GIVING BACK - Official Entry Forum for the Mike Learn Custom Paint Give-Away!!

[Headroller]

ENTRY TIME EXTENDED!!!!!!!
GIVING BACK - Official Entry Forum for the Mike Learn Custom Paint Give-Away!!

Please post your entries to the contest in this thread.
For background information on the contest and how it was developed, see the original thread:
http://www.jcfonline.com/threads/133642-Giving-back!!

RULES

- You must design and submit an original idea for paint on your JACKSON or CHARVEL guitar.
- Along with the mock up you must include a short essay that explains why the design is special
to you or what inspired the ideas.
- Mike will judge the entries and reserves the right to appoint additional consultants.
- The winner is responsible for shipping charges to Mike. We will cover the return shipping charges.
- All entrants must have registered for JCFonline on or before 9/11/2012.
- All entries must be posted in this thread by midnight Friday, October 19, 2012.
- The winner will be announced on Friday, October 26th by noon MST.

Please remember that you are competing for a Complimentary Paint Job by Mike Learn. This does not include repairs, modifications, fret jobs, dis-assembly, assembly and/or set up. All of these things are available to the winner, however there will be a charge for work beyond a kick ass paint job.

Let's see those entries!!

[MetalDaze]

My concept is to commemorate this new beginning with the best symbol of it I know....the phoenix. We all know that Mike does the best flame work out there, so this would be right in his sweet spot. After searching around, this is the best representation of the style that resonates with me the most:




The donor guitar is a CS Dinky that I bought used a few years ago. It plays and sounds amazingly awesome, but I never did fall in love with the Root Beer finish.




Good luck to everyone and thanks Mike and Diana for your consideration. Even though I can't match Ron's post count, this was the first message forum I ever signed up for and I plan on staying for a long time

[emperor_black]

Awesome!

BTW, Mike, your inbox is full. Just wanted to ask a question but can't get through. Thanks!

[Headroller]

You can send it to me.. I will be sure he gets it!

[BayRocker]

First I'd like to thank Mike and everyone at his shop for even doing this in the first place. Even if I am not the lucky recipient of a piece of his art, I think it's great that someone here will be!

The story....

Guitar has always been my passion, and while I don't play for a living, it does fill most of my free time. I bought my first Charvel, a Model 4, back in 1987. It was not only my go to guitar, it was my only guitar...for what felt like forever. In 2008 while at work, I had an accident. A wine bottle basically came apart in my left hand leaving the bottom of the bottle in my hand. Leaving out most of the ugly details. since I was grasping the bottle when it came apart, I actually pushed the jagged edge right into the fleshy web between my thumb and my index finger on my left (fretting) hand. It went straight through everything, only stopping once it hit bone. It sliced through the tendon, ligament, and the nerve. A few surgeries later to reattach said body parts, and I'm left in a cast with a lot of free time since I'm now off work. Torture!!! Finally, all the time in the world to play, and I can't...figures. To pass the time, and to satisfy my guitar fix, I start collecting a few more Jacksons and Charvels that I've always wanted. But I still can't play them. Finally after a lot of physical therapy and whatnot, I can use my hand for small things as I've lost about 3/4 of my grip in that hand. Unfortunately, the nerve reattachment was not as successful. To this day, I cannot feel my thumb or the inside of my index finger. But now out of my cast I can at least try to play. While I really should have been rehab-ing to get back to work, my thoughts were more about being able to play. I can now play, and have gotten back to about 60% of my prior guitar wizardry . It has been a struggle, especially since I know what I used to be able to play, and now can't quite pull off, but I still try anyway.

I actually have had this idea in my head for the last year, and here comes this give-away! I pictured a guitar with a fist coming through glass, kind of like the cover of the Savatage album Power Of The Night, but not exactly. I am a fan of Savatage, but that wasn't really the idea behind my concept. I find the album cover a little cartoon like, I was hoping for something more life-like. A more realistic hand coming through glass not so much cracking the glass as shown in the Savatage cover, but in bigger more realistic pieces, and catching the light in a more realistic way. Also perhaps the graphic all coming out of some sort of burst. Since I'm not much of an artist, I mocked it up with the computer.

Here is the general idea...




I'd like to see this done with a lot more detail, even a bit of arm or wrist with everything at more of an angle, more glass, a bit more aggressive, and perhaps a little blood since I lost quite a bit...Maybe some of the broken glass look on the headstock as well. I'd also like it to be a "left hand" since that's the one that's impaired.

Here are the two possible guitars to be considered. I think the Cobalt Blue Model 6 really needs paint more, but I think a Mike Learn painting deserves the ebony board that the Soloist Pro has...I'd leave that up to Mike. I would have the pickup covers painted with the graphic as well.



Or...



Finally, I'd just like to thank Mike for even considering my idea!

