Here are some new paintings that i finished up a few hours ago, just in time for the Fourth of July! These acrylic paintings are quite large at 3 feet wide by 4 feet high.
The smell of apple pie fills the air, as well as the scent of a decaying America.
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Here are a few illustration i just completed for a project called “Public Record”.
More details to follow.
I was asked by a friend recently to create an instrument to be used as a movie prop. “Make it the worst thing ever!”, he said. It’s not very often that an artist or instrument builder gets a request to do their worst and probably most would’ve passed on the chance. I jumped since i have a studio filled with random items pulled from the trash pile to reuse for many purposes. The main body of this THING was once part of a barn floor!
Here’s Mr. Horrible on his way to becoming a bombast machine- more to follow.
UPDATE
May 25, 2010
The beast is complete…completely horrible. I finished it up last night and took it for a spin tonight after work. Not only does this look ugly, it sounds ugly! De-tuned bass strings rumble like flatulence, the high strings wheeze and groan through the bacon frying sound of single coil pickups. Perfect!
Here’s something i whipped up out of parts i had laying around the studio.
I wanted to try a few things for a some upcoming builds and figured i’d try them all out in one instrument instead of making a handful of prototypes. Turned out pretty cool, but now i’m not sure on the string placement. I love the chorus-y sound of the octave strings, but might switch it over to a six string setup and only have 3 extra octave strings. We’ll see once it’s wired up and it’ll be a simple thing to change.
When it comes to handmade musical instruments, i like to see how they’re put together almost as much as the finished product. In this section i’ll post some progress photos of some instruments I’m making, so you can see what happens on the inside and watch a crudely sawn block of wood turn into something wild.
Here’s a semi-hollow instrument for Joe Tarowsky, the bass player of Amoeba Knievel. There are quite a few things to decide on yet, like the electronics, hardware and top wood, but the basic shape has already been chosen (loosely based on the Fender Telecaster guitar). The back is made of Spanish cedar with a thin layer of poplar over the top. Parts of the body are being routed to reduce the weight and make it hollow inside. The goal here is to make it a bombastic rock machine that will “Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat” (minutemen/Watt reference- one of Joe’s favorite bass players- mine too!).
http://guitarz.blogspot.com/2010/03/rhino-headless-guitar-by-jeffrey.html
I have no idea what this is. I was told by my friend Ian who gave it me that it was built by an old guy and his father in the late 50′s/early 60′s and was used as a guitar amplifier for a few decades and then stored in a garage. It sounded great up until i started messing with the bias control in the back and blew something out. Hopefully Dave can get this back in action when he has a look at it.
UPDATE:
Mission accomplished!
Dave took the amplifier apart and reconfigured into something amazing!
Not only did he replace a few dead capacitors, he also reworked the entire thing with his own design that was loosely based on some of the famous Dumble amplifiers. It sounds fantastic now. It’s roughly 60 watts and incredibly loud and clean when cranked. I haven’t turned it up any higher than 4 so far and i even play with one of the loudest drummers in Pittsburgh! A huge thumbs up to Dave for turning something that sat in someone’s garage for decades into a wonderful amp. I’ll post some new pictures soon to show all of the added controls he installed. A very versatile monster!
Here’s a video Dave put together after he changed out the bias pot and beefed up the fuse.
Clear
Finished!
The final design
Here are a few shots from the mural I did in Morningside. It was quite an experience and I had a heck of a time getting started on it considering I had never done something on such a large scale before. Many thanks to my good pal Sarah Wojdylak- without her help this would have been much more difficult.
Since this mural was done while working full time, I spent every weekend of the summer working on the mural. It was finally completed on my 40th birthday when I rolled on the final clear coat- the temperature and humidity was all wrong for this and the clear coat clouded up- it finally cleared up a few days later.
WHEW!
Photos by Lisa Toboz
Rhino – Made for Dave Kuzy. Check this out: http://www.myspace.com/microwaves
A headless, hollow guitar that uses a knot in the wood as its sound hole.
Here’s a short video clip of Dave playing a
Captain Beefheart tune on the Rhino.
I haven’t updated in quite a while because i’ve been working on these.
This batch of instruments was created for a show with my wife – “‘Til Death Do Us Part”.
