This guitar was my very first comission project after turning my hobby of pyrography into a business. This client approached me with the idea of the design and supplied me with the guitar itself. The idea was to include Jesus and the Grimm Reaper facing eachother to represent good vs evil, a negative style japanese rising sun, a kraken amd a Tidal wave, the band logo (Cabfighter), some meaningful song lyrics from one of their songs, and a thin black border around the whole body of the guitar. After discussing placement of each element and finalizing the design digitally, I printed and transferred each piece with charcoal transfer paper. Now it was time to start the actual burning. I quickly realized that this piece was going to be a little harder than I had anticipated. The guitar body itself was sanded down smooth and appeared to be ready to go, however there was still a left over residue of the original coating seeped deep into the wood. This left over residue caused the surface of the wood to be harder than usual and required more pressure and a higher heat to break through the layer of coating and actually burn into the wood. With the combination of extra heat, the pressure required, and the coating residue itself there was the inevitable issue of overburn, which is where the surrounding area of the intended burn lines are scorched. In order to combat this issue I had to use a dremmel to sand off the overburn between my line work and restore the intended color of the guitar beneath. After dialing in my process I was able to focus in and work for several hours at a time. For the head of the guitar I was givin complete artistic control, so I decided to create my own design with complimentary imagery to the body. After finalizing the burning i used painters plastic and tape to cover the back of the guitar and neck, while I sprayed the finished pieces with multiple layers of clearcoat. This piece took just over 50 hours in total amd was a great challenge amd learning opportunity. This is one i will never forget!
First comission poject. Custom guitar.
