Painting Lacerda

A weird shape.

An odd coating.

We need something unique for the paint.

Something outrageous, yet evocative of the past.

Oh, it has to be cheap and available, too.

Sadly, there’s no way I can paint a guitar with my ex-girlfriend.

The shape of this guitar, ergonomic though it may be, is inescapably reminiscent of the 1980s, an era where the only thing pointier than the hairstyles were the guitars.

The 80s were a fantasticdecade for guitars.

They were a fantastic decade for a lotof things. Looking back, it was a time of gleefully stupid self-indulgence, excess for its own sake, and… Bill Cosby.

But never mind that.

If someone asked you what was the penultimate 1980s color, the answer would probably be variable.

Yet the top three colors would probably all have the same adjective in front of them: fluorescent.

Which is relevant, because this guitar build was, to some extent, about using up things I already had rather than buying things I didn’t. The hardware for this guitar, and the electronics, were all things I already had.

One of the things I already had was a Dimarzio Clip-lock strap.

But not the usual black one.

Oh no, not black.

I had this one:

It’s gaudy, retro, and exceedingly pink. I had bought one each of Dimarzio’s Day Glo straps. They come in yellow, green, orange, and pink. They had all found a home on a guitar except this one.

Pylox makes fluorescent paint.

I know because I bought some.

*ZANG!!!*

*The camera didn’t do a good job of capturing the color.  Probably because the fluorescence was totally f@#$ing with it. In real life it looks just like the strap.*

*It’s not pink, its.*

*It’s actually hard to spray this stuff, because even wet, it picks up the light and does funny things. I used several light coats, trying to make sure I got even coverage and a nice consistent color.*

*Not that it matters, since looking at it in direct sunlight is grossly injurious to your eyesight.*

Three Times Pink were a transsexual dance band from Riverdale, Wisconsin.

Since my planning (and photography) skills aren’t what they could be, I ended up doing some things later rather than sooner. The cavity covers needed places where I could put screws into wood to secure them. So I glued some ‘ears’ into the cavities.

I did it for the toggle switch cavity too:

It was ess than splendid trying to get these pieces to fit. Getting your fingers close to a disc sander to make a guitar part is inherently foolish, since you risk injuring the very things you need to play the damned guitar!

Here’s the input jack plate in place. This way the jack naturally curves away behind me.

****

Hopefully it wont hit my leg too much.

Where the bridge will sit, I removed the coating. I wanted the bridge to contact the wood directly, since it will probably sustain better without a layer of soft plastic between the two.

A mock-up with the toggle switch, pickups and bridge just stuck on. That’s why the pickups look a little funny.

I leave you here, to wonder “What’s necks?”