If I'm not building, I'm dreaming, and my wife has posed the "just how many guitars do you want?" question. I think we all know that "want" and "need" are two quite different things, and while we have children to clothe and feed and educate I won't be building heaven's guitar collection any time soon. However, "need" is a different matter, and I think I've managed to be convincing with the line "Les Pauls have a totally different sound and feel, and it would complement the TL-1 in a very basic collection". So I'm dreaming of a an LP-1 with minimal modifications under the bonnet, and some modest cosmetic changes.
I really like bursts on LPs, but I'm a dedicated herd non-follower, so it's got to be a little bit different. Doing a google image search I came across a burst from black at the outer edge to colour on the inside.
I really like that. Then I had a look at the Wudtone colours that would work best with this effect, and came up with Carmine Gypsy, Saffron (or Burning Sun) and Azure Lagoon.
A few of you already know there's a neat tool for pre-visualising your build, located at http://www.yajimastringworks.com/tct...-kisekae-e.asp. So I went over there and made a series of images. I've made three montages from those images, one for each of the colour schemes, and numbered each concept. In each case I started with the standard PBG equipment on the colour scheme, and then started mucking about with other parts to find pleasing visual effects. I pretty quickly decided I like leaving the pickguard off, and that black glass knobs are my thing. Other changes are just to see what it might look like with different things swapped out. I haven't picked a favourite concept yet, but I am partial to the Carmine Gypsy ones and the Azure Lagoon ones. Feel free to nominate your favourite and tell me why.
As for the name ... well, as I've said elsewhere, I like tricking the eye by applying decals which look like the brand at first glance, but are actually a custom name. In this case, I'd be putting "Glenn's" up where "Gibson" is usually on the headstock - luckily the first letter is the same, so the optical illusion is working so far. The first concept I did was the red and black one, and I immediately thought of Essendon, The Bombers. I'm not actually a supporter (of any team), but I know that "Le Bombardier" is French for "The Bomber", and would pass the casual optical illusion test for "Les Paul". So that explains the name. That, and I ran out of bright Cold War reference ideas.
Here's the first montage, others in posts following.
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