Stone Roses Tribute: Test Fit

Well, Christmas has come and gone and I can finally start my Stone Roses Tribute build! Right off the bat, I gotta say that I'm very happy with the quality of the Pitbull Guitars RC-1 kit that will form the basis of this build. The f-hole is nicely finished, there's only a couple of glue spots (not that this will be a problem for this particular build), the binding is clean and well seated, and there's some gorgeous grain on the rosewood fretboard.

I did a mock fit to check that all the pieces fit together correctly and the guitar looks really, really good! It's not as large as my actual Rickenbacker 330, but it's still got those distinctive curves. Suffice to say that after seeing the mock-up, I'm raring to go on this project!

I would really like to swap out the pickups with some GFS Retrotron mini-humbuckers, and replace the kit's knobs with some more "Rickish" black numbers, but I'll have to see how the budget stands up on this one. Looking at the mockup it did strike me just how nice this baby would look in a natural (colourless or slightly amber) finish. Oh well, tough shit! It's destined to have paint splashed over it in true Squire fashion - and that's final!

Stone Roses Tribute: Fools Gold?

For many years I have dreamed of creating a Stone Roses guitar. Well known for their signature look created by artist/guitarist John Squire and based on the work of Jackson Pollock, The Roses painted guitars, drums and even Ian Brown's shirts in a multicoloured miasma of paint splattered goodness. Apart from maybe Noel Gallagher's Union Jack Epiphone, there's none more iconic in my mind than Squire's unique creations.

Going for a look somewhere between Mani's Rickenbacker bass and Squire's Gibson 335, the Rickenbacker inspired RC-1 kit from Pitbull Guitars seemed the logical choice for a build. And now, funds having been found, said kit is finally gracing the Fires Creek Guitars man cave here in Holgate.

Unfortunately, the actual dry assembly and body preparation won't start until the new year. However, in the meantime I have been playing with various Pollock and Squire inspired designs, trying to find a colour scheme and application technique that I'm happy with. To be quite honest with you, it isn't as easy as it looks to find colours that look nice together and that are balanced nicely on the canvas - fate and gravity are a harsh mistress!

Anyway, after a few false starts my latest test run has made it to completion without seeing the back end of the primer again. What do you think?

To be honest I'm reasonably happy with this attempt. It's pretty bloody close to the colours that John Squire used on Mani's Pollock'd Rickenbacker and his own 335 pictured in the bottom left band photo. I feel confident now to attempt the paint job. I'm still not sure that it will be all that I hope. Am I just chasing Fools Gold with this one? Well, fuck it. There's only one way to find out!