Monday 24 June 2013

Performance with a ShonKy Tenor cigar box guitar on you tube

Here's a fantastic video of John Diment Performing his Song Winky on the Wing with the Tenor Cigar box guitar He purchased of me.


Sunday 16 June 2013

Firewood special No2. Recycled art guitar for monster slide blues

So here is the second Firewood special. that I mentioned in my Previous Post
I really like the multi level designs and might utilise it in a proper guitar in the future. It really opens up the possibilities of what raw wood you can actually use to build a guitar with rather than being stuck on the idea of having a big chunk of ash or mahogany. Believe me this is as solid as a rock and sustains as well as anything. I believe there are 12 separate pieces of wood that make up the body.
Everything on it apart from the strings and the glue, paint and solder of course, is recycled. Even the pots and wires. The knobs are of an old hifi.and the machine heads are counter fit Grovers which work ok but are not the quality of genuine ones.














 

Wednesday 12 June 2013

Tenor Ukulele and the second firewood special

Here is a bit of a depature from my usual cigar box guitars and customised and solid body jobs yes it's a proper hollow bodied tenor ukulele.
It is for a commission and it was originally going to be a cigar box guitar which it actually turned out to be. Unfortunately for some reason I decided to put an angle on the neck to body joint and miscalculated it somewhat. I ended up with a bridge saddle that was nearly an inch high. looked ridiculous and was leaning over due to the string tension. There was no other option but to give up. After a bit of a discussion with the customer we decided to build a new body. so I didn't want to just build a standard shape so decided on a funky shape not a million miles away from a box but hopefully with a bit more comfort and a better sound.






 
Also on the table is the second fire wood special. This one is based around an acoustic guitar neck I bought of ebay. When I got it I thought I had made an error as it was a right mess but always up for a challenge It's a bit more complex and refined than the first Firewood special but I am still building it to be a slide guitar 6 strings and I am trying out ernie ball beefy slinky (11 - 54's) for extra growl in open D.
Also it will be fitted out with 2 Humbuckers and gold Hardware. I like the fact that on first glance it looks like some super expensive boutique guitar but then you look closer and realise it's made from bits of old furniture and various offcuts.
Pictures to come soon.
 

Saturday 1 June 2013

Shortscale Bass and 12000 views

I am quite happy to realise that I have managed 12000 views so thank you all for visiting.
Heres the latest guitar from me which is  a shortscale bass made from the neck of an encore shortscale.
The original Encore bass is aimed at the child student market, the body feels like it's made from papier mache although it is some sort of wood.   It's so light and distinctively wobbles when you play it and I am the least fussiest person when it comes to what material a guitar body s made from but in this case!. The electronics are not up to much either and fitted with cheapo strings makes for a horrible instrument. It's one saving grace is it actually has a reasonably nice neck. so I parted out the body. The pickups I'm going to use for four string cbg's.
With the neck and an oddball shaped body from Mahogany offcuts comes this creation.
Yeah it's pretty ugly but that was the Idea It's a bit reminiscent of those old Russian guitars.
It doesfit into a standard size gig bag and is pretty easy to play sat down. On the strap it suffers from neck dive due to the lack of upper horn.
Any how here's some pictures.



you can read the spec and maybe purchase a rare ShonKy bass (Only the 3rd bass I've made)
from HERE