[Learn Guitars]

One more week to submit your design in. Bring them on!!! I dig what I am seeing so far. You guys rock.

[xenophobe]

Wow, 4 days and 2 entries. So far you have a 50/50 chance of winning.

Perhaps asking a bunch of old drugged out metalheads to write more than a couple of sentences scares them.

[coloradoman25]

id submit one but I said I wouldn't.

[stevieb91]

Wow, 4 days and 2 entries. So far you have a 50/50 chance of winning.

Perhaps asking a bunch of old drugged out metalheads to write more than a couple of sentences scares them.

Perhaps it's more a matter of matching concept, design, and story.. I have stories, I have concepts, but they have no relevance to each other what so ever..

[Headroller]

The lack of relevance could actually be relevant.

[Learn Guitars]

Conceptually, a sketch with a great idea could win. Don't be shy. We aren't all photshop gurus.

[markD]

i have an idea and a story, but not a jackson i want refinned!!! hahaha....

[rdamaral]

I e-mailed Mike about a breast cancer tribute guitar for mywife recently. But with medical bills now starting to roll in, it’s just not inthe budget.

My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer this year, andopted for a bi-lateral mastectomy. She had the surgery in July and is currentlyrecovering from the first of about four surgeries. Doctor’s estimate about a year’sworth of invasive surgeries and procedures.

Obviously, in our house, breast cancer awareness is a bigdeal. We just completed our first Komen walk this weekend (10/6/12) in Houston.I’ve always wanted to have Mike refinish one of my guitars; I’ve talked to himin the past about an Iron Maiden guitar. But now things have changed. Prioritieshave shifted, and breast cancer is about all that we talk about in my housenow.

So I reached out to Mike about a simple design, with a realisticpink ribbon cascading in the classic shape of the Breast Cancer ribbon. I don’thave photoshop, or I’d mock something up.

My wife sees my guitar collection grow all the time andalways says that I have too many, and the classic “Why do you need anotherguitar” has been muttered more than once. But I’d like to have one guitar getdelivered, that not only is a tribute to her unbelievable strength and courage,but also one that she couldn’t ask why I needed it. This one, I actually need.

My donor guitar would be a Jackson DKMG. The overall designwould be up to Mike, possibly a light pick body color, matching HS and darker realistic pink ribbon, with the words “Strength and Courage” somehow worked into theoverall design.

[emperor_black]

My wife just made a valid point...how can someone paint this on a guitar! Duh! I'll submit something else.

[BigE13]

Ok, I hope the pics upload. Here is my story. When I was about 12 my father passed away and my mother moved my sister and I away from our childhood home up to north Florida to be closer to family. Needless to say losing my dad and being uprooted from all I knew sucked. I did not have many friends but I did happen to meet a guy in my 8th grade art class that was drawing cool stuff like The Galactica from Battle Star and all kinds of cool Star Wars stuff. We hit it off and became great friends. Growing up we shared lots of interests. Games, Sci Fi, Lifting weights to the Weider Plan and listening to music. He is the one who introduced me to my favorite band RUSH. We used to work out to a tape of moving pictures on an old Radio Shack tape player! Man we wore that tape out! That is also about the time we took up guitar. Have you tried to play a Lifeson solo? Damn that man can play! Of course we listened to all the great 80's Hair Metal too. Now Rob and I were inseperable until he finally got a job and had to move away. I joined the Air Force and went my way but we kept in touch and a common interest that we always had was RUSH and guitars. Over the years we have hooked back up to see RUSH in concert at least 12 times. We even have tickets to see them next month in Tampa! I have had many triumphs and tragedys in my life, Lost a marriage, the senseless death of my newborn son, I have been seperated from my loved ones for over a year at a time and sometimes longer, but my friendship with Rob has always remained and the music of RUSh has been a strong thread throughout the years in our friendship. He is more of a Brother to me than anything and I can say that I will always cherish that. So my thought in tribute to our friendship and bond over the music of RUSH is to have a Steampunk tribute type of paint job done on my Jackson DK2M. My idea although Mike can run as far with it as he likes is to use the Reds and Gold color on the new RUSH album. Perhaps have a broken frame of some sort that allows you to see the clockwork pieces deeper in the graphic. On some of the bigger gears or floating in the graphic could be some of the Alchemy symbols for FIRE, WATER, AIR, EARTH and other power symbols kind of glowing white hot. Some of the gears could be tarnished or pitted and rusted and others could be shiney brass or steel...anyways, the detail could be amazing and give the impression that the graphic is very deep and layered. I think this might be at least a little challenge for Mike. The guitar would mean alot to me. Enduring friendship, brotherhood and the ability to overcome all the bad that can happen in this world. If picked, I would never sell this guitar. I would pass it on to my surviving sons to be cherished for what it represents. Thanks for considering me and my idea. Eric.