Stone Roses Tribute: Pollocking Along...

Ok, Eben and I have finished the 9th and final colour in the first round of Pollocking. Unfortunately I got the colour balance a little wrong with the dark grey, and so the body is looking rather more drab than I intended. The reds, blues and yellows have disappeared almost completely!

After 9th Colour layer - black

In the next round of colours I intend to put these bright colours back front and centre in the mix. Basically I will repeat the first 5 colours. So hopefully the top will look something like we saw before...:

Remember how colourful the first 5 layers were?

... well, here's hoping anyway.

Stone Roses Tribute: Colours are Building

The colours are continuing to build on the Stone Roses Tribute build. I'm up to colour 8 of 9 now and the white background is starting to be in the minority. The brighter hues are disappearing, but they will make a come back with the second cycle through the colour list.

After the 7th colour layer - Dark Grey

After the 8th colour layer - White

The look has definitely changed since layer 5. Each colour brings something new to the mix. I'm not that happy with the current incarnation, but the point at the moment is to build background. In that respect it's definitely coming along. I definitely went overboard with the dark grey in layer 7 and I'm kicking myself for it, but I'm hoping that when I re-visit the blues and red that will be largely painted over.

Stone Roses Tribute: Five Layers of Splatter

I'm 5 layers of colour into the pollocking of the Stone Roses Tribute. It's looking a bit average (read: shitty) at the moment. Just a bloody mess. I'm hoping things will only improve from here the more paint I get on there.

I think in general my son Eben and I are not using enough paint per layer. The guitar body is larger than my prototype and we need to be mindful of this. Will have to just keep at it and see what develops.

Postscript: 3/4/2014
With the fifth layer well and truly dry, I chucked the hardware on there to see how the build is really looking. See for yourself. I have revised my original opinion - I think this is shaping up really nicely!

The more colour I can get on this body, the better it is going to look. I haven't even got to the black lines yet - and in my opinion they help to bring structure to the overall design. Just have a gander at some of Pollock's actual work to see what I mean!

Stone Roses Tribute: Procrastination Anyone?

So, for a week or more now there's been no progress on the Stone Roses Tribute build. There's been a couple of contributing factors but the main reason, now that it comes to it, is that I'm nervous about starting. Once that paint hits the guitar there's no going back!

And so in the spirit of complete and utter procrastination, and to vet my splatter technique one last time, I built a life-size prototype of the guitar out of 6mm ply, painted it with the same primer and gloss enamel used to prep the actual guitar body, and got the kids to fling paint at it. I could have had the kids flinging paint at the actual guitar body but hey.

There was one useful outcome of the exercise. This time around I varied the amount of paint used on the guitar compared to my first prototype, with a much smaller amount of paint, and fewer paint passes used to create the effect. I had looked at my first prototype long and hard and was starting to worry that it was too busy. The result of the changes to our technique was a guitar with much more white space.

Which do you guys think looks better? The consensus from the interweb is a unanimously in favour of the initial prototype. I think I agree! And so, the procrastination has reaching it's logical termination. The only thing left to do now is to bite the bullet and start-a-splattering. Watch this space!

Stone Roses Tribute: 2 Coats of Primer

After a week of preparation I finally got the first coats of primer onto the body and headstock of the RC-1 today. I filled the pores with a slurry of Timbermate after sanding to 400 grit, and then sanded back with 400 until nothing was left on the surface. Finished it off with 600 and then 800 grit before I was finally in a position to spray.

The initial 2 coats are on and it's starting to look like something! I'm liking the way it is turning out. Now that I've removed the masking to make sure all is well on the neck and the binding, I'll be re-applying new masking and then adding a final coat of primer. There's a couple of places where the masking has been placed a little low and has covered up a little of the wood (see below).

 

This needs to be rectified. Also, the current coats are still a little thin on the back, so one more coat  will not go astray there.

With the last coat of primer in place, I am planning on shooting 2 coats of white gloss acrylic. The body will then be ready for the Pollock/Squire inspired splattering to begin. I can't wait!!!

Stone Roses Tribute: Video Build Diary #1

Since my Stone Roses Tribute build has been a dream of mine for quite some time, I have decided to make a video build diary over the course of the project! The first installment is now on YouTube and has been added to my brand new YouTube Channel: "Fires Creek Guitars". This first installment deals with the mock-up phase for the Pitbull RC-1 on which the build is based.


It's not as good as it could be, but I'm hoping my presentation chops will improve as the series progresses. In no time I'll have my news-reader voice and patter down to a fine art. Enjoy - if you can! ;).

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!