Members Player99 Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 Looks cool as guitar art. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Urinate Forever Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 oh my Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members evets618 Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 Is it a fender? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Player99 Posted July 5, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 I found this: This appears to be a post by Rick in 2009 THE AMERICAN SHOWSTER '57 CHEVY GUITAR By Rich Excellente The idea for a guitar which resembled the tail -fin of a 1957 Chevrolet first came to me while helping a neighbor wax his ?57 Chevy sometime during the fall of 1967. This fella died in Viet Nam, but the memory of that day remained with me. In 1983, I started a custom guitar shop known as ?American Showster Custom Guitars" in Maplewood, New Jersey. My specialty was building custom guitars to order...mostly vintage style Strats and Teles. My customers were not only locals, but professional players like Richie Sambora, and Alec Such of Bon Jovi. Sometime during the spring of 1984, Alec Such stopped by. We got into a conversation about classic autos, which shifted to custom guitars. I mentioned that I had a long-time idea to create a guitar that looks like the tail fin of a 1957 Chevrolet. Alec immediately gave me a standing order to build him one. I contacted a long time friend and associate, sculptor Mark Dornan of Point Pleasant, New Jersey. In the past, Mark and I worked on several original custom sculpted guitar projects. I then commissioned him to build me a guitar body that resembles a 57 Chevy Tail-fin. I supplied him with a rough template which I sketched to show dimentions and size. The main difference between the actual Chevy fin and the much smaller proposed guitar, was the angle of the fin, which , unlike the straight top edge of the actual Chevy, the guitar fin angled more diagonally (about 15 degrees), much like a ?Flying V?. The following month, Mark drew a scale rendering, which I approved. He then began sculpting the body from a solid plank of mahogany, complete with detailed tail-lamp, bumper and top molding strips made from maple. But the original mahogany prototype was too heavy (about 12 lbs.). I then suggested the body be made from basswood, a lighter wood used in guitar manufacturing. Mark re-worked the body using basswood. I completed building the guitar by having Rich Koener of Time Electronic configure and route the neck pocket and electronic control cavities. During May of 1985, six more wooden Chevy bodies were hand sculpted by Mark Dornan. Rich Koerner was again hired to mill the pickups, trem and control cavities routes, and calculate the neck pocket routes, which require strict tolerances. Kramer Guitars in Neptune, NJ, was contracted to paint these Chevy guitars (which were then displayed at the 1986 NAMM Show). By the time the 1986 NAMM Show arrived, in addition to the costs I incurred in out-sourcing various work to others, the Chevy guitar project had already cost me a great deal in patent fees, and tens of thousands for the tooling of aluminum castings (bumper/moldings, ect.), including chrome plating them. Between 1986-1990, I basically hand-built and signed more than 50 Chevy guitars. During that time, the '57 Chevy guitar had gained world-wide recognition with write-ups and photos in publications such as Car & Driver (winning 10 Best "Cartifacts"), Playboy, The Robb Report, and U.S.A.Today. The most interesting part of the '57 Chevy guitar project, surprisingly, is the Chevy guitar had superior sustaining and sonic qualities, attrubuted to the natural shape of the tail-fin, and with the addition of the metal bumper assembly, which I coined "Metal-Loading". The Chevy Guitar design and Metal-loading generated more than 4 U.S. patents. In short, if you build a guitar that looks like a '57 Chevy tail-fin...you'll get a better sounding guitar. They really do Rock! During the late '80's, I designed a series of tail-fin inspired "metal-loaded" guitars for Kramer, under the brand name of American Showster. These guitars were basically Stratocasters (with a sleeker "tail-fin" body sillouette), and the addition of a metal insert. I named these particular guitars "The Savant"; The Metalist"; and "The XML"; respectively. They were short lived and have become exceedingly rare since the demise of Kramer in the early '90's. But I continued to produce a limited amount of '57 Chevy guitars during that time. Today, the Original 57 Chevy Guitars are owned by legenday guitarists such as Billy Gibbons, Slash, and Steve Miller, to name a few. Eric Clapton had also contacted me to build him one. Here is an article which appeared in the Robb Report of Aug. 1987 -Pg. 79 CAR GUITAR ?Rick Excellente loves '57 Chevys almost as much as he loves guitars. To him it makes perfect sense that the two should meet. While polishing a friends '57 Chevy as a high school student, Excellente remarked that the shape of the tail fin would make an ideal guitar design. Years later, when bassist Alec John Such of the rock band Bon Jovi stopped into Excellente?s New Jersey guitar shop and asked for something different, Excellente recalled that long-ago afternoon. The result was not only a guitar for Such, but a fleet of Chevy Guitars, with others on the drawing board. Sculptor Mark Dornan shaped the body from basswood, and the guitar was then fit with an aluminum bezel to resemble a Chevy?s chrome tail light. After testing the instrument, Excellente discovered that the tear drop shape combined with the aluminum bezel maximized the sustaining quality of musical notes. He has since obtained a patent for his design. General Motors has given Excellente permission to use its name and to offer the the guitar in 12 original Chevrolet colors." Kramer: http://www.edroman.com/guitars/kramer/kramer_models/american-showster.html . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ILOVEMYFENDER Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 TL; DR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Player99 Posted July 5, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Godsky Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 Nice, but uh, playing it? nah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members |\|\|\ Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 i would definitely eat a $3 burger off that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Player99 Posted July 5, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 i would definitely eat a $3 burger off that Just don't chew your food with your mouth open. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members deviever Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 I was always partial to these : http://www.jbacklund.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Is it a fender? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members eti Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 Nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members d4rk0 Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 That's pretty rad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tron Murphy Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 TU;DL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members goodhonk Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 Is it a fender? ahhaha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members decode6 Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 Lol, Rick Excellente Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members victor2k Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 where are the REAL mustangs and thunderbirds? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members eti Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 where are the REAL mustangs and thunderbirds? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dr.Picklebottom Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 it blows my mind that a guitar that looks like that could take months of several adults' lives and cost that much too make when the end result looks like what some random guy would make in his garage in an afternoon. it seriously looks like a homemade guitar that an inexperienced amateur made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tedmich Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 well 90% of guitars are made with only visual design requirements Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dpizappi Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 it blows my mind that a guitar that looks like that could take months of several adults' lives and cost that much too make when the end result looks like what some random guy would make in his garage in an afternoon. it seriously looks like a homemade guitar that an inexperienced amateur made. I'm more confused by the fact that this guy says he ran a custom guitar shop and then goes on to say how he hired out just about every major aspect of building the guitar to outside help. What did he do? Make sure the screws were tight? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members emtoth Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 Does it take unleaded? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Urinate Forever Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 I'm more confused by the fact that this guy says he ran a custom guitar shop and then goes on to say how he hired out just about every major aspect of building the guitar to outside help. What did he do? Make sure the screws were tight? Designed it? It's like saying Brian Wilson wasn't really in the Beach Boys because he quit touring after awhile... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members d4rk0 Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 I was always partial to these : http://www.jbacklund.com/ this is pretty BA too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members megaboogie Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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