This is what comes of simultaneously reading the Hunger Games trilogy while replaying Fallout New Vegas to a soundtrack courtesy Abney Park- You get dystopia on the brain.
This was sort of a mental floss project. I've got a love for the beautifully modified and hand-distressed instruments of the musicians of AP (See for yourself!) and wanted to try something similar. Although this is not nearly as pretty or professional as an Abney Park instrument, I'm more than satisfied with the end result.
I wanted a Uke that looked like it had been kicking around the wastes for years and I think I succeeded!
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All the metal hardware (both stock and aftermarket) was rubbed down with steel wool and then given a bath
in muriatic acid. After a few hours a lovely coat of corrosion and rust appeared.
The corroded metal is, for me, the thing that really sells the character of the instrument. Although it looks like hell it is still 100% playable.
The soundhole cover was sort of an afterthought. The pickguard and side plate were cut from old license plates and screwed on, but the face of the uke still looked too...well, normal. I cut a disc of speaker mesh and cold-welded it into a section of tubing to make a suitably dystopian soundhole cover and voila! Instant facelift.
The majority of the surface weathering to the body of the uke was done by hand with files, rasps and knives. A minimal touch-up was done with black acrylic.
A particularly nice patch of acid weathering on the side plate.
The donor uke was a glossy black to begin with, so I sanded it down and gave it a series of layered coats to make for interesting weathering. The external color was achieved by first painting the uke seafoam green and then lightly dusting it with blue metal flake. This adds a good level of grunge while adding texture.
