(G)old Style

There's Max Hyder's gilder's tip which was given to me by the sculptor, Richard Knox. Max taught me the intracacies of gilding at The Cooper Union in the early 90s. Mr. Hyder is also a dead-ringer for late Walt Whitman and legendary raconteur who also helmed the Cooper Union sculpture shop. Imagine being a pea-green art school freshman beavering away at a band saw and Walt Whitman in overalls appears out of your blind spot, exclaiming, "I want to lick your balls!" Lewd but not lecherous, maybe it was the delivery, and "too much for Chinese television" as my pal Jonathan liked to say. The CU sculpture shop was legendary for its holiday and end of year parties. Mr. Hyder lured many an art-school boy into the privacy (not that privacy was all that crucial) of a welding booth. Another sculptor (and CU faculty), Ersy Schwartz, annexed the wax room to build a kitchen complete with a Chambers stove. This ensured the parties were well catered. Anyhoo, one new and one revised guitar that were gilt. The short scale guitar is a refin and appears in a previous post. The f-holes (easy Max) can be better seen now and the gold looks good paired with the lap-steel pickup. The other, standard scale, guitar is equipped with a 70s, dec0-style, Stratocaster neck and a pair of Jason Lollar Imperial Humbuckers. Chopped Tele bridge and hollow, cherrywood body. -So the guitar is a mash-up of a Stratocaster, Telecaster, Gibson 335, and a Les Paul. Blissfully light! All the praise for Lollar pickups is true by my experience!

The humbucker guitar is currently on loan with Paul Banks' alter ego, Julian Plenti, who has been giving it a test drive. The other gold guitar is down in the basement, playing video games, being a general layabout, wastrel, and profligate.