G&L Custom Shop S-500 RMC in Graphite Burst Paisley over okoume...

[Craig]

From a post on G&L Custom Shop's facebook page (7/23, 2025):

G&L Custom Shop S-500 RMC in Graphite Burst Paisley over okoume, gold hardware,
quartersawn 3a flame maple neck with Caribbean rosewood fingerboard, matching headstock,
stainless steel frets, abalone face dots, Vintage Tint Satin finish.
Built for Sweetwater.

[DanDoulogos]

It took me some time -looking through all the photos- to understand my own feelings about this unique S-500.

My initial gut reaction was uncertain and leaning to the negative side of the scale.

But the more I looked at it, the more I thought my initial response was rather superficial and influenced by my own particular narrow aesthetic tastes. After a few minutes more looking through the pic, there began to be a shift in my thinking as I couldn't help thinking that the more I looked at it, the greater it's impression on me became. I guess you could say that my initial response was to see something of an imbalance in the feng shui, but the more I looked, the more I began to see I had missed the instruments true feng shui - which was much more subtle and intricately balanced.

That's going to be someone's favorite guitar for sure.

[tomanche]

I like it. The gold hardware works well with this paisley.

[sam]

Still growing on me. The paisley is more pronounced than what I’m used to, and still have a soft spot for pink paisley. I agree with the gold hardware comments.

[DanDoulogos]

I've seen some really nice laser etched paisley that would look great under a burst finish

Take this for example:


Granted it's a 'monotone' design, but under the right burst that can look quite good. We have several small companies in my city that offer etching services - and you can etch anything you want - for $10 or so. The tighter the grain, the better the etching.

Now with AI, you could have AI generate a large, Hi-Res monochrome image of anything you can think of- though patterns like paisley or clockwork etc.

Here is an example that incorporates the G&L Logo into some clockwork and paisley - I didn't spend more than a couple of minutes or I could have made this look spectacular:



Now I could have made this a lot more elaborate and sophisticated, looking more paisley like etc. but I wasn't trying to design something awesome, I was just showing that it doesn't take a lot of effort to create a unique monochrome pattern that could then be used as a laser etching on a guitar. I'm just saying, this isn't future tech - it's here right now, and cheap as borscht.

[Expert_Fretwork]

It took me some time -looking through all the photos- to understand my own feelings about this unique S-500.

My initial gut reaction was uncertain and leaning to the negative side of the scale.

But the more I looked at it, the more I thought my initial response was rather superficial and influenced by my own particular narrow aesthetic tastes. After a few minutes more looking through the pic, there began to be a shift in my thinking as I couldn't help thinking that the more I looked at it, the greater it's impression on me became. I guess you could say that my initial response was to see something of an imbalance in the feng shui, but the more I looked, the more I began to see I had missed the instruments true feng shui - which was much more subtle and intricately balanced.

That's going to be someone's favorite guitar for sure.

I'll be honest, it's my least favorite of all the paisley print ones I did last year. I think it would have looked way better with the emerald blue burst instead of that charcoal color, but that's what the guy specifically requested, along with the gold hardware. Every time I looked at it while building it, I said "yuck".

I think the black metallic burst would have looked great if the background color of the print was black or gray.

[Expert_Fretwork]

Still growing on me. The paisley is more pronounced than what I’m used to, and still have a soft spot for pink paisley. I agree with the gold hardware comments.

The story there is, it's wallpaper I bought 10 years ago when I was a Guitar Center Repair Tech in the Cincinnati store. I wanted to do a paisley tele, but finding the actual old "cling foil" pattern was impossible then. Plus I didn't want to just copy Fender's reissues of the guitars, I wanted to make one unique. So I hunted around on eBay looking for "paisley wallpaper" since I had been told (incorrectly) that the old 60's paisleys were wallpaper.

The first one, I tried using an actual paisley print bandana and affixing that to the guitar top and had really poor results getting it to stick to the wood.
I bought this paisley pattern wallpaper as a result, hoping it was self-adhesive. It turns out it wasn't, and the paper was pretty thick.
I couldn't figure out a good way to properly finish over it while having no access to real spray equipment.
I tossed the roll of paper into a box and just sat on it for the last decade.

After I got to G&L in December '23, I brought the paper in and decided to build a few guitars with it, since I finally had the equipment and experience to properly finish over it.

The paper is all gone now, this S-500 was one of the last few guitars we build with it. I'm currently in the process of having the pattern digitized so we can install it on guitars as a vinyl graphic, which is substantially easier to paint over and install, as well as having the option to quickly change the colors to a new palette.

[DanDoulogos]

I still say, that the more I looked at it, the more I liked it.

I am reminded of Leonard Cohen's Famous Blue Raincoat. The amphibrach poetic metre he uses in the minor sections of the song - along with his surging then receding tone/volume - has wonderfully melancholy feel to it that somehow manages to insinuate (to some degree) itself in the shift to the relative major. Sometimes things that don't really go together... end up really going together (for some people).

I got the impression that this guitar was like that. I mix of elements that at first seem almost incoherent but then, as they are appreciated, grow in their beauty.