california

Name: Dave Young, designer; David Thiele, master woodworker

Hometown: San Diego, California

Guitar: Guitiki

The intricately crafted Guitiki.

This month’s guitar, inspired by trans-Pacific tiki art, is elaborately decorated from top to bottom and has eyes that light up in sync with the music being played on it.

Inspired by a family trip to Hawaii in the mid 2000s, I discovered a passion for creating tikis. I’m also someone who enjoys playing surf tunes on the guitar, and I combined my design and 3D-modeling skills to craft unique tiki-inspired art to attach to my Gretsch. Driven by a desire to take it to the next level, I then wanted to design and build an entire tiki-themed guitar. But while I had the design aspect covered, I lacked the necessary woodworking skills and equipment to bring it to life.

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