Since I have a Cricut machine now and I’m painting my bass, I figure it’s a good time to finish the headstock on the Kramer Vanguard.  Astute readers will remember that I named the guitar Julius Prime which is an amalgamation of two names I considered; Orange Julius, and Optimus Prime.

I wanted to incorporate an orange with a mean face, that is part cyborg with an eye similar to the Terminator or Cyborg on Teen Titans.  Problem was I didn’t feel like spending time designing this.  Fast forward to 2025 and AI comes to the rescue.

Read on to see more…

After a brief conversation with google Gemini…

create an image of an orange with a snarling face.  one of the eyes is a red cyborg eye.

Change the image to a cartoon style

Simplify the colors

I got this

I fired up Gimp and got to work creating this…

Now to figure out the correct size see if it looks cool.

I printed a bunch sizes on paper and cut one out.

I think that looks cool, but I want to make some changes… Make the whole thing bigger, make the orange guy bigger, and curve the text to match the headstock.

Fire up Gimp and get to work.

This looks much cooler

I like that one.  Now to print it on vinyl and cut it out on the Cricut machine.

I’m happy with this!

Update…

I sprayed the clear and it looks kickass!

Here is the headstock all taped up and ready for clear

The clear looks great!  There are some runs in it that will take a good bit of work to level out, but I’m happy!

After sitting a week, it’s time to sand it flat and polish.

Polished up!

Now just to reassemble the guitar!