.

“guitarshit.com” is certainly unconventional but it is also very much a part of how players refer to their own or others’ gear. As in, “man I have so much guitarshit” or “he has some great guitarshit” etc. Now I am interested in finding out if people can learn to trust and become loyal guitarshit customers. I know it’s a bit of a reach but frankly I’m tired of all the Guitar Center, Dave’s Guitars, Bob’s Guitars, Jim’s Guitars, Something Music, Something Else Music etc., etc. At the end of the day they all sell guitarshit so why not just become it?

Now here is where I ask my friends out there to either bring me to reason and talk me out of this (not likely) or help me to validate my poor choice by agreeing with me (much appreciated). Notice that I didn’t invite my mother to comment as I’m fairly sure I know what her “advice” would be. So anyone else out there who wants to join in please do. I may even send some of you some free guitarshit if your participation is particularly creative…

What not to do...

Ok…

As you can see, “POW” looks more like a “POS”… I actually applied the silver leaf not too long after the last post and it was a certainly a waste of good silver. Made me wish a little bit that I had actually done everything in advance to make sure of success. Then I’d look all capable and clever, but now I have to come back here and report my failure…

There are two reasons that it didn’t work. The main reason is, I got interrupted after putting the size (the sticky stuff) on the pickguard. By the time I got back to it, the tackiness wasn’t optimal. I elected to try laying the silver anyway and you can see the result. It started pulling up in patches when I peeled away the mask. It really could have looked a bit better than this but once I realized that the adhesion was bad, I just ripped the rest of the mask off to be done with it. The other possible problem was, that I decided to try sizing the surface without giving it a light sand first. I liked the black glossy finish and wanted to see how it would adhere without roughing it up (always recommended) first. Well, you can see the result of that.

Perhaps I’ll give it another go tomorrow. If I do (and do it successfully) you can bet that I’ll post right away to demonstrate that I really am capable and clever after all. If I do (and I fail again), it’s a fair bet you’ll not hear from me quite so soon. Actually though, this is all part of the process. Usually things really do work out. When they don’t, I usually curse and then learn something valuable. But I always make sure to curse first. Helps me to focus later on the lesson…

Sorry for the long break…
I must say that I love doing this guitar business thing. The only real problem that I’m having with it though is that there is not enough time in a day to do half of the things that I want (and often need) to do. Like updating this blog for example. There, excuse dispatched, now on with the topic…

I’ve been playing around again with metal leaf like schlag metal, aluminum, pure silver and 24kt gold. I’ve been creating some interesting pickup covers and pickguards. Pictured above is a design (I call “POW!”) for a standard Tele style pickguard. I’m planning to create the gray part of the image in pure silver leaf on a black pickguard. I’ll try to document some of the process, starting with this photo…

Mask applied. Click to enlarge.

Here the mask has already been cut and applied to the pickguard surface. The exposed areas (black) will be treated with gilding size (a tacky, lacquer-like medium) and allowed to set for an hour or two until the surface is no longer wet but slightly tacky. Then the silver leaf will be applied and the mask removed. For protection and to prevent tarnishing, I’ll spray an automotive grade, clear poly finish on it. Since it is pure silver, it will tarnish if not sealed, which is actually a cool effect for a more grungy industrial look. Perhaps I’ll show an example of this later.

Hopefully, the silver will be applied tonight. I’ll try to post the results soon!

Poker anyone? Click to enlarge.

Poker chips? Pickup selector ring? Switch washer plates? I’ve seen these descriptions and a good dozen variations and I’m still not sure what they are called officially. In fact I’m not sure just which official would be tasked with naming these officially. No matter as this didn’t stop me from designing a few of my own.

In general, I have a bit of a beef when it comes to guitar accessories. Lots of poorly designed and cheaply made stuff. Some of it sitting on very expensive guitars for no other reason than that’s how it was done 50 years ago. I could never understand why most truss rod covers were and are made from the cheapest materials and some of the worst design esthetics I’ve ever seen. That lack of understanding led me to design a few which have become quite a hit these past few months. Seems that quite a few other people feel the same way I do.

So I recently turned my thinking to the above mentioned switch washers and came up with three designs which I’ll put into production, probably later this week. Same materials as the truss rod covers albeit thinner to keep the weight down and to fit with the usual hardware.

Will people get into these too? It will be interesting to see what the reaction will be. I’ll do a short (and affordable) run and throw them out there and see if anything flies. I certainly like them anyway. If no one buys them perhaps I’ll have to buy a few hundred guitars to fit them on. Don’t want to be wasteful…

Bender in the Sky With Diamonds. Click to enlarge.

Alright then, here are are few more photos of two other humbucker
designs. I will have to take better pictures for the website though. These are very difficult to shoot. I want to give an idea of how they change with the light which is tough to pull of in a single frame. Maybe I’ll need to include video of someone holding/playing the guitar to give the full effect. Anyway, here’s another sneak peak at what’s coming soon.

By the way the Bender is my personal guitar. A pre-production model. Note the SG style jack on the top. I always thought jacks on the top looked cooler and maybe a bit meaner when plugged in (I also wound up thinking that they are in the way and not as practical so they were moved to the side…).

Diamonds up close. Click to enlarge.

The Goldie below is a prototype No. 6 model.

All that glitters isn't only gold... Click to enlarge.

Metalwerk No.1 up close. Click to enlarge.

"Rising Sun" Pup-Caps in action. Click to enlarge.

Actually, to be more accurate, my wait is finally over. I have designed some exciting new accessories called Pup-Caps. They are nickel-plated copper stickers which adhere to the top of your pickup cover to make them look, well…bitchin’! . So far, I have designs for nickel or chrome humbucker covers and 52mm pole spaced single coils with Tele lipstick Pup-Caps in the works.

The Pup-Cap patterns react differently depending on the angle of the light hitting them. The effect is subtle in a way that allows them to stand out enough to be seen and appreciated but in a way that integrates nicely with the guitar as a whole. In short, a dash of flash without looking tacky. Bloody elegant I’d say…

Here is a detail of the above humbucker model which just happens to be on a Bender.

"Rising Sun" Pup-Caps detail. Click to enlarge.

And here’s a close up of a single coil Pup-Cap. I’ll try to get some shots up of some on guitars and a few more of the humbucker designs as well…

Single coil Pup-Cap posing as if it doesn't care. Click to enlarge.

I am applying for a patent on these although we’ll see if that’s accepted or not. It’s certainly costly to apply though…

Pup-Caps should be available to purchase in the next few weeks from our pup-caps.com site (nothing there yet!) and possibly from the Hell Guitars shop. We recommend that you buy several sets just because you and your guitar can never look too cool. Guaranteed to attract members of the opposite and/or same sex. How you fare after the attraction is entirely up to you.

More exciting and possibly risque Pup-Cap photos coming soon. By the way, apologies for the long absence in posting. There have been so many things going on both good (meeting lots of nice people/shipping out lots of guitars) and bad (auto accident!/doctor visits for the wife) that have taken up more time than I expected. Also, I frankly wasn’t sure if anyone was actually following this thing or not so it dropped a little on my priority list. Funny enough, once I stopped writing for awhile I certainly heard about it from quite a few people. It would be an encouragement if some of you fine folks would drop a comment now and then. Still it’s fine to lurk if you prefer but I’ll feel more accountable if I hear from someone now and then. That’s just how I am…