Scrapocaster cranks it up when the sun goes down

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This article was published 03/08/2023 (1140 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Guitars are a big thing at Rockin’ the Fields of Minnedosa.

None is larger than the event’s latest addition: the Scrapocaster, an eight-metre, 740-kilogram art installation shaped like an electric guitar built by Brandon’s Cary Clarke that’s been erected at the festival’s main gate, where it will welcome the crowd for Friday’s kickoff.

”It’s my baby, I guess,” Clarke said Thursday from his campsite overlooking Lake Minnedosa.

“I approached (Rockin’ the Fields) a couple of years ago, (to say) maybe I could make something at the site, and it kind of migrated from there.”

Clarke, who grew up in Minnedosa — his family owns the land north of Minnedosa Beach the festival calls home every August long weekend — bounced ideas off friends until the idea of building a giant guitar on a stand was mentioned.

The Scrapocaster’s shell is a 6.7-metre steel form that Clark put together in his welding shop; the stand is made from pipe donated by Brandon’s Wesman Salvage.

It’s based on a Fender Squier electric guitar owned by one of Clarke’s friends and is a precise 7-to-1 scale model of the axe. Clarke measured the guitar, all its parts and the guitar stand to ensure the proportions were precise.

He called up musician friends — Clarke knows the bass almost as well as an arc welder — seeking old instruments that would make up the guitar’s guts and was quickly inundated with cymbals, saxophones, broken guitars and other instruments that were collecting dust.

Three saxophone bells serve as its volume knobs and 23 cymbals and three electric guitars make up its interior.

“I had 22 cymbals and there’s a tiny one from my son’s first drum kit,” he says.

Like most rock festivals, the Scrapocaster cranks it up when the sun goes down. It includes old trusses used for concert lighting, and additional lights that shine on the work make it glow bright red.

Clarke began the vast majority of the work on the project on May 31 and all the long hours in the shop came to fruition when it was trucked to the Rockin’ the Fields site and lifted on its stand.

“It’s been a lot of early mornings and late nights, but I’ve been sleeping in since I got to Minnedosa,” he says.

Scrapocaster is already a hit on social media. Rockin’ the Fields posted several photographs of it on its Facebook site on the eve of the festival, which features more than a dozen acts, including Big Sugar, the Sheepdogs, Lou Gramm, the Glorious Sons, L.A. Guns and Aldo Nova Friday though Sunday.

Many commenters gave props to Clarke, who has attended the event every year since it began as Classic Rock Weekend ‘96, 27 years ago.

The giant guitar won’t be a permanent addition to the Rockin’ the Fields site. Clarke says he has a place to store it in the winter and it will return in future years.

“The elements would eat away at all the parts pretty quickly,” he says. “There’s also a lot of snowmobiles in the winter and there are guitars (in the installation). We want to keep people from climbing on it.”

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @AlanDSmall