A Brief History: The idea of the swirled guitars was born out of many thoughts. In the early 1980s, I swirled a drum set made out of fiberglass resin and it turned out great. Through much trial and error, I found out that with proper preparation just about anything could be swirled, from Harley gas tanks to a car. I then decided to try a set of cymbals, once again getting great results. The idea was in my head about taking it to the next step: A guitar. I suggested to my best friend who was an amazing guitar player and working with me at the time, to swirl his guitar. Nervous at first and with good reason, I decided to trace the guitar and cut it out of foam core board. Then I drew in all the options: Tremelo, a faux rosewood finger board, strings, tuning pegs, and so on. When I finished, it looked great. In fact, from a short distance you could not tell it was foam. I then took a picture of it and sent it to Fender guitars. To my surprise, Fender called me and wanted to see the "guitar." At that point, I decided it was time to get to work on a real guitar!

My friend, Anthony Nasiatka, liked the faux one we did so much he wanted to have one made for himself, and had a guy out on Long Island build it. Then we decided to make two more to show. The time frame was going to be tight--three guitars custom built in three months--because Fender wanted to see us at the summer N.A.M.M. show in June, and it was already March. The swirled guitars came out perfectly. Next, we clear-coated them and the colors were brilliant. We were in business!

The guitars were finished three or four days before it was time to leave. Wiping the sweat from our brows, we were off to the show. When we arrived we showed them the first guitar and the Fender people flipped. I mean, they went nuts! When we showed them the second swirled guitar, they closed the doors and asked us not to show them to anyone else. They then commited that day for three hundred guitars. It was like a dream come true. The production went great, however, for a few years Fender was undecided about doing more guitars and would not comit to production.

Meanwhile, I decided to focus on other aspects of my business (tie-dye, screenprinting, et cetera), while only producing guitars on a custom basis. During the early 1980s, I met a guy whom I became pretty good friends with. He had a custom guitar line. We were talking and thought about doing a guitar for Steve Vai since my friend knew him pretty well and thought he may like the swirl effect. He got a chance to talk with him and Steve sent a few bodies to us from his own collection; three Jems. I swirled those and he sent them off to Steve. He thought they were great and showed them to Ibanez guitars. Thanks to Steve Vai and the Ibanez guitar company, the rest is history.

My thanks go out to all involved: Steve Vai, Anthony N., Joe D., Bill C., Art R. and, for the latest project and one of the best people I know, thanks to Jim D., whose dedication and time throughout all the Ibanez projects was top notch. Well, I hope you like! "D.J."