Scaley Maton conversion

[maxaxe]

Another harebrained Maxaxe story 8O

This strange axe came about when I recently decided to learn the Minor pentatonic scales in its 5 patterns, with the blue notes and additional notes from the Major penta.
I was having trouble getting all this down (old dog syndrome) so I thought: what if I had a fretboard clearly marked for the whole thing in the key of A?

So I decided to sacrifice my old & already butchered Maton Apollo 505 and create a sort of learning tool. Then I dreamt up the name "Scaley Maton" and off I went . . .

Let's start from the beginning - original guitar (pic 1) first teardown many years ago transmogrified the semi into a solid body in candy apple red (no pics) second was another reshape and we had a blue meanie (pic 2) third phase was yet another reshape with a satin black finish (pic 3)

Continued . . . .

[maxaxe]

Final phase: Set in the red fret dots for the Minor notes, grey for Majors and green for the Blue notes (yes, I didn't ave any blue dots) these I cut from 6mm dia. plastic sprue material I scored. I also redid the side dots with oversized 4mm white dots for better visibility.
Given its new name, I reckoned it begged a "scaley" paint job so I utilised some expanded paper packing material as stencilling. Airbrushed on successive layers of red & green over existing black and voila!
A reasonably scaley effect was achieved (see pics)

Now I just need to find the time & inclination to learn this pentatonic shit.

[Nickosaurus]

Very cool.

What about the other keys though? :P looks like you'll need a few more kits haha.

[west0288]

You never cease to amaze me with your creativity, Max. Love it.

Wish I had access to the time, resources and creative mind that you do. :P

[Tim]

Max the mad scientist. You legend

[wokkaboy]

wow Max, this is so cool mate. It's great to have a builder in the forum that changes an axe so radically, love it !

[bargeloobs]

Well done Max, anything to make scales easier has to be good. I love how you've carried the scale theme through into the paint job too, really clever:-)

[Fretworn]

Not as versatile as a Fretlight guitar, but a lot cheaper (and not so naff).

[pablopepper]

In some of the circles I roll, doing this to a Maton is tantamount to heresy. Screw those circles.

[stan]

good to see you kept the guitar essentially the same by leaving all 6 strings on it...

very cool learning tool