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This guitar just came into my shop for Feiten Retro. The current owner ( a somewhat famous Tampa player, that asked I not use his name) claims that the guitar was used to record the Heart hit song "barracuda". It is also said that the axe was once owned by Keith Richards. Any info anyone else might have on it's history would be appreciated. Take a close look at the paint job. Anyone familar with this technique?
TIA


Gone...Dave-SKG38447.40625

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

Scary!

Is it airbrushed, or does it look like really well-done decals? Looks like decals from the photos...

I used to do airbrush artwork on racing helmets and such(unitl I got lead poisoning from OneShot enamels, but that's another story...), and I learned a method to "grab" the graphics off of any shiny, coated paper. I could make decals and apply them to anything. I could use glossy magazines, ads, anything. This looks like it may be the same technique.

Don't recognise the guitar, but I do recognise the Bald Eagle rear rifle rest!

Colin

PS I'm a keen bench rest shooter.

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Looks like de capage (help me with the spelling Mario) to me. With lots of lacquer over it the seams can be totally undetectible.

[QUOTE=Colin S] Don't recognise the guitar, but I do recognise the Bald Eagle rear rifle rest!
[/QUOTE]
Is that what's holding up the neck?

[QUOTE=Mario] Scary!

Is it airbrushed, or does it look like really well-done decals? Looks like decals from the photos...

I used to do airbrush artwork on racing helmets and such(unitl I got lead poisoning from OneShot enamels, but that's another story...), and I learned a method to "grab" the graphics off of any shiny, coated paper. I could make decals and apply them to anything. I could use glossy magazines, ads, anything. This looks like it may be the same technique.

[/QUOTE]

Mario- It's as if the photographs were part of the finish. It doesn't look like decals. It is so seamless and perfect...I can't describe. The clear finish over "the art" has aged, colored, and cracked. But the underlying "art" is as tho it were the film itself. Sort of a "silly putty" type thing if you remember that stuff as a kid.

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

Looks like porn to me. Should it be posted on this website?

The technique I think Mario is referring to is one in which you begin by spraying a picture (magazine pictures work really well) with laquer and, when it dries, you remove the laquer from the paper. The ink stays with the laquer, not the paper. Water works pretty well for that. Then, you basically laquer that laquer onto the guitar or whatever.

Wow! Thanks Kelby...I will have to give that a try. Are there any books on this type of thing?

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

It's as if the photographs were part of the finish. It doesn't look like decals.

Bingo! It's what I was talking of, most likely. The process makes your own "decals" from any print. the "decals" are as thin as the finish, and applied as part of the finish. Done right, it is seamless....

Haven't done, or seen, any in about 20 years. Cool! I bet there are extremely few folks who still know how to do it, today.

I would like to hear from whoever did it to be sure if I'm on the right track, as I don't know of any other method that would look like that.

Paul, its "decoupage"....

That's it, Kelby, but to make the print soft enough to take on compound curves, afterwards, is the real trick.

Dave,
I haven't seen any books. I saw a guy do it once when he was painting a Harley Davidson, and it was pretty cool. I may have some of the details wrong, so it might be worth googling around a bit (or experimenting on something that doesn't matter).

Dave...Are you or anyone else familiar with the guitarmaker...Liberatore? If you can contact him, perhaps he could shed some light on the finish. That is so cool!

Please keep us posted on what you find. I'd also like to know more about the technique.

Bruce...it's pretty mild stuff...hardly porn! More like classic art. You might consider taking more cold showers!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

JJ I don't need a cold shower, but I do know what is appropriate on this website. We do have a few ladies around, maybe we should ask them if this would be considered appropriate for a "family" website. I sure don't appreciate pornographic pics on a site which is supposed to be clean. This smut needs to vanish.

FWIW, I don't find it terribly offensive. They're bare breasts, a couple of buttocks, but that's really the extent of it. A tiny bit risque, possibly. Pin-up deco art, sure. Pornography? No.

Maybe that's just my liberal dutch mindset talking, since we've got just about as much nudity as that featured in soap and yoghurt commercials day-in, day-out, pretty much all day long, but I don't find the sight of breasts offensive. It's about as pornographic as the average beach is, and there are plenty of families sitting around there.

[QUOTE=Mario] It's as if the photographs were part of the finish. It doesn't look like decals.

Bingo! It's what I was talking of, most likely. The process makes your own "decals" from any print. the "decals" are as thin as the finish, and applied as part of the finish. Done right, it is seamless....
[/QUOTE]

I did a few back in college days. We just called it a color lift. Multiple layers of lacquer on a magazine picture. The picture is then soaked off of the lacquer in a water bath with the dyes left behind. Almost indestructible when glued down.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

Dave you really need to go remove these images from your post.

Personally, I see nothing wrong with it. I can't imagine anyone finding it offensive or pornographic...

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Your toungue is breaking through your cheek, you cheeky guy

Who? me?

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I'm not one to complaint about what other people post. However, now that the sensitive areas have been blacked out, I will say that I appreciate the modification.

Dave...Let's hope the owner doesn't get offended when he returns to find his guitar with pieces of electrical tape all over it!

Can we get back to the guitar stuff again now that the hissey-fit was successful in purging the image of pigmented epidermis?

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

I don't think this is "decoupage", isn't that just cutting out pictures, sticking them on something, and lacquering over the whole thing?

I saw a technique on one of those lifestyle shows, where they cut out a picture, glued it face down with some special goop, and once it dried, they wet the paper and rubbed it off. The (mirror) image was left behind. The presenter said any arts and crafts shop will have the stuff.

That guitar has nice hooters BTW

My guess is it is probably photo transfer much like the ink jet T shirt transfers. Here is a link.
http://www.transferit.net/

PAul, I blieve that decoupage is simply the act of gathering various images, cutting them up, and pasting them somehow. Wehther the pasting is the entire paper, or just an ink transfer as we seem to have here, it is still decoupage.

I don't know what the craft shops offer to do this today, but I used to use something called "liquid pastic", which was a clear finish of sorts that, if I remember right, seems like it was an early version of polyurethane.

It requires a pretty heavy finidh to get everything levelled off, and as we note from this guitar, heavy ebough to crack once aged. I don't think this has a place on any acoustic instruments, but it could be a cool way to decorate my Calton cases <bg>.