Calvin and Hobbes guitar refurb

Redditor Ellepea27 painted this great Calvin and Hobbes illustration on a guitar she's refurbishing with BigWiggly1. She painted it over the course of six hours in one sitting. The idea is to put a clear-coat over it and make it into a playable instrument.

My girlfriend and I are refinishing my old guitar. She did the paint job. (i.imgur.com)

• [Stefan Jones]

  That’s really sweet, and nicely done.

  (Do heavy paint jobs effect guitar acoustics? Not being a wise ass, I really don’t know.)

  • [Jake0748]

     Good question. I’ve always heard that the wood on the front of the guitar was more important to the sound than the back. 

    • [Jake0748]

       But on the other hand, that guitar would sound sweeter just because of the C & H painting anyway.

  • [tré]

    Having only painted electrics, but being a player and builder of both electric and acoustics: It mostly effects how long notes sustain. Unless you’re trying to do the whole “strike a chord, have a bite and come back and it’s still playing” thing, it’s not too consequential.

    • [B E Pratt]

      So I would have to guess that the guitar (presumably) George Harrison was playing when he hit that final chord of A Day In The Life was not painted :)
      Hum. Turns out that wasn’t even a guitar at all, but 3 pianos and a harmonium. Who knew…

• [TacoChuck]

  Artists amaze me.

• [ferd]

  Not to be a downer but – copyright laws.  I used to do this all the time in college and never thought about it.  Once I started to do art professionally, I learned that the “man” has eyes in all kinds of places.  A local church got a legal notice from United Features Syndicate for using “Peanuts” characters on their softball team shirts.  Don’t know if adding Bill Watterson and Universal Press Syndicate will take the edge off – I’m not a lawyer.  I do have to wonder how many of those bongs I painted are still around or in use  ; )

  • [Gerald Mander]

     There’s a difference between your personal use and commercial representation. I’d rather Universal Press Syndicate go after those Calvin pissing/kneeling window vinyls

    • [Jonathan Roberts]

      I really dislike both of those. Cartoon characters have personalities that you come to love when you read the strips, but both of those seem to be completely at odds with what I would imagine his personality to be like. Peeing on the shirt of an opposing football team? Unless that was meant to represent all organised sports, it’s pretty far off. The one where he’s kneeling at the cross grated with me even more – Calvin quietly contemplating anything for too long seems like a stretch, but seeing him shoehorned into the evangelical message seemed like an attack on the innocent nature of the comics, even when I subscribed to that religion.

      • [Gerald Mander]

         Well, I always found it ironic that people loudly proclaiming their piety with an unauthorized Calvin vinyl that was making money for someone ripping off Waterson.

  • [Jacob Drouillard]

    Thanks for the heads up, I’m the boyfriend and we’ll be looking into it more.

• [David Gill]

  Applying paint (or stickers) to a guitar (particularly an acoustic) will deaden somewhat the guitar’s treble responses, muting the guitar’s natural sound a bit. Tends to make the guitar sound crappy – imho. 

  • [timquinn]

    If you paint the sides green it fixes that right up.

    • [Gerald Mander]

       Now that’s funny.

• [Kieron Jansch]

  I love this – as a guitarist, and Calvin nut, I thoroughly approve! I did something similar with a kite:  https://vimeo.com/13978777

• [Layne Perry]

  Hi guys! I’m the artist! ellepea27 from Reddit :)

• [sa0sin16]

  merry xmas