Harmony H44 Stratotone Inspired ShonKy TH44 comission Oh and Happy Xmas!

This is possibly my last post of 2013 so I would like to wish all my readers a Happy Xmas and I hope Santa brings you all a nice guitar.
So I would like to end on a high note with this my latest guitar. a commission from a Gentleman in Norway who contacted me requiring a guitar like a Harmony Stratotone H44.


Pic From http://harmony.demont.net/model.php?id=131

Small body. fat wide tapered neck the originals have 25.25" scale length. The neck is a maple through neck with two wings glued either side.
I sent a couple of sketches and I set to work on the agreed design. and here is the finished product.

Like the Original Maple neck through using two pieces of maple laminated together along the length for added  stability. Sapele wings. Neck is a slightly shorter 25" scale.

My trade mark antique finish

The customer wanted a basic utilitarian look, a workhorse guitar

The original H44 fret board joins on top of the body which doesn't leave much room for adjustment. and doesn't leave much string break angle on the bridge.  I reduced the body part of the maple approx. 4mm lower than the neck (not including the fretboard). It looks like a glued in neck but it is all one piece.

The legendary Dearmond moustache gold foil pickup supplied by the customer. Neck has real mother of pearl marker dots and  mother of pearloid binding. along with pearloid scratch plate.  The Pickup is wired up to 50k pots and a 0.1uf oil in paper capacitor like the originals.

The whole guitar has been given the ShonKy Antique finish looks great against the pearl.

 Standard Korean tailpiece and unusual Bullet control knobs. Also a recessed tele type jack cup rather than a plate.

hand carved Bubinga Bridge with hand carved corian Compensated saddle

The neck is fat. really fat the dimensions are pretty close to the original stratotones I had to guess the neck profile though so I went for a round C. A real handfull but surprisingly comfortable.

Hand Carved corian Nut. No reason for the bumpy shape I just like it. Yes that is a truss rod cover. I put one in however as the neck is so massive I don't think .. A/ it's ever going to need adjusting B/ the truss rod would actually be able to move the neck. however the cover is a nice decorative addition.

 Kluson 3 on a plate machine heads with white buttons. The only ones that where going to look right. The Customer wanted the basic square headstock which I had done on the firewood special.

This build went incredibly well. the only problems I had was applying the finish as the temperature had dropped considerably during  November and I had to wait longer between coats for the stain to dry and I had promised the guitar to be finished and delivered by mid December. It was good in the end and I just managed to do it. the great thing was when I first strung it up it was almost perfect requiring only a slight fret dress and lowering of the bridge. I had a concern that the neck being as fat as it was would be too straight but somehow (luck rather than judgement methinks) it had perfect relief.
Soundwise as soon as I played this before even plugging it in it had a bluesey tone which was a good start so I plugged it in. and wow! again spot on. wow pure Blues tone. Lovely clear syrupy on clean. put some gain and it growls. I now have to make one for myself.....one day! 
The guitar now lives in it's new home in Norway and the owner is very happy (Phew!) He has been kind enough to write an extensive review which can be found on the Archive pages of my website Here

See you in the new year.

 

ShonKy SS6 Sunburst guitar with piano black neck.

Remember The S3

I bought two of those gloss black necks and aimed to make two black and white strats. Just out of curiosity I tried the neck against a Sunburst body and wow! so it's been a while waiting for the finances to allow me to get the parts to build one but eventually here it is.

 

This one has actually a used squier sunburst body which is in pretty much mint condition It's a real beauty too in fact one of the nicest looking bodies I have seen. For some reason when you take a picture of a sunburst body the camera never seems to pickup the graduation very well in the flesh it's much more graduated. All the other parts are super quality and new. Great Pickups from Voltage guitar pickups. Staggered Locking machine heads from Sperzel. etc etc.

 

 

 

 

For sale on my Website Now

SUPERB Vintage RARE 100% 1978 PEAVEY T-60 NAMM Protype s/n 0000 Fender strings! | eBay

I've been wanting a Peavey T series guitar for a while now. To me they look completely 70's with the bare wood and the fantastically designed hardware. They very rarely come up for sale on Ebay UK and then this example comes up with a 00000000 serial Number. Oh my credit card is twitching!
SUPERB Vintage RARE 100% 1978 PEAVEY T-60 NAMM Protype s/n 0000 Fender strings! | eBay

Mmm! how about a shortscale tenor wooden banjo guitar. made from a breadbin.

The latest from the workshop is this sweet little instrument.

It shares elements from various instruments essentially it's a shortscale (18.5" ish) tenor guitar with a round wooden body like a mountain banjo. The inspiration for this came from a beech barrel shaped bread bin we had but with the arrival of two children a bigger bread bin was required so it's bread storing days are over. I figure I can make four instruments out of this bin and this is the first made from the base.

It has a Cedar top and Mahogany neck scarfe jointed angled headstock. The neck starts off at the body as a fat U profile and tapers to a fairly sharp V this is to keep strength in the non truss rod neck whilst making it feel slimmer. It has a lovely organinc feel and sit's in the crook of your thumb forefinger quite nicely  The neck is attached to the body with a dowel and glued leaving the body hollow. Strings are retained via a Mahogany tailpiece. The ferrules are made from the primers of a shotgun cartridge. It has a hand carved Corian nut.
It is tuned CGDA and despite it's diminutive size it is incredibly loud and sounds somewhere between a mandolin and banjo and even slightly Ukulele. It has a fairly narrow neck so nimbler fingers than mine would be needed to do anything to fancy on it. It's great as a strummer

 

Available on my Website now

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