Finished by  Frank Artesi,  this guitar began life as a Carvin Kit guitar. Here is the story as told by Frank;

I had wanted a guitar like this since I was a kid. But I never dreamed of doing a paint-job on a guitar until I stumbled across Bill’s ReRanch site. I ended up using the site as my “guitar finishing bible”. I bought the guitar kit from Carvin’s web site. I decided that a pro, glass-like paint job would be incongruous with this type of paint job. I wanted a “home-made” feel to it, but still wanted it to come out very well. The first rule I broke was leaving out the wood filler and sand and sealer steps. After sanding the Swamp Ash body until very smooth, I sprayed with BIN’s white primer. I added successive coats until the can was empty, waiting only long enough for the previous coat to dry to touch. Later that night, I taped where I wanted the stripes to be. I used high-quality 3M Blue striping tape from an auto body supply store (the Blue tape stretches to go around curves without losing strength or shape).
The following day I cleaned the body with a tack cloth, then sprayed with Black nitro, adding successive coats as the previous dried to touch until the can was empty. After the final coat I waited around 35 or 40 minutes then peeled off the tape. The paint was dry to touch, but still fresh, so there was no cracking or excessive peeling. I had to be careful not to leave my fingerprints. The next day, I cleaned the body with a tack cloth, then sprayed with clear coats, adding coats with the same technique as the day before. I then waited 3 days before polishing. Instead of wet sanding, I used Scotch-Brite Ultra Fine pads (from an auto body store) to “even out” the clear coats. This made a smooth but dull, satin finish. I then used Novus Plastic Polish #2, followed by Meguiar’s Mirror Glaze #7, followed by Dunlop Formula 65 guitar polish. These steps created a clean glossy surface. If you look closely, you can see the wood’s pores, some drips and orange-peel from over-sprays. But even from a couple feet away, these imperfections vanish and all you see is a very good looking paint job. I want to thank Bill Lester for his encouragement, and for putting together such a complete website with great instructions and quality product, without any of which I could not have completed this project.
Frank Aresti
Glastonbury, CT