New build- Eat a Peach!

[Jmacwooddesign]

I'm starting up my next build, with 6 bodies blanked out.

I've settled in on a design theme for this run. I'm going to recreate classic album art in marquetry. I'm starting with one of my favorites- the inside cover of "Eat a Peach." I'm a player also, and I tell people I went to the Allman Brothers School of Endless Guitar Solos... Here's the beginnings of the designs. I hope to update throughout the build with progress photos. Let me know what albums mean the most to you.

In order to make a good composition that fits the guitar well and has a lot of visual punch, I've doubled the size and moved around the different elements.

Here's my original copy and some of the veneers I've chosen to work with.

I use a scroll saw with a fine blade to cut the veneer.

and this is where I finished the day. The sunburst pieces are taped together. Next I can work on setting the flame rays into the sky background.

 

[RockinRob]

neat!

 

[beorn]

Very cool.

 

[eddie101]

very cool but none of them look like LPs which were favored by the brothers.

 

[Jmacwooddesign]

Yeah, there's something about an LP with a double cutaway that goes way back with me. Maybe around 1970 I saw Steve Miller on one of TV's Rock Concert series. He was playing a double cutaway with a carved top and the face of it was covered with some sort of neat filigree. Early symptom of guitar lust...

 

[GuitarPlaynTaylor]

are you going to be selling these?

 

[Jmacwooddesign]

After running a custom woodworking shop for 25 years, specializing in marquetry, but also building whatever for whoever, I decided last year that I want guitar building to be a major component of how I spend my day. I had made guitars in the early '80's for Richelieau in CT and loved everything about it.

So to answer your question Taylor, yes, I'm selling these. My plan is to go through this build of six with the intent of getting some of them preordered and develop the marquetry design with the buyer. I have three guitars from last year's build available now. They can be seen on another thread I posted here a few weeks ago- https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/1381207 Thanks for asking.

 

[cottonmike]

I like the double cut. They are symmetrical, are they not?

I like the concept and am now searching memory for album cover/foldout's.

I'll be back.

 

[Jmacwooddesign]

Mike, the design is symmetrical. I have a '68 ES-345 that influenced how the tops are carved, but at a glance, very much LP inspired.
I was able to spend all day on the Eat a Peach design, working on the flaming rays coming out of the sunburst-

The background is a blue dyed veneer, bookmatched on the design's CL. Here I'm cutting in satinwood rays that are under the primary ones.

I switched to a silky figured primavera for the primary rays. If you see pieces that are taped, that's the backside. I use a paper pattern on the front. About 15 years ago I got a lifetime supply of assorted veneers from a guy whose grandfather had done marquetry. Many many kinds of all figures and colors, none of them labeled though, so I guess my best...

Here's the patterning that goes on while I'm proceeding. The cutting is done on an Excalibur scroll saw. Mine has a really deep throat- 28"

This is where I left off this afternoon. The design is reversed as you see it. The last thing I did was cut in the scroll that holds the song names. Any day I get to play with satinwood is a good day...

 

[pass it]

Cool thread. I will enjoy the updates on this one.

 

[loudboy]

are you going to be selling these?

I'm wondering how much it cost to license that artwork?

My sister did a silkscreen print of Janis Joplin based on a photo and wound up having to give them all away...

Last time she did that!

 

[Jmacwooddesign]

Good question Loudboy. When I was creating the design for the Gibson Custom Shop in 2002 of my "Fantasy Goldtop" I wanted to make sure that I could use the image of the Hendrix "Are You Experienced" album cover.

I contacted the "Experience Hendrix" folks that manage his legacy. They didn't know, brought it up at a board meeting, couldn't say. I was persistent (or annoying) I will say that these guys have the best "hold" music ever! They are Seattle based. Their NY lawyer ended up calling me, asked about what I was doing and actually said-"You know what? This is America and we have free speech, what you do is your art. If you create one art piece, no problem. If you think you are going to print the design on t-shirts, you've got a problem." I think my application is similar to Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup Can art. My own desire to work with the image is an acknowledgement of what a cool illustration Wonder Graphics created, and I will be giving them credit for their design.

I'm about to head out to the shop and work on cutting in the mountains...not much snow here after all the dire warnings, about 3 inches.

 

[cottonmike]

The Outlaws first album would be an interesting piece to consider:

 

[Jmacwooddesign]

Hey CottonMike, nice song. I remember trying to get that down when southern rock was in full swing. I never got the blazing speed fingering thing going though, I'm more of a note bender...and that album cover is a pretty good choice to pull off in marquetry.

I worked on the mountains, or I could say I jammed on them today...

This picture shows how I cut through two layers of veneer at a time using the bevel cutting method that I learned from Silas Kopf, a master, who I later got to teach alongside at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship here in Maine.

I like it when there are tools and stuff strewn about at the end of a productive day. I clean up when I walk in the door in the morning, somehow this works for me...

This is where I left off today. The mountains are in and the blue transforming mushrooms that spill out of a sack are in place...this gives me a great answer to the question-"What did you do today?" Next is the mushroom carrier and the guy with the sack, both are the biggest challenges to create in the design. The way this works sequentially is background to foreground.

We didn't get that much snow, but the stuff is really heavy.

 

[slowerhand]

Wow, very cool and unusual.

 

[rowdyyates]

Some pics appear to be a right handed guitar and others left. Are we just seeing front and back?

 

[ZeyerGTR]

Fantastic! (ABB is my favorite band of all time).

 

[Jmacwooddesign]

Rowdyyates- when the work is right side up, you see remnants of the white paper patterns that I use. When you are looking at wood and clear tape, that is what will be the underside. When all the cutting is done, I'll clean off the front, retape, then remove the tape on the back. At that point I'll be ready to glue the design onto the guitar's body.

 

[cottonmike]

What can we call that creature that lives inside EAP?

The Mushroom Gnome.

 

[Jmacwooddesign]

I'll go with mushroom gnome, kind of an ambiguous gnome at that....today's challenge is the guy to the right pulling mushrooms out of the sack. I just spent a few minutes looking at the rest of the art, man, there's a lot going on!