This is a steel bodied guitar I made for Flexibility Concepts. The idea here was to show people what can be made using their steel construction products that might be left over from construction scrap. I carved the neck out of Paduk and the fingerboard is zebrawood. The fingerboard is inlayed with "FLEXIBILITY CONCEPTS" in plastic. Because I was never quite sure how it would sound (being made out of steel and all), I installed a transducer pickup and put the output jack where a normal endpin would be. Below is a set of photos showing the step by step construction of this guitar.
This is a guitar I am now calling the "Money Guitar". I hand made this guitar about ten years ago for a customer who only after it was complete, backed out of our deal. In my opinion, he designed it up side down as far as body shape goes, so I got stuck with it. I decided to change a lot with this guitar, including the shape of the body. I also routed the sides for some tiger maple binding stained blue. This wood is also used as a veneer on the headstock also stained blue. For the body, I wanted something different... I printed out sheets of one dollar bills and attached them to the face as a veneer. After about seven coats of clear, this was the result...
Below is an acoustic bass I made from some wood I had left over from other projects. The top is spruce stained blue then I sanded some of the stain away producing the affect you see. I named this guitar "Bluejeans" because of how it turned out.
This is a seven string acoustic guitar I made over a several month time frame. I had to re-invent the way the top is braced to accommodate the true voice of the spruce top. Now, here's a "secret" between you and me.. Okay?
The next time you visit your local home store, locate a cheap piece of wood 3" X .5" X around say 3' straight planed on all four sides. Now, hold it lightly between your finger and thumb as close to 1/5 of the total length of the board and hold it close to your ear. Lightly tap the board with your finger. It will ring like a bell as any straight grained, or tightly woven wood will do!! Please click "HERE" to learn more about the tipical woods used in fretted instrument making. That is the reason it is very important for the bridge saddle to rest on top of this "magic" 1/5th of the total length sweet spot of the soundboard.
The next time you visit your local home store, locate a cheap piece of wood 3" X .5" X around say 3' straight planed on all four sides. Now, hold it lightly between your finger and thumb as close to 1/5 of the total length of the board and hold it close to your ear. Lightly tap the board with your finger. It will ring like a bell as any straight grained, or tightly woven wood will do!! Please click "HERE" to learn more about the tipical woods used in fretted instrument making. That is the reason it is very important for the bridge saddle to rest on top of this "magic" 1/5th of the total length sweet spot of the soundboard.
...and here it is, the first guitar I ever made... in fact, it was my very first stab at guitar building by myself. The biggest thing that went south was the channel for the binding. Yah,... that was a great day. Big box of sunshine! Tell you what.. click "HERE" and I'll tell you what happened..