Looking Back: The Original Millenium Falcon Electric Guitar

A few years ago I saw a picture online. It was a Bass guitar neck stuck on a vintage Star Wars Millenium Falcon playset. I looked at it, and saw the challenge posted below the image- daring someone to build a functional version. I decided to do it.

After gathering the parts it took a few weekends to put everything together. As this was one of the first major guitar projects I had done in a while, my wife became acquainted with "the mad scientist." The guitar was built with a low budget just to see if something reasonably playable could be made. I opted for a single coil-sized humbucker for best sound quality and the least "damage" to the Falcon itself. I even installed super bright LEDs in the hyperdrive (and on the front mandibles) to really capture the Falcon's essence, and gave it a movie-accurate paint job.

The peghead of the guitar featured a "light speed" paint motif with a Micro Machines Millenium Falcon serving as the truss rod cover.

           It has been a few years, and I'm suddenly realizing I didn't actually put the guitar in my guitar blog. After Cole Stryker posted the original photos on http://www.Urlesque.com things really took off... unexpectedly too. I was interviewed on live TV in California...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rppf0sX4APY

      ...and I've seen a number of awesome Falcon guitars that followed. I remember- there was one guy criticizing mine because it had 1 pickup. He had more than one, so he claimed it was clearly superior; his guitar also had Falcon parts like the radar dish glued on where they didn't belong, no paint job, no lights... functional, but no style. After that I've seen a many that are incredible, with much higher quality parts and attention to detail- and the end result is that much better. I'll probably do another sometime, and try to figure out how to up the ante. I still think my movie-accurate paint job holds up to the competition, at the very least!

      From that point, I've built more guitars and gotten more exposure- not always quite as dramatic, but still fun. I hope to keep building, and hopefully to get more commissions. Here are the original pictures, and the original (AND TERRIBLE) video I made for Urlesque.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo5-m0uzuDs

LOTR Middle Earth Map Electric Bass

I did this bass for my best friend.

I painstakingly painted the map from visual references. It would be more accurate had I projected it onto the surface, but I did it freehand instead- not to be some kind of art hero, but because I didn't have a decent projector handy. I do the best with what I've got!!

The process was simply repainting the body; I did a tan / beige base color for the body, then dry brushed leathery highlights on to make it more "mappish." Afterward, the day-long process of painting the map on began- literally spending a whole day sitting and painting. Actually, it was pretty great.

Later on, I decided to spice up the peghead. I did a relief carving of Treebeard and the Ents attacking Orthanc. It's painted in a black gloss resembling Orthanc's exterior.

I thought about buying Lothlorien Leaf clasps to pin on a custom leather strap, but I haven't gotten to that part yet. Maybe for Christmas...

Finished Han Solo Electric Guitar

Mr. Ben Moody (Evanescence, We Are the Fallen) owns this axe. I never ever... ever... expected to have a guitar end up the hands (or on the wall) of a professional musician.  My thanks to Rich and Kelly (friends that bought the guitar for Ben)!