For Halloween: My Richie Kotzen Horror Guitar

[TAorama]

Here are some pics of my recently completed Richie Kotzen Horror guitar replica. I thought it appropriate to post it on Halloween. Check it out:







The pics don't do it justice. It turned out really well. I'll probably put different knobs on it, but I had these pink ones laying around, so they'll do for now. It doesn't have the pickup selector switch up by the upper horn like RK's since I used a stock RG570 body for this one. Likewise, the tone knob is still there (since I didn't want an empty hole). It also doesn't have the scalloped upper frets, though I may add that later.

It's got the Mo' Joe at the bridge, HS2 for the middle, and a PAF Joe at the neck. I haven't tried it through an amp yet, but it should be pretty hot.

Let me know what you think!

[C.Thep]

Cool! reminds me of those schecters. were those your inspiration to do it?

[OLIE_ROCKS_THE_80'S]

Truly outstanding!!! :shock: Did you paint the graphics??? and if so would you be willing to make a body like that for me???

[jemplayer55]

Nice..... I like!

[TAorama]

Originally Posted by C.Thep

Cool! reminds me of those schecters. were those your inspiration to do it?

No - it's a copy of Kotzen's own endorsee custom from 1989. It's the one he played on his REH Instructional video "Rock Chops." I've always thought that was the coolest looking graphic. I've wanted to do this project for a long time.

[ibanezcollector]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC3gZ1oYPNs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLXc2GCANxA

awesome copy it looks great

[TAorama]

Originally Posted by OLIE_ROCKS_THE_80'S

Truly outstanding!!! :shock: Did you paint the graphics??? and if so would you be willing to make a body like that for me???

I photoshopped the graphics. I had pics of the original (crappy pics, but it was all I had). I recreated all of the elements of the graphic in a scaled, high-res image, printed it, then laminated it on the body. I then shot the whole guitar in PPG automotive clear.

I'd love to make more of them, but the original artist would probably be pissed if I started selling HIS artwork!

[TAorama]

Originally Posted by ibanezcollector

awesome copy it looks great

Thanks!

[OLIE_ROCKS_THE_80'S]

Originally Posted by TAorama

I photoshopped the graphics. I had pics of the original (crappy pics, but it was all I had). I recreated all of the elements of the graphic in a scaled, high-res image, printed it, then laminated it on the body. I then shot the whole guitar in PPG automotive clear.

I'd love to make more of them, but the original artist would probably be pissed if I started selling HIS artwork!

C'mon 1 more won't get you in trouble!!! [-o< besides Richie plays boring guitars nowadays so he won't mind

[Sam b]

Looks great

[nightfiend14]

pretty sweet, even though it's a replica I wound add some sort of nice inlay to top it off. Thinking of doing a halloween/horror kind of thing myself soon.

[nuno]

TOTALLY AWESOME MAN!!!! great job!!!
now you should ask DiMarzio to make a pink Cliplock for you

[Sabre]

That's awesome!

[madpickin03]

Nicely done!

[TAorama]

Thanks, all. I'm working on a few other clones as well. My PC died a couple of weeks ago, so those projects are on hold until I get my new machine built. The graphics take me a lot of time and the files end up being huge. I think the .psp file for this one was something like 2.5GB. I did everything in layers so I could change one element at a time without messing something else up, and as high-res as the image is, it chews up memory pretty fast. My computer dying may have been a blessing - my new machine wil render graphics MUCH faster.

Anyway, I'm working on clones of Kotzen's other graphics as well as some of the Warrant custom guitars. I agree with Nightfiend that a guitar like this should have had some inlay besides dots, but it IS a clone, so dots it is. The cool thing about the Warrant guitars is that they have those lighning bolt inlays, so at least that's something different to play with.