The Digicaster is a custom Squier Stratocaster designed, modified, painted and photographed by commercial photographer and digital artist Brian Rodgers Jr.
In addition to being a full time commercial photographer and digital artist at my company Digital Art That Rocks™, I'm also a musician. In fact, I've been playing guitar for well over 20 years now! Not only do I enjoy playing, but I also love to write and record my own music when I have time. Just like photography, music provides yet another outlet for my creative brain.
As an adolescent, I used to take guitar playing pretty seriously....like practice 10 hours a day seriously (only on weekends of course, because I had to go to school, duh). Anyway, I've alway been an artist. But at one point in my life, I really, really wanted to be a professional musician and just wanted to write songs, play guitar, be in a rock and roll band and tour. All of this being said, this article is going to be a bit different than some of the other articles I've written on my blog over the years, but hear me out.
Passion Projects Are Good For The Soul
No matter what career path you've chosen, I think that it's super important to have passion projects in your life. What is a passion project you ask? A passion project is simply a hobby or activity that brings you joy in your spare time. Passion projects allow you to set goals for yourself, challenge your mind and give you something to work toward. Having passion projects in your life can be rewarding, self-fulfilling and just plain good for the soul. Best of all, when you you feel good, that vibe resonates all around you. It resonates in your family life and in your workplace.
Breathing New Life Into An Old Electric Guitar
Mid September of 2021, I was over at my parents house visiting one day. My Dad says to me, "when are you kids going to get your stuff out of the crawlspace?" My reply, "what stuff? I've haven't lived here in years. I thought I had everything..." Apparently I had an old electric guitar body just laying around that hadn't been played in a good 17 years. I had totally forgotten about it! I'm not an avid collector or anything, but I already have 10 other guitars, so I guess I didn't realize that this particular instrument wasn't in my possession.
I had purchased this inexpensive Squier Bullet Stratocaster back sometime around 2004. At that time, I had started experimenting with airbrushing as another medium in which to produce artwork. I had my dad put the base colors on (my dad is a professional automotive painter) and I airbrushed a diamond plate pattern on the front, a skull on the pick guard and a giant spider on the back. The entrepreneur in me wanted to see if my dad and I could possibly start selling custom paint jobs on guitars. I never really put the time necessary to get really good at airbrushing, so it never really took off. I thought it looked cool at the time, but looking at it again 17 years later, not so much. I did end up playing a few shows with this guitar circa 2004 (I was in a band at that time) and after that, it just ended up sitting in my parents crawlspace for the next 17 years.
So my dad hands me the guitar. I told him, if I take this thing home, I want to completely start over. I want to strip off all the paint, intall new electronics, a new pickup, new tuners and just completely start over. Although I had been playing guitar for over 20 years, I had never really modded any of my guitars (besides airbrushing some graphics on this guitar of course). So the thought of painting, drilling new holes, and rewiring things were simultaneously exciting and nerve racking at the same time. But at the end of the day, it was an inexpensive guitar that I purchased years ago. So it was already paid. What was the worst that could happen? If I messed it up, it wasn't that big of a deal. And so, the journey began. Enter my passion project for 2021!
If I could design my own custom guitar, what would it look like, Sound like and Feel like?
Taking my artistic style, personal brand into consideration.....I set out to create a functional piece of art. I wanted to create a functional piece of art that represented me as an artist and musician as well as something that integrated with my commercial photography brand; Digital Art That Rocks™. Something that was uniquely mine. As I began pursuing this passion project, my first thought was, "what would a Digital Art That Rocks™ Stratocaster look like?" I knew that it had to be creative. It had to reflect the kind of aesthetic qualities that really resonate with me. It had to be unique. It had to be something I was proud to pick up and play. And most importantly, it had to rock!!! So, over a period of about 2 months,I hot rodded and breathed new life into one of my old guitars that I'm now calling the "Digicaster."
