My newest build the Chopsitar!!!!

Congratulations to Andrew Chopstick for becoming the newest proud owner of the one and only Chopsitar.....

and some close ups....

 this is great..its a view from the input  looking in...looks like a big cave!!!...I want ALFV to play in there with a great light show..........

These are copper knobs from scratch

 Copper hardware etched real perty like

this part of the gourd is painted gold!!! and black....

 so is this

more copper

 custom headstock # 7

Gourd from the gourd farm......So there you have it.....this instrument features a newer design to match the headstock.  It has two "shoulders" instead of one with of course the special bridge which makes it create overtones......I hope to figure out a way to upload a sample of the way it sounds

New blog update....My Newest build

ok its been about a month and there is too much to talk about..

first thing ....Greg's sitar is done and he is the new proud owner of it...

My newest build

 custom string tree at work!!

ok so here is a build diary  and a bunch of photos...I figure since I don't post as much as I want...I will dump all of them on you now.......with some captions

 

start with a drawing

I made the template on illustrator according to to drawing of headstock #5

cutting the headstock

done!

swirly twirl carved with small files and knives

back curve

onto the body... which I will do tomorrow!!

Ha!

in other news....the HUB is dead...long live the HUB!!...twas a good run...everybody involved did great....GREAT JOB SACTO!!   To a new era in sacto showdom heres we GOOOOOOOO

went to LA with the BUKS and stayed at DUde house for a couple of days and played lots of nintendo

Thanks dudes!!...I should have gotten a picture....


I will be posting more pics soon of the sitar and ANDREW......Yours is coming soon.

Late

Updates, an Art Lessing REVIEW!! and pics of whatever is in my phone

So I have a feeling this blog is going to end up like some kind of dumping ground for everything that is in my phone..I hope not....lets start this update with a nice picture of clouds...we don't see these kind 'round these parts much...all the wet ass weather pays off with some nice sky mountains....

this was over Davis.......nice twisty shape....

I think this is one of the first reviews of my record......I hope it spreads

Here....

http://still-single.tumblr.com/

     "A decade’s worth of selections from the career of hometaper/visual artist Dan Quillen. Based out of Sacramento, this release qualifies some 24 releases Quillen’s performed on in the past decade, and a symbiotic relationship having formed between him and local freeform college radio station KDVS. Certainly the world wasn’t getting access to Art Lessing’s dozen or so full-lengths and collaborations, and the case could be made that he was making all of this music specifically for airplay on the radio, with an ulterior motive of casting any listeners within his grasp within a very specific moodspace of his own creation. The project shifts between lo-fi basement riff rockin’ and more placid escapes, headtrips blaring back from the history of weird/out there music being reflected onto pockets of Northern California in some sort of perpetual motion device of media influence and … my god this guy is a supervillain (and he draws like Vaughn Bode but with a much thinner point). Get lost in the psychedelic marshes of one sinister man’s mind. It’s a pretty mellow trip, orange sunshine all around. 500 copies, comes with a hand-stitched lyric booklet and sketchpad, containing loads of Quillen’s alternate universe scribbles. (http://www.kdvs.org)
(Doug Mosurock)"

Thank you Doug Mosurock.....

(ps...its Quillan not Quillen....we're picky about that spelling)



Ok so here goes with other shtuff......I have been commissioned to build a couple more of the elecrtic suitar things and have now started the design and building process ..both are custom  to fit the guys who are getting them...the first  one I am working on is going to use headstock number five on my earlier post.... the second one is going to have number seven...the one with number five needs a custom string tree type of thing to get the strings going in the right places.... this is made from copper

3 eggs

My old motercycle

 some capsela

 a few butts

 a bat

 and a hot dog

more stuff......

 Amy at the gourd farm

 More Amy more gourds!

 fabricating more copper hardware

 more gourds

 two parts

fabs

 parts is parts

 etched and ready for other parts

this did not work out

Hey did you all know that if you print out anything with a laser printer you can lay it facedown on any porous surface, brunch lacquer thinner over it and then rub it with a wooden spoon to transfer the tone over......the thing in the middle is two wooden knobs glued together....the result.....

Art lesson.......more later!!!!

Some new stuff...and an update for those who care......

First off...I made a piece today just now called 54 Headstocks.......I had so much fun doing this that I had Amy join in and draw several of these headstocks...it turned out great ...this is collage on chip board with colored pencil and ink and glue and laserprint......check it...

54 Headstocks--- (collage with ink drawing)

also this drawring with a sculptural element..I made this to test an idea for a steering rack....

Thought Process-Steering for three wheeled buggy bike. 

I found that the fulcrum of both the fork and the handle have to be spaced relative to one another such that the radius of the fork yoke is equal to the yoke of the steering column.....and then I figured out that my knees would hit this anyway.......




more in a bit...right now my finger hurts .....

I sliced my left first fingernail clean off while chopping onions way too fast last night.....But...

I found my fingernail on the cutting board with some fresh skin still on it....I'll superglue it back on later like a lee press-on nail.......

My prints are featured at the Fe gallery in Sacto all month...there are 50+  different etchings using many different shades of inks in color......I have to thank Danny Sheible for the hook up ..the Fe gallery has alot of metal sculpture and an impressive collection of hammers

You all should go and spy this place...


ok good...bye now.....

New shizzz

 this painting is hurting me...It keeps doing things I don't like...here is the new state of being.....I wish it would calm down and paint itself.......

Also ....... I am working on a guitar body....a restore project...someday I won't be so scatterbrained...actually it keeps life interesting...keeps me goin...

the thing was covered in some nasty green paint...somebody had  "a great idea"...anyway..I am currently working on the finish ...I figure I will clean it at best and fill some of the blemishes.....and then sell it ...so I can fix my amp...its making a strange static sound and also the reverb stopped working and the vibrato and chorus don't work....but it is a rad and rare Roland JC-80

I would love to put the stock 15 back into it but I would have to redo the sun.....more Later