The original.
QC 001 - OGcaster (Dad’s guitar)
The original QuiltCaster has a story.
Sometimes great art is created through highly emotional events. The creation of the first Quiltcaster has its genesis while being with my dad during his last days at home in hospice. I felt strong creative energy surround me and needed a project to focus upon. Since my mom taught me how to sew, I decided to grab random pieces of fabric and, in my emotional state, a ‘crazy quilt’ pattern formed. It was like a painter grabbing random colors and finding the emotional release through an unexpected abstract painting. By the way, a ‘crazy quilt’ pattern is one where you’ve got no design idea, no pattern, no idea of what you may sew next. You just start adding random pieces and somehow a theme is created. However, the patchwork started to take shape and I felt the urge to incorporate very sentimental pieces of my dad’s clothing into the quilt. They became the spiritual backbone and key design elements. I still had not decided to make this quilt into a guitar, yet.
Unique design elements
A few unique design elements are using my Dad’s wood working clothes, glue and paint stains included. I used a pocket from his work pants, which I later called a ‘pick-pocket’, it turned out to be a very handy location to store guitar picks while you’re playing. You’ll notice the zipper along the edge of the guitar. That was from his overalls. The zipper still works and inside it has a very special wish from me to him. Other elements were using his socks, shirt and even the pajamas he was wearing when he passed away. As the design was taking shape I soon realized that I wanted this quilt to be part of something that would keep inspiring me later in my life. I’ve always loved guitars, and my dad loved working with wood. The idea hit me immediately of somehow combining a guitar with his favorite woods and this quilt with some of his clothes to convey a story, or capture a moment of time. The guitar with a quilt seed had been planted. I had my doubts as to what it would look like or even sound like.
The hardware, body and neck
So I decided upon a classic telecaster guitar body design. I love the classic curve of the tele-style. It also affords the most real estate to lay a quilt over top to show off the design elements. Other guitars, like the stratacaster style had some unique challenge like a body carve-outs, a large pick guard and double cut-aways that were a bit more than I wanted to tackle for this first guitar. Plus, my dad loved the telecaster style, versatile for both rock and country. I decided to include my dad’s favorite wood, flame maple, for the neck since I’d be covering up guitar body with my quilt. I used high-quality Seymour Duncan P90 humbuckers as I wanted to ensure best sound since I was covering up the wooded guitar body resonance with a quilt. To maximize the versatility of this guitar I used push-pull pots. When pushed-in you get a fat-cat hum bucker sound. Pulled-out the pickups give you that classic twangy telecaster sound.
But what would it sound like?
So who glues a quilt onto a guitar? Why? Would it sound muffled? Well, my best answer was ‘why not?’. Why does a guitar have to look like all other mass produced guitars? So with the good pickups I had faith the sound could blast through the quilt. When I heard it play for the first time I couldn’t believe how good it sounded. I noticed no muffling of the sound. Furthermore, the versatility of the push-pull pots and 5-way switch selector provided a truly professional sound. This guitar screams and is pleasure to play.
The sensory surprise
The biggest surprise my first Quiltcaster revealed was the powerful sensory combinations of sight, sound and feel. I’ve played quality guitars before, but never one that had an eye-attracting quilted design that created a desire to feel it’s texture. You don’t expect guitars to ‘comfortable and cozy’. When I play this Quiltcaster I feel like dad is giving me a hug from the great beyond. Guitars, like writing songs, can be a spiritual experience.
After the original Quiltcaster the urge was great to create a new series of dynamic Quiltcasters to push the limits of textiles and sound. The QC Guitar brand was born.
The photos
I was lucky enough to find a great photographer with Tegan Keller Studios. I recall giving her this unique guitar and telling her to somehow find it’s spirit and capture it on film. That’s pretty much all the direction I provided her. To my surprise Tegan really brought out the colors, texture and feeling this guitar conveyed to me when I was building it. The most important thing I learned was ‘art gets amplified’ when you allow others to take what you created and make it something meaningful to them. Of course this is art that can be ‘amplified’ in the literal sense too. Check out Tegan’s blog about her photo shoot on this guitar here.
QC 001 OGcaster completed 2010.
