The “Shave The Nation” Guitar

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Published on Thursday, 06 December 2012 21:57

Written by Frank J. Pasquale

The Shave the Nation Guitar began as a marketing concept in the mind of Jim Chakires. Jim is Marketing and Business Development Manager for Apex CPA’s in St Charles Illinois. Jim was looking for a way to help me promote my custom guitars as well as a way to promote his organization called “Shave the Nation”.

Shave the Nation is an organization that is aimed at raising money to support our troops. They are a sponsor of the Rockin’ for the Troops Foundation and are closely affiliated with the Gary Sinise Foundation.  Jim and his crew set up a booth at the annual Rockin for the Troops Concert and for a small donation they will shave your head into a red, white and blue Mohawk.  This may seem silly but I assure you it is the hit of the event and at the end of the day there are far too may Mohawks to count. 

Jim had the idea this year to create a “Shave the Nation” guitar; a custom guitar built specifically for this event that would draw even more attention to their cause and increase the amount of the donations. They key to the guitar was going to be the graphics. The goal was to highlight their “Uncle Sam” mascot who proudly sports a red white and blue Mohawk. The final part of the plan was to have it autographed by Gary Sinise when his Lt. Dan Band played at the Rockin for the Troops concert and raffle it off at the end of the day.

Needless to say, I was on board immediately. I used a single pickup Modern Strat because I wanted to make sure there was enough room for the Uncle Sam graphic. Tony Serpico at Apex CPA’s provided the files for the graphics and the crew at DeCal Works in Kingston Illinois provide the decals.

What we ended up with was a great one of a kind guitar that was fully ready to rock. I used a one piece poplar body with a high output alnico humbucker and a Schaller locking tremolo. Don’t let the novelty graphics fool you; this guitar has a killer tone.

The guitar was autographed by Gary Sinise and at the end of the day it helped to raise an additional $1200 that went directly to supporting our troops.

The project was a success. The winner was a father who gave the guitar to his 2 sons who were as happy as could be to take their new guitar home while sporting their own red, white and blue Mohawks. My plan is to do this project every year but next year I want to expand the prize. I am trying to get some equipment manufactures to donate amplifiers and accessories as well as to petition local music stores to donate vouchers for free lessons or free accessories. Hopefully these added features will help increase the value of the prize and raise even more money for our troops.

 
This is was a great project for a great cause and I look forward to doing it each year. It is a stark reminder that our nation is safe because men lay there lives on the line to protect it.