ShonKy Novus electric guitar and a New 3 String cigar box guitar

Whatever people may think of my work one can never say I'm not diverse enough that's for sure.
Over the last couple of years I've been working at a few designs for electric solid body guitars.
Most of them end up on the firewood pile but there are a couple that end up as finished guitars.
I could sketch them out first or even do them on a cad program (I would have to learn how to use one first) I prefer to get on and make it up straight away. the latest one is this:

The ShonKy Novus. It's made from a Pine Body with a rustic Whitewash finish. The neck is a re-used maple/maple. I think it's pretty cool although the next version will be slightly different and will be made with hardwood. This one is now for sale on my Website where you can also see more pics.

Also recently finished is this lovely little 3 String CBG with a great Vintage Royal Peer cedar box and a handcrafted neck with decorative carving in a naïve style  and finished with my Antiquing process to match the box. I made an error with the machine head holes however and the vintage style ones with white buttons that I would normally use for this wouldn't fit so I had to use the Covered type. I left the covers on but I actually prefer them open but they are easily removed if the new owner requires it.

Yes also available from my Website

6 String and 4 String cigar box guitars

Here's another 2 recent builds a 6 string which has been sold and a 4 string which is actually made from a wine box which is still available for sale on my Website. Both boxes are nice and big which makes for an excellent acoustic instrument.
After I built the 6 string I noticed the top edge was very sharp and was very uncomfortable on the forearm so I made a banjo type arm rest to alleviate this problem. (I neglected to take a picture of it with this on though).
It worked great and looked pretty cool too so I decided to make one for the latest 4 stringer too as it had the same sharp edge problem.
Anyhow heres the pictures for both. more particular details for the 6 string  can be found in the ShonKy website Archive.

6 String:

 

4 String

 

 

 

Recent Work: Tin Guitar. Romantic cigar box guitar and a junk cigar box Ukulele.

It's been a bit hectic at Shonky Towers lately unfortunately not making guitars, however I have made a few over the past couple of months that I realised I hadn't shown here.
This one was completed quite a while ago now and was a commission order for the same customer who commissioned the Shortscale 6 String CBG and case. It's a 3 string fretted guitar with an vintage Sportsman's relish tin.

The neck is fairly unique with copper strip fret position markers and an unusual enclosed headstock.
It's a wee bit fiddly to string up.
Sound wise like the Gingerbread man Tin guitar  it was pretty impressive with a real nice resonator sound.
Sound hole is on the top  side so the fantastic artwork isn't compromised and the Tin is braced and re-enforced with Cedar. The neck is attached to the body via 2 pine dowels that run through to a block at the back where the tailpiece is attached. Two Piezo's take care of the amplified sound and deliver a fairly true representation of the acoustic sound.

 

 

Next up is this 2 string slide.  Commissioned as a belated wedding gift from the empty box of celebratory cigars smoked at the wedding. To be fair it wasn't a box that I would have used and the recipients apparently are non musical so making it playable was not important. However it is playable. The dulcimer frets where added as an after thought at least if it is strummed it will make a reasonably nice noise.
As it was a gift to celebrate romance it has 2 strings in harmony with each other ! Gold machine heads with heart shaped buttons. Carved heart shaped fret position markers and a heart shaped sound hole and the name of the couple embossed in the lower part of the fret board. The neck is oak from an 60's dressing table. it would have originally held the mirror. For some reason It's one of my favourite builds so far.

 

Thirdly is a reasonably quick junk ukulele. I had been meaning to make it for a while and when a chap emailed me asking to make him a cheap one It spurred me on .
Marcella box. Neck is from a broken tool handle made from Beech with a mahogany headstock. fret board is from a cheap broken Ukulele. It actually turned out reasonably well. Yeah very quiet but I put a couple of piezo discs so it can be amplified.

There has also been another 6 string wich I will post about In a couple of days.

 

Cheers

ShonKy Old Red. Retro roadworn guitar with parker pickups.

ShonKy Old Red

 

The Old red was born from an old handmade body and an Ibanez neck.

The body is made from what looks like a Mahogany type of wood but it is pretty light so not your standard mahogany. Originally It was shaped like a bloated Les Paul. The neck it came with was like a tree trunk and not very good. It was also attached with 6 bolts and the neck pocket extended out another 2 inches. All I did was reshape the upper horn to give it a more aggressive look and convert it for through body stringing.

 

 

It was stripped of it's original finish sealed and re-finished with a thin transparent cherry with a gloss poly top coat Due to the wear on the original body a nice clean finish was never going to look right so I gave it a nice road worn finish.



 

The neck is a re-furbished Ibanez neck. It came to me in a pretty molested state with the headstock cut down and lots of scratches and dents. I tidied the headstock into the sculpted shape and stripped the neck down to the bare wood sanding the dents and scratches out. There are some very light marks left as I didn't want to go too far.  It has then been sealed and lacquered with gloss poly.

 

 

The Hardware is all re-used. Standard hard tail strat style bridge with sealed Tuners

The knobs are the ones that came with the guitar and it is equipped with 100k pots

 

The scratch plate and and other front plate and truss rod cover are all custom made. (the plate under the bridge is there mainly to hide previous holes that have been filled and an odd trapezoidal inlay.

The control cavity cover is aluminium and is the original one for the guitar.

The neck plate is adapted from the original hence it looking a little untidy but it does the job fine.

 

 

I wasn't sure about the 100k pots with humbuckers but I am very pleased with the result. It's sounds like a proper garage rocker very bright and jangly especially for humbuckers.

 

I also think I have inadvertently wired them up in phase (Or out) as with both selected you get that slight nasal tone with loads of harmonics.

Very pleased with this one (I know I usually say that) It's a lot better and nicer looking than I thought it could be. It kind of has a Gibson / Burns love child thing going on.  It also plays superbly and sounds great. It's such a pity I'm so poor at the moment I have to sell it. otherwise it would be a keeper. One day I will own a guitar I have made ha ha.