What else could you call it?
Clown Barf
© Frank Ford, 7/4/02; Photos by FF

Like "turtleoid," or "mother of toilet seat", "clown barf" is one of those names that really works. Many of us know instinctively what it is, and get a bit of a chuckle from both the name and the material it denotes. Here's a photo of a piece of truly fine clown barf:

Clearly, it is celluloid made of a scrambled mixture of colors and patterns, the more different and clashing the colors, the better. Picks are often fabricated from clown barf, but the best examples I've seen have been made into pickguards and decoration on solid body electric guitars. I suppose it goes without saying that most members of the acoustic instrument community are a bit too conservative to embrace clown barf as appropriate on their instruments. . .

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