Taking a working guitar that is in decent shape and carving it up for the sake of art is always a bit of a risk. You will have people that get angry that you messed with a flamed maple veneer or say that carving it will ruin the tone. At least that has been my experience with the few guitars I have done. This PRS SE is one that caused more division than my other works.
By the time I started this piece, I had done 3 other guitars. The first being the Old Man Winter Strat. Then I did a quick steampunk inspired guitar using my little brother’s Epiphone Special II. And finally, using a DIY kit, my dad’s Colorado Tele might be my favorite so far. But since I wasn’t terribly thrilled with the tone / feel of the Old Man Winter Strat, I wanted to make another one for myself. I always loved the inlays and the sound of PRS guitars, so I went looking for a damaged used guitar to use as a base.
I initially thought I would end up with a double cutaway rather than a Les Paul shape. But after browsing Guitar Center for a bit, I found a Fredrik Akesson PRS SE that had some damage to the headstock, but was otherwise in decent shape. I picked it up for $329 before shipping and tax, which brought the total to $372. When it came in, I made sure that I liked the guitar overall before actually digging in. The guitar had a nice smooth tone, clean neck (with some dents), and the body fit me well. So with that, it was time to figure out what I wanted to do.
I have always been interested in the old west and thought paying homage to the Native Americans who were here before us might be a cool idea to explore. It was rumored (although later found to be incorrect) that I was 1/16th Cherokee. Because of this, I thought I would choose a ceremonial headdress and some more abstract bits to fill in the surrounding area to represent the plains they would have roamed. I had to start by stripping the original clear / stain / veneer. This was done by using a heat gun and moving over the area, never stopping in a location. To my surprise, the veneer came up before the clear. Normally, the clear coat will start to bubble and is easily peeled off. This guitar, the clear didn’t really bubble that much and eventually the veneer itself de-laminated from the body. But at least now I was down to bare wood.
I started by drawing out the design I wanted and once I was satisfied, I could begin the carving. This was my first time carving a harder wood which proved to be both good and difficult. It held it’s lines a bit better than the other guitars I did, but it also took more effort to remove material. And as with the other carves, I still ran into some chipping issues. It’s partially because of this that I decided to paint the guitar, much like the Old Man Winter Strat. White base was laid down first. Once that was good and dry, an air brush was used for the gradients. More defined details were painted in with a brush.
When this project was completed, I ended up deciding I wasn’t too happy with the glossy / clean look that I was left with. I was also not a fan of the painted neck upon playing it. So instead of being bummed, I thought of it as another opportunity to impart a bit more artistic flare to the piece. With it meant to represent to past, I thought it would be a cool idea to make it look as if it had been pulled from an old west homestead. It should look worn and a little beat up. To do this, a palm sander was used to start adding weathering to the paint. The back was also mostly stripped to leave a kind of white-washed appearance (while not intentional, the irony was not lost on me). The neck was also smoothed out. I had to use some body filler to fill in some dents and the neck also has some “charred” spots that happened during the paint removal (oops!). It ended up adding a great aged effect to the neck, however, and it ended up being super smooth.
This guitar ended up being much more of a creative exploration, constantly having to adjust plans to get what I wanted. My Schecter C-1 Elite had been my go-to guitar prior to this one, and still was for quite a while after it was completed. But as time went on, I found myself playing this guitar more and more until it became my primary pickup. So much like the project itself, it was a process that took more time before I settled.
Have any fun creative projects in the works? I would love to hear about them!
J. CURTIS CUSTOMS 