Like playing in your favorite pair of jeans?
QC 007 - Jeancaster
So I was thinking one day about how much I enjoy my favorite pair of jeans. It was about this same time I also realized those favorite pair of jeans no longer fit me. That’s when I realized I could transform something that I loved for years into something I love playing….and QC7 ‘The Jeancaster’ was born.
The design
Now, to be honest QC7 was a combination of several of my jeans a few additions from Goodwill. I sought out a palette of blue jean colors. While laying them out I found that the worn areas, mostly the knees, had the same color of jean fabric but due to wear and tear there was a beautiful lighter hue. I cut all the jeans into strips and laid them out by hue and shade to create a mixed gradient. The result was something I really loved. The lighter hues are in the center and flair out to the edges. The back was more an experiment in randomness with a few splashes of red and white jeans for effect.
Quilting technique
To tie it all together I quilted each strip in the ‘stich-in-the-ditch’ method where you sew right between the seams. It’s nothing visually dramatic but it gives the each piece a bit more definition. Also, to add a bit more texture I mimicked the shape of the rectangle using various hues of blue jean color thread.
I really like the random tears and left them there as you would you’re favorite holes in your jeans. Also, the edge was created from the belt loops of two types of jeans, one Old Navy (mine) and the other Guess (anyone’s ‘Guess’ who they belonged to).
The pickpocket was created from that small little pocket in most jeans on the right pocket. I’ve been told that little pocket was created by Levi Strauss to place a pocket watch into. Make sense. Today you can just stash your guitar picks.
Challenges
QC7 had a few challenges, as every Quiltcasters does. This time it was the large Strat-style pickguard. As you can see the Stratocaster pickguard takes up a large portion of the quilt. It took me over six guitars to build up the confidence to just roll with cutting away a large part of the time-consuming quilt detail to make room for the pickguard. However, the more I thought about the jean design I decided this was a working man’s (or woman’s) guitar…and that said ‘stratocaster’ style to me.
The sound-designer
Matt Martin designed the tone and assembled the guitar. He chose pick-ups that have that Pink Floyd David Gilmore sound, with that classic strat sound, but also with that fat humbucker bite that holds its sustain and tone. It is a fantastic sounding guitar with an amazing dynamic range from the 5-position switch. The neck is warmer while the full-on bridge position is hot and gritty. Like other strats there are two tones for the neck and bridge pickups. Position three, blend between neck and bridge has no tone knob controller. Matt also chose the mint green pickguard color. You would not notice it’s mint green but it goes super well with the jeans. Since the jeans are weathered and worn he felt the mint green simulated the aged look of a standard ivory color pickguard over the years. It’s a fantastic addition. The hardware is also slightly aged with subtle rusted areas which adds the the overall feel.
QC7 Jeancaster specifications:
Body: Fender Squire Statocaster style
Neck Pickup: SSL1 (Seymour Duncan)
Middle Pickup: SSL1 RW/RP (Seymour Duncan)
Bridge Pickup: SSL5 Bridge (Seymour Duncan)
Tuners: Hotshot tuners
Selector: 5-way switch with CTS 250K Pots and .047 Capacitor
Pickguard: Fender Mint Green (yes, that mint green - very cool color but goes really well with jeans)
QC 007 Jeancaster was completed in August 2021
Photos: Keith Bernard Photography.