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Do you apply any custom decorations to your instrument?
- Thread starter Shenron
- Start date
My 1987 StingRay originally came with a clear pickguard, so I used to make different collages, and artworks that I would swap out from time to time.
Eventually I went in completely the opposite direction, and just stuck a BWB pickguard on there - but I remember around the same time, Gail Ann Dorsey made a collage out of Bazooka Joe bubble gum wrappers, that she put on her 1987 StingRay, with a clear pickguard.
I thought she did a great job that looked really cool, and I keep meaning to revisit that idea for inspiration, at some point.
I also keep contemplating removing at least one of the stickers, that's been on my Ibanez Rickenbacker copy since about 1991 - it just doesn't make sense anymore (hopefully, being a car sticker, it should come off pretty easily).
Eventually I went in completely the opposite direction, and just stuck a BWB pickguard on there - but I remember around the same time, Gail Ann Dorsey made a collage out of Bazooka Joe bubble gum wrappers, that she put on her 1987 StingRay, with a clear pickguard.
I thought she did a great job that looked really cool, and I keep meaning to revisit that idea for inspiration, at some point.
I also keep contemplating removing at least one of the stickers, that's been on my Ibanez Rickenbacker copy since about 1991 - it just doesn't make sense anymore (hopefully, being a car sticker, it should come off pretty easily).
I've only done minor cosmetic mods. Pickguard changes on my P, Jazz and Stingray.
But the most important cosmetic mod to all of my instruments is a small sticker on the back of each headstock.
I lost my wife to breast Cancer 5 years ago, and I made up this little sticker with her name, and the breast cancer ribbon. The pineapple is part of an inside joke we shared. I also have this sticker on the back of my hockey helmet and all of my hockey sticks as well.
But the most important cosmetic mod to all of my instruments is a small sticker on the back of each headstock.
I lost my wife to breast Cancer 5 years ago, and I made up this little sticker with her name, and the breast cancer ribbon. The pineapple is part of an inside joke we shared. I also have this sticker on the back of my hockey helmet and all of my hockey sticks as well.
I laser cut a small metal shield with my initial out of steel and screwed it onto my headstock. I also have my friend make me various decals on a cricut.
Yep, a little country band I was in played mostly in the wilds of the panhandle of NW Florida where no bar served anything in glass containers, and we were offered the opportunity to play a big event the bar owner dubbed “the grand reopening after the shootin”.
I saw plenty fights with lots of blood, teeth knocked out, and jaws broken, but the worst was a guy got a big smile carved across his belly and was struggling to hold his intestines in. It happened right in front of the bandstand and when it did we stopped playing, but as soon as we did the owner/bartender yelled and told us to keep playing.
Great times I tell ya; great times indeed.
Yep, a little country band I was in played mostly in the wilds of the panhandle of NW Florida where no bar served anything in glass containers, and we were offered the opportunity to play a big event the bar owner dubbed “the grand reopening after the shootin”.
I saw plenty fights with lots of blood, teeth knocked out, and jaws broken, but the worst was a guy got a big smile carved across his belly and was struggling to hold his intestines in. It happened right in front of the bandstand and when it did we stopped playing, but as soon as we did the owner/bartender yelled and told us to keep playing.
Great times I tell ya; great times indeed.
Yeah, why do they always tell you to keep playing . . . .
I lived in Pensacola in the mid-80's, and I'm sure you know there's places in Milton or Century and the like where they could have rounded up all the extras for a 'Deliverance' remake in two minutes.
My gage for really scary places was behind the bar:
One big jar with pig's feet or hard-boiled eggs in that dreadful pink water(?), probably OK.
Two jars behind the bar, ALWAYS sit in a corner near an exit, or better yet spend your breaks out in the car.
THREE jars behind the bar (the trifecta, pig's feet, hot weiners, and hard-boiled eggs), well, you're gonna be REALLY sorry you didn't get a sub. Or an ankle holster.
Somehow, after watching The Beatles on Ed Sullivan years previously, this sort of thing WASN'T how it was supposed to go. Not even a little.
The funny thing is, after a string of those 'Why me?' gigs, I hooked up with a guy who played all the Officers Clubs and Chiefs' Clubs around the string of USN bases in the area. Great gigs (especially in the Chiefs'), nice money, but it took me a while to stop looking over my shoulder . . .
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The name of your band is BOOB? That’s brilliant! Who doesn’t like boobs?
I got an inexpensive Bronco a few years back with the sole intention of modding. I tried going for a vintage 1950's halloween theme. New pickup, put a few coats of orange and clear coat on the pickguard, 2 strat syle knobs: 1 cream, 1 black with gold painted lettering, black felt washers for the strap buttons, a pinup style witch sticker on the headstock and a chrome bridge cover. I really like how it turned out.
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Yep, very accurate assessment of the places and patrons. My hands down favorite was a little place that had their jukebox and pool cues behind the bar, and only one cue per table was allowed. Most of the places we played were in areas where pulp wooding was the only game in town and those boys (and their female companions) for some odd reason loved to fight after a few adult beverages. after the impromptu surgery we decided to find less stressful places to play. It took a minute but we wound up doing mostly VFW, BPOE, and other assorted fraternal organizations. There would still be an occasional disagreement, but they were usually shut down quickly or the involved parties ejected if they refused to shake hands and return to a neutral corner.
I've got a sticker on one of my basses, and whatever my favorite bass is at a particular moment has a little Super Mario figurine hanging from the strings behind the nut. My beat up, off-brand Frankenstein P Bass has the words "Mole Power" written along the side of the pickguard thanks to an old friend of mine who used to own the bass.
A little bit O Gris Gris hangs from every bass I have. Keeps the good luck flowing and wards off the evil.
My dad carved me a strap, once. Lot of work went into it. As did a naked lady. Got a couple of frosty comments when some people noticed. Probably would've got a few more if she wasn't drowning in other detail.
But hand made by my dad trump's what some randos think of the type of person I appear to be.
Probably because the less people notice, the less likely that friends and family want to join the fun.
Ås I am the factory for my own basses, I'm not sure what constitutes a "mod" or not, but here's a bass with a couple things we can talk about:
Mixed hardware - it's not black, it's not chrome, it's both. Curiously (actually, it's logical if you think about it), I have another bass with the mixed hardware, but the parts that are black on this one are chrome on that one, and vice versa.
It also has a reshaped headstock - my shape, not the one that it came with from Warmoth.
Mixed hardware - it's not black, it's not chrome, it's both. Curiously (actually, it's logical if you think about it), I have another bass with the mixed hardware, but the parts that are black on this one are chrome on that one, and vice versa.
It also has a reshaped headstock - my shape, not the one that it came with from Warmoth.
I got bored with the all white look so had a friend do a paint job for me.
Always. It might be something as simple as tying something to the headstock, or something invisible like a lucky tobacco pouch inside the body cavity that was given to me by a native shaman once. Personalizing my instrument is a way of deepening the connection with it for me.
