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Permalink Reply by Michael Fred Johnson on January 14, 2015 at 12:38am

Here's a drawing showing the major dimensions,get started with those hub caps in your photo 

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Permalink Reply by Michael Fred Johnson on January 29, 2015 at 4:33am

Finished

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Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on January 29, 2015 at 5:36am

Fantastic looking!!!

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Permalink Reply by Michael Fred Johnson on January 30, 2015 at 12:48am

Thanks Wayfinder and Jon

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Permalink Reply by Glenn Reither on January 29, 2015 at 12:40pm

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/albums/blind-gee-035-futura

Might give you some ideas. I made a through neck as per usual. The only difference is the amount of relief you need to build in so you can get the fingerboard up over the hubcap.  In the last pic in the album you can see that the bottom hubcap is simply bolted into the thru neck from underneath and you can see where the strings feed thru.

You can hear this one here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk2gBEGK9Ug

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Permalink Reply by Thomas "Duck" Petry on January 29, 2015 at 1:28pm

OK, I'll jump in here. I'm behind on my pictures and haven't had a lot of time to get on the site lately, but here's a picture of my hubcap build. We have a good friend that plays Dobro (and many other things) and I always give him a bunch of static about how they were just an acoustic guitar with a hub cap on the front, so as a Christmas present I built him this three string from an old Hudson cap I picked up at the LA Roadster Show & Swap Meet last Father's day. Has a piezo pickup inside and the volume pot has a tire valve cap for the knob. Quiet acoustically but it barks nicely through an amp.

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Permalink Reply by Mickey Ray Parker on January 29, 2015 at 2:35pm

I'm hoping no one minds if I jump in here and ask a question, but this seems like the right venue.  I am about to start on a hubcap guitar, and I was wondering if I could leave it open-backed like a banjo.  Has anyone tried this?  Or would it sound better if I used two hubcaps or built a back?  Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Mickey Ray Parker on January 29, 2015 at 4:11pm

Great.  Looks like I've got some experimenting to do. Thanks for the help!

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Permalink Reply by Michael Fred Johnson on January 30, 2015 at 1:10am

You've got three routes you can take just here.

Build a box like I did,two hub caps like Glenn or take the route that Thomas did which is probably the simplest build,I quite fancy building one using his method with just a circular board,rebate in the top edge for the hub cap to sit on and through neck attached to the underside of the board

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Permalink Reply by Mickey Ray Parker on January 30, 2015 at 6:51am

All the advice is much appreciated!  I can't wait to start on this one.

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Permalink Reply by davey on February 16, 2015 at 9:59pm

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Permalink Reply by davey on February 16, 2015 at 10:20pm

Hi everyone. Interesting posts - some nice guitars taking shape there!

I'm davey - I made Seasick's first hubcap guitar (the Morris Minor one). It's a rough copy of the original I made for myself. And yes - they were thrown together :-)

The first one was made in my back garden out of bits and pieces I had lying around and didn't know what to do with - mainly car parts, but also my wife's broomstick - she's still not best pleased about that.

When I finished it, I kinda thought Steve might like it too (he's an old friend so I kinda know his likes). So, I made the second one for him - slightly different construction to mine and a little beefed up as I know how he (mis)treats his guitars. I took more care on Steve's one - spent most of a weekend outside in the sun building that one :-) Oh, and I 'borrowed' the wife's replacement broom for it's handle again. She's still not best pleased about that either!

I've often wondered if anyone made anything similar before me, seems so obvious, but I can't find anything out there.

Steve made his own copy of my hubcap guitar a while back when he was in the states and needed an instrument fast. That one uses Hudson hubcaps, one given to him by Jack White.

More recently I've made a couple more hubcap guitars - a spare for Steve, and a copy for a friend. I also made Steve's 'Scrap-o-caster' guitar, which he later modified by switching to old Harmony Rocket electrics and a Dano neck.

Anyways, I love the care spent on the creations here, and I love that the thrown together nature of the originals is appreciated for what it is.

I think it's better to build your own way, using hubcaps that you like, the number of strings you find most comfortable with etc. But if anyone has any questions about Steve's originals do let me know and I'll try and help out :-)

All the best, davey.

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