July 30, 2013
My newest guitar is for Alex Kapranos, guitarist for the Scottish band Franz Ferdinand. When Alex and I met to discuss the project, he told me of his life-long fascination with the beetle, especially certain blue-green beetles with their iridescent wings. We decided this guitar would have an entomological theme.
I designed the pickguard using 600 beetle wings, layed up like roofing tiles and embedded in epoxy resin. I posted an earlier Blog post about the making of this pickguard including pictures taken during its creation.
Below is a slide show of pictures documenting several other building processes including: shaping the neck, inlaying custom beetles made from abalone in the fretboard, routing out the body for the pickguard, carving the comfort contour on the back of the body, etc.
You can learn more about this guitar, see photos of the finished instrument, and videos of the band here.
