Guitars on Strings And Tines

Woodburning, Stain and Sharpie

Sun, 29 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I bought this guitar when the kids were little, and it had been sitting around for years in a corner somewhere. My daughter and I had sanded it down and taped off the fretboard and pick guard with the idea of painting it, but we never got around to it. I decided to take on the job myself by reproducing Hokusai’s “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” on it. Surely you have seen this painting…it’s the one of that huge wave and a couple of boats, with Mount Fuji in the background. I started by woodburning the outline for the whole thing. I determined that even though I had sanded it, I hadn’t done so enough to completely remove the clear coat, which made the woodburning difficult and uneven. I then got a stain pen and started coloring in the black parts of the image, but was also not thrilled with the results. So to finish it off I got a Sharpie and got to work. Once finished I gave it a few coats of Polyurethane, put everything back together and that was that.

Flying V Guitar Made from 2x4's

Sat, 09 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

You might be driving down the road, see a pile of 2 by 4’s that someone put by the curb and think nothing of it. I think “I’ll make a Flying V guitar from those!” After removing all the nails and scraping away bits of insulation, I cut and glued these slats together into a rough Flying V shape. Since I don’t have a planer or a router, it is not super flat, and I smoothed out the edges with a belt sander. I had purchased a set with two humbuckers, tone and volume knobs and selector switch, ditched the pickguard that came with it and made one from 1/8″ plywood. The fret markers are just spray paint. I used the lower pitched strings from an Ernie Ball Mammoth Slinky pack to get a loooow sound. This is a guitar for playing Doom Metal exclusively.

Boy Scouts Popcorn Tin Chugger

Sat, 19 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

My son was in Boy Scouts for a few years. As you probably know, Boy Scouts sell popcorn to raise funds for their troop. Ours was no exception, so every year we went to Walmart and stood outside their doors selling popcorn. One year I decided to make a chugger (2 string guitar) out of one of the popcorn tins we were selling, then bring it with us to play while we sold popcorn. To make it stand out a bit, I woodburned the word “POPCORN!” on the neck. None of us know how to play guitar, so I think we ended up mostly annoying people as they walked by, giving us puzzled looks.

Dogbowl Resonator Guitar

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

It was so much fun to make this guitar. I love how the dog bowl gives the guitar a metallic tone, sounding a bit like a banjo. For the stain, I used a Japanese technique called Shou Sugi Ban, which involved charring the wood with fire (yes, fire!), then applying a thin coat of stain. The wood grain will burn at different rates and you end up with this great look. It worked better on the sides than the top and back, since those are plywood. For the neck, I made stain by putting steel wool in a jar with vinegar, then left it until it dissolved the steel wool. Different woods stain at different rates, which you can tell by looking at the neck where it meets the body.

Bowls Resonator Guitar

Sat, 08 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A friend of mine gave me this guitar, so I decided to experiment and make a resonator guitar with a couple of metal bowls, one inside the other. One of the tuners was broken, so this became a 5 string guitar. Just like Keith Richards plays! I had to add a bunch of reinforcements to the inside of the guitar so the pressure of the strings didn’t crush the bowl into the back of the guitar. For the bridge, I used the “puck” from a windchime. For the string holder, I used a drawer pull. When I was done I noticed the strings were not taut enough, so I added an aluminum bar to put more pressure on them. Doesn’t look great, but does the job.

Camacho Cigar Box

Sat, 04 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This is one of my favorites. It was my first attempt at making a guitar that looked “finished”, and is the first guitar I made with electric pickups. The box itself is beautiful. These Camacho boxes are popular for guitars because they have such a nice glossy finish. They are also very sturdy. I used a humbucker pickup, so the sound is clean. I added tone and volume pots, and matching silver hardware. This is one I go back to often when I want to noodle.