A New Level
Though I didn't build the guitar from scratch, there were plenty of modifications needed in order to fit my specifications. This passion project allowed me to exercise my creative problem solving abilities and ultimately learn even more about the very instrument that I have been playing for over 20 years. Which in turn allowed me to develop an even deeper connection to this uniquely expressive instrument. Knowing how to play is one thing, but knowing the technical aspects of how all of the electronics work is yet another level of understanding what can be considered to be a very technical and nuanced instrument. Needless to say, I watched plenty of videos on youtube that taught me how to wire pickups, make adjustments to the neck and re-work the frets, among other things. This passion project gave me the opportunity to learn and develop new skills.
🎸Info for Guitar Nerds:
I changed nearly everything on this guitar except for the shape of the body. I drilled new holes into the headstock so I could install new locking tuners. I ordered a clear acrylic custom pick guard so I could see the guts (electronics) on the inside of the guitar. I also had to Dremel out some areas of the pick guard in order to fit properly. I painted all of the hardware black and added new graph tech saddles to bridge. Originally I soldered in a new Seymour Duncan pickup and volume potentiometer but then ended up swapping it out for a passive EMG H4 humbucker. And last but not least, loosely inspired by Eddie Van Halen's Frankenstein guitars, I artfully threw paint around a la Jackson Pollock/Stephen Fishwick style (all in Digital Art That Rocks brand colors of course). Throwing paint at my guitar broke nearly every rule in all my dad's years as a professional painter. But I wanted something that had texture and looked cool as hell. It's truly a one of a kind guitar.
Modification Recap:
Custom painted body and hardware (Shout out to my Dad for putting on the gray base color & clear coat finish)
Started with a Seymour Duncan JB Bridge Pickup then replaced with a high output EMG H4
Hipshot locking tuners
Graph Tech saddles
Customized clear acrylic pick guard
The Full Circle Moment - 17 Years In The Making. Combining The Digicaster Electric Guitar With My Professional Life As A Commercial Photographer & Digital Artist
Because of the many parallels between music and art, I was fortunate enough to be able to tie this project in with my profession. Once this guitar was completed, as a commercial photographer specializing in product photography with an emphasis on the post production process (high end commercial retouching), I obviously had to photograph this thing! I meticulously applied my years of knowledge and experience photographing commercial product photography and ultimately ended up creating a series of photographs that showcase the design, aesthetic qualities and features of this custom guitar.
And then of course I had to create a hero shot that defines the overall series of images. So I decided to set it on fire! But don't worry, no guitars were harmed in the making of this image. I'm not crazy enough to spend hours of my time working on something just to end up destroying it in the end. This was all done digitally through the magic of post-production in Photoshop using the skills that I'm best known for; quality capture on set, followed by clean, crisp, insanely detailed, high end commercial retouching and compositing. All of the flames you see in the hero shot of this custom guitar were all derived from real photographs of flames that I shot on set. While there was some level of danger involved, it was all created in a controlled environment.
Let it resonate - Reflect on your accomplishments
Now that this guitar is complete, I've had some time to reflect on this accomplishment. This guitar resonates with me on so many levels both personally and professionally. It represents the very same things that I identify with as an artist and entrepreneur running my own commercial photography company. This passion project allowed me to:
Set new goals
Embrace challenges and learn new skills
Use my creative problem solving abilities
Exercise my patience
Further developed trust in my own vision and creative processes
Provided a huge sense of accomplishment
Explore Your Passions In Life
Exploring your passions, finding new ways to challenge yourself and building new skills can be really self-fulfilling. Projects like these are often the guide to personal growth that drive and motivate you to continue learning, experimenting and experiencing new possibilities in whatever it is that you do. Even if your passion projects are completely unrelated to what you do professionally, they can improve your quality of life and well being. I highly recommend finding something that you're passionate about or genuinely interested in and making the time to experience and learn more about those very things. You'll be glad that you did.
Does your company make innovative products that enrich peoples lives? If so, I want to work with you! Commercial product photography that can help your company build brand recognition, invoke consumer emotion and increase revenue for your business. Contact me today if you're interested in world class product imagery by clicking on the link above or simply going to my contact page!
