Phil's Harley

I finally finished Phil's guitar. This project was a bit more involved then my first guitar. We went with a kit ordered from Guitarfetish rather than a Saga kit. Along with being made of lighter wood, we also upgraded the hardware. The kit was more basic then the saga and had to have all the holes drilled and the wires needed to be soldered.

For the headstock I went with a shape that reflected a lot of side by side head stocks and had a bit of class. I decided early on that I was naming the guitar Harley based on the imagery that was going on the back.

I was originally going to paint the guitar black, but I really fell in love with the metallic blue I used as an undercoat on my first guitar. As with the first guitar, I ran into several problems with the top clear coat. After repainting it several times I decided to leave the flat finish alone. On the back I painted a design that Phil and I discussed years ago for a tattoo design in tribute to his Dad. It incorporated a David Mann design with Harley-Davidson's engines in place of Rushmore.  I kept the idea but updated the girl and changed the wings to reflect old school tattoo wings. I finished it off with a scene of a rider passing the Harley's Rushmore.

Everything said and done the guitar sounds and plays great. I hated having to give it back to Phil but I made it personally for him. I kept the design a surprise and I hope he enjoys it as much as I have.