Back in July I held a competition where the entrants had to design a guitar and I would build the winner. I only had 13 entries which was a little disappointing. I wittled them down to the 5 I thought where the most original and buildable within my budget then put them to a public vote on facebook.
The winner was John McInnes From Glasgow who designed a tenor guitar in the shape of a rubber chicken.
Here is his design.
Laugh though you may It did throw up some challenges in the build. When I started to draw it out I realised the original design was a little out scale wise for a tenor, (More in keeping with a Uke) If I had kept to the relative dimensions it would have been huge so I had to really re-design the shape to keep it a manageable size, even then the shape was quite a handful as I didn't have luxury of a nice template. I made up a rough one out of some old plastic advertising board but it wasn't really firm enough to do a good job especially around the feet. It was good enough though. I also splayed the legs a little more to get a more flying V effect and I think it makes for a more comedic posture.
Size wise It's not much shorter than a standard electