More FX Pedals

As you may have seen in an earlier post, I have begun to custom paint guitar pedals. I have thus far painted two for my father, gotten one order (which is posted here) and will be painting a limited edition run for Good Karma. The order posted here is from a guitarist in Alaska named Jim Beck. These are the boxes I painted for him. The one on the left is a BYOC vibratto. The righthand box is a distortion. If you like what you see and are interested in having me paint one of your boxes, please send me an email at: alexis.tara@gmail.com

The one in light blue accented with tans and black was an effort to capture the feeling of turquoise stones. The markings next to each of the drilled holes represent different switches (bypass, ramp, rate, depth, rise...). The owner loves turquoise, so I made a conserted effort to give the feeling of turquoise, with all of the 'imperfections' and character of a found stone. I associate turquoise with the desert, which is why I accented the stone shapes with a tan/beige outline. I thought the symbols needed to be a dark color - and what better than black which is often found on pieces of turquoise in various designs. It helped contribute to the desert theme to have symbols label the switches and knobs because it references the pictographs of ancient peoples often found in caves and on rock outcroppings.

The second pedal was made in a theme which I suggested and was agreed upon by the owner. Being that he is from Alaska where winter means something very different than it does here in Southern California, I thought it would be great to high light the spectacle of near 24 hour darkness. The box was originally finished with a gray hammer-on. Rather than stripping it, I used it as a background and contribute some alternate textures. Before painting, I used rubbing alcohol to remove select sections of the finish with varying degrees. Then I thought about the braiding rivers (which during winter would be frozen) and the lines that might create in the Alaskan landscape. I used that, combined with the knowledge I have of tundra colors darkened by night to create the over-all box. Jim had mentioned to me that he wanted some symbols or something to mark the switches. In order for the symbols to be seen, they needed to be painted in a light color. I chose yellow because of it's natural contrast with blues and purples (its compliment). Because the yellow is so bright, I didn't want it to completely overshadow (no pun intended) the rest of the box which is why the labels are painted over the knob holes. This is so they will be partially obscured, but visible enough so the player can see "V" for volume, "F" for fuzz, "B" for bias, and "C" for contour.
I didn't use symbols for these knob labels because I wasn't sure of a symbol that would be consistently clear (as I think the unobtrusive symbols on the turquoise pedal are).

There are still slots open for the discounted price of $30 per pedal. Once the slots are filled, the price will remain at $35. Every pedal design is unique and I discuss with you what color palette, shapes, symbols/labels (if any) etc. you would like. If you are interested please send me an email at: alexis.tara@gmail.com.