Phillies Blunt Chugger

Sun, 25 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

My son tried his hand at making a chugger…basically a two string guitar. I helped him along, but he did most of the work himself. We added springs on the inside to add a bit of reverb. He was very excited with the results, and I was super proud!

I highly recommend trying this project with your kids. It teaches them about handling tools, and the result is something they made and can be proud of. All you need is a box, a wooden dowel, and a couple of other random parts. A word of caution…this project takes more than a day to complete, so be prepared to encourage your child to complete it once they lose the initial interest.

Caballero Skateboard Lapsteel

Sat, 02 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

My favorite skater growing up was Steve Caballero. His dragon skateboard stands out in my memory as my favorite. I had been toying with the idea of making a lapsteel out of a skateboard for some time, when I saw this Caballero model on Facebook marketplace for $20. When I went to pick it up I noticed it had a 6″ crack starting at the nose. “Perfect,” I thought, knowing that this skateboard was never to be ridden again. As I gave the guy the $20 I detected a sly smirk, like he thought he was tricking me out of my money. He had no idea what I was going to do with the skateboard…and I didn’t tell him.

License Plate Box Guitar

Sun, 19 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Got this license plate from Playero, a surf shop in Puerto Rico (¡wepa boricua!) and made this license plate guitar. To keep the Puerto Rican theme going, I used dominos for the bridge and nut. I made the box from scratch using wood that came from a couch that had been put to the curb. I added a spring in the inside, which adds a bit of reverb. There’s a piezo (contact mic) under the license plate, so it can be played through an amp.

War and Peace Fake Book

Sat, 15 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I got this box that looks like the book War and Peace and my first thought was to make a guitar out of it. At the time I was still pretty new to making instruments and you can tell, given how I made the neck. I thought I would try a different design for how to make the headstock. It was an interesting idea, but makes the neck so thick you can’t really play the first 2-3 frets. This is how we learn!

Guitar Made from Driftwood from Babcock Hovey

Sat, 12 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

My son was in Boy Scouts for a couple of years, and we went to a weekend camping trip at their Babcock Hovey Scout Camp. On our way to dig for fossils by the lake, I saw this piece of wood floating by the shore that had obviously been there for a while. There was faint blue paint, which had slowly eroded. I brought it back with us and made this guitar out of it. The top and back are made with this wood, and the sides are made from an old pallet that a neighbor had turned into a wine rack, but then discarded. I wanted the guitar to look old and worn out. The bridge is made from an old ruler, and a paintbrush without the handle or bristles

Saint Luis Rey Cigar Box

Sat, 12 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I went to Cuba in 2016 and brought back this cigar box with the intention of making a guitar out of it. This is the one that got me hooked on making instruments after making my first one in 2009. The neck came from a large picture frame that my neighbor was getting rid of. I made the fret board from a Home Depot yardstick, which took some time to sand away all the markings. The sound holes are drain covers, and the strings are attached to the box using a cabinet hinge.

Juice and Soda Bottles and Rubber Bands

Sun, 27 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Ok this is more of a kids grade school project kinda thing. All you need is a plastic bottle. Cut out a sound hole. Attach a few screws, and put rubber bands across the hole. Use crayons for the bridge and nut. Strum the rubber bands. Done!

The finished product

My First Cigar Box Guitar

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This is the one that started this crazy hobby of mine. One day I spotted a Make Magazine article for making a cigar box guitar. I had never made anything in my life, and didn’t even own any tools. In fact, I bought my first set of power tools to make this guitar. I went to a cigar store and got this box, and for some reason had a scrap 1×2 that I used as the neck. It was simply gluing the stick to the box, the simplest way to make a guitar. The article calls for making your own tuners out of bolts, so I did that. It also has the strings made from twine, so I did that too. This wasn’t a guitar to be played, it was to be displayed. And so it stayed, for a number of years. Once I got really hooked on making instruments a few years later, I went back and added real tuners, real guitar strings and a piezo (contact mic). It is played with a slide since there are no frets on it.