The Villanizer started life as a Rhoads Jackson V. It's not every day you take a band saw to a guitar that plays as well as this thing does. However, I had no distinct plan other than doing a mechanical look to it. But I had more of a Sci-Fi / Blade Runner thematic in mind at that moment.
After cutting, a spacer was cut and installed to join the two pieces of the body. Knowing damned well that wouldn't be a strong enough of a join for just about any player, the steampunk look hit me, and I went on to installing the copper pipe, and soldering the joints. You just cant have steam power without a gauge, so I cannibalized an old oil gauge and made a custom face in it with my name and a real complex readout.
Gears. Man I hacked more gears together then I knew what to do with, and inlaid them into a cut plexi frame that was then screwed into the body. Under the gears is a carbon fiber layer which really sets them off. By the way, one of the gears in the lower end is a Matrix headplug vast from one of the original plugs used in the film. What the hell, it had the look.
After that, time to guild the pickups and do the rust / hammered metal paintjob. A couple of cool Tesla-esque plasma balls top the edge, a new fabricated brass trussplate and custom knobs round it out.
And as always, it plays great, and is light as any other guitar.
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