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Comment by Paul H (PRH) on February 14, 2011 at 3:41pm

ENTRY #48

3 string sliding scale guitar (Resistance is futile)

Mac is trapped in the john backstage at the Filmore (work with me here OK?).

All he has to work with are items you could find in a bathroom.

Neck, double scarf joint, clothes rod, covered in Nat'nl Geographic text and images (June '96),
Nut is a door latch plate, tuners from scrap dowels. "Bling" is a drain cover and a metal shower curtain holder.
Sides and innards from reclaimed wine box wood, painted with house paint.
Tailpiece from a metal towel hanger, bridge from old bolts, nuts, scrap plywood and window shade brackets.
Volume knob from an broken night light (left at the woodshop! AArgh!).
Pickup, wallwart (thenks Mr. RandomWriting and others) pickup cover from a medicine bottle.
Output and volume ferrule from floss tin, pots and wire from an old radio (didn't work, used junk drawer pot and output).
Body from an old bathroom scale (note, it goes to 11!).

This has been a blast, I vote to keep this thread alive!

Thanks,
PRH

Comment by rain-air on February 14, 2011 at 1:51pm

ENTRY #47

As my social surroundings are not very supportive of my hobby (Papa! Put guitar down! etc. etc.) I decided to create something convertible & more interactive, if needed.

credits must go to Unknown who built the game which came to me via thriftstore:

I was afraid that I'd have to bend one of these stiff'n'stinky coathanger things for frets but found some electrical wire among construction rubble, just today!

It now is a baritone Ukulele, something I need to explore on my travels through Uke world - to my surprise, the little box seems to be happier with the old guitar steel strings than with the conventional soprano setup I had with a neck I made with commercial frets & nice tuners.

Comment by Lee Connah on February 14, 2011 at 1:44pm

ENTRY #46

"Chick Feeder Fiddle."

This little fiddle was inspired by the galvanized feeder which I found in a derelict hardware store. I knew what it was going to become the instant I saw it.

It doesn't sound half-bad either. (The main issue is the bow, which is a $5 P.O.C. from a used instrument shop.) Six of the fiddle's holes are covered from the inside with thin plexiglass. All the wood is construction scrap: the neck is plywood sandwiched around a core of heart pine flooring, the fingerboard is another piece from my dwindling stash of Jatoba flooring, the fine tuners and bridge from Ipe decking, the chin rest from a piece of cork flooring. The primary tuners are stock thumbscrews, the tailpiece is a spoon. Inside the body cavity are broken mirror shards from a bluesy, vacant East Baltimore lot and Mardi Gras beads hail from the joyful Crescent City.

If anyone would care to see more images of this fiddle (including the original price tag still attached, though not visible in the above photos) or any of my other instruments visit www.folkherosandwich.com .

Thanks to all the contributors to this contest. What a great community of musicians, tinkerers, wood hoarders, artists, nutty professors, and dumpster divers!

Comment by ROBIN LANE on February 14, 2011 at 11:01am

built in 21/2 hrs & played that night @ jam. tried a friends  Fishman under bridge pickup (Put under pan handle ) WOW CRAZY Sound mixture of BASS & GUITAR. when i can afford a pickup will prob install.

Comment by ROBIN LANE on February 14, 2011 at 10:49am

ENTRY #45

WHAT IF : MacGyver was on a canoe trip in the Yunnan Province of China & ran into some unexpected rough water & crashed.He washed up on the river bank of a remote village w/ a concussion , the village nursed MacGyver back to health. the village thought he was a n American Rock n Roll star, so for helping him they asked (can you play us WOK N ROW ?). All MacGyver Had left was 1 Oar , partial roll Duct tape  & of course his Swiss Army knife , luckily the village had salvaged a crate of hardware supplies from a supply boat he also borrowed there Wok.  PARTS:  5 1/2 FT Oar ($3 garage sale) , Wok w/Lid(i used for yrs - still usable),2 curtain rod hangers (my junk box), wire clamp (off old breaker box),wood screws( salvaged from old porch ), 4 machine srews (my junk box) , 1 used hose clamp for nut, wore out frying pan handle for bridge, used 1/8 green string (used for tie downs) , 6 in piece of old clothes hanger(capo) ,Duct Tape (close gap between lid & wok , Left small gap for sound hole) & electric tape (hold bridge in place). Equals : Acoustic - " WOKNROW " - Diddy Bo.  Plays good has crazy sound

Comment by John Wendell on February 14, 2011 at 3:50am

 
ENTRY #44

"The Hopeless Romantic"

     Happy Valentine's Day Ya'll!!    Sporting a "Caramel Bridge" and a "Nougat Nut" this little cardboard and fishing line "Two String Slider" is a sweet treat!!
    We went all out on this baby...no "Whitman Samplers" for us...but rather the superior "Russel Stovers" Chocolates!!  The strings are not in harmony adding to that primal sound we all love so much, and yes I can rock some blues on this thing with a bottleneck!!    Hope ya'll enjoy my goofy entry!!

 

Comment by Carl Hickey on February 13, 2011 at 6:00pm

ENTRY #43

The Lumberjack Guitar

This build was inspired by one day in my shop I had an axe handle and thought it would make a good guitar neck.  Then the theme was decided from there and I searched out my pieces for this build.  All the elements used are; Two old broken axe handles, one for the neck and one for the fret board.  A broken shovel handle was used for the heel of the guitar.  A piece of pine from a waterbed frame was used for the arched top piece, which I book-matched.  The back of the guitar is an aluminum lumberjack helmet.  The band that forms the sides of the guitar box are created from a piece of a futon frame.  The frets are from the first guitar I ever built which ended up having a warped fret board, and the process of dressing the frets was unsucessful and I ended up with 12 usable frets, so I decided to try a dolcimer layout on this guitar.  The tuners were a garbage find by a friend and I took off the plastic turn keys and added my own made from chain saw chain links and I nickel plated them.  The nut and bridge are also chain saw chain links that have been nickel plated.  The tail piece is a chain saw wrench that has been nickel plated as well.  The piezo is taken from a broken smoke alarm.  The guitar jack and wiring was salvaged from an old reel-to-reel tape recorder.  The strings were also recycled strings.  Even the nuts and bolts are all recycled elements.  Then for decoration I decided to try my hand at some wood burning technique, by putting a tree on the front.  Now looking at it the sound hole placed there it looks like the moon shining over that tree.

 

This has been the most fun I have had in guitar building so far.  I hadn't thought about doing many of these elements before and I am looking forward to using more of these ideas in futute builds. 

 

Comment by Terry Horn on February 13, 2011 at 5:32pm

ENTRY #42

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's not a cigar box guitar but everything on there was made from found materials, even the strings were found outside of a pawn shop.  It is playable too.

Comment by randy hudson on February 13, 2011 at 3:26pm

ENTRY #41

this is an old tape player i had around the house that i could not ...

thanks R.H

Comment by John Bernyk on February 13, 2011 at 2:10pm

ENTRY #40

This is a Texas license plate bass. The license plate is a 1988 Texas plate found on the hyway in phoenix arizona in 2002. The neck is a music man copy found on ebay that was mounded 3 times prior, as evidenced by the 6 screw holes on the back.

The strings were salvaged from a disguarded no named acoustic bass....

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