It all started innocently.
With an old 70s or 80s crappy broken guitar.
The neck was bowed like ski jump, the body was cracked in several places. Bridge - torn out from body. The colour was classic diarreha-mustard-brown.

So:
I stripped the laquer (awesome terpentine scent), cut off the neck, cut out the hole in the back for jack mounting, and maintenance.
Repaintent the body with mixture of polyurethane laquer, latex burgundy paint sample, "old-gold" paste,then scrapped some places with wire brush, and added more old gold to get that beat up vintage look.
I straightened the neck, glued and screwd it back in, but at angle, reinforced the tailpiece withahogany scrap block - inside.
The resonator is made from old copper plate - the patina is natural (reaction of vinegar, salt and ammonia fumes), held in place by bronze pins.
The tailpiece is a hinge coupled with some rosewood scrap.
The bridge is made of Azobe and rosewood with tin-plated Brazzaville electrical scraps.
The pickup has been taken out from Mexican Strat about 15 years ago (cheap ceramic bar magnets, and fake 'alnico' looking rods, of unknown metal, some cheap steel probably), I added steel zinc plated nails in-between (glued in).
The neck and fretboard was oiled.
12th fret markers are wood screws to ensure that neck won't fall apart.

I added side markers as well, as there wasn't any. Used brass nails.

As a surprise there is hand wound spring (by me, from high carbon steel wire, I believe it's called music wire - in my country the spring wire) for added resonance. It stretches from neck heel to tailpiece block.

I made a patina copper cover for the pickup as well but it muffles the sound a bit too much, and I like the look of raw pickups with nails on to a tad better.

String with 10-46 electric strings.
Tuned to CGCEGC for open major or CGCEbGC for open minor or DGCFAD as full-step down the standard.
I'll keep it tuned low as the neck is not reinforced by any kind of rod, and I don't want it to bow again.

The belt is found in used clothes thrift store.

Plays well acoustically, and even better electrically!

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Comment by Uncle John on July 22, 2018 at 11:13am

Great story,  thanks for all that information.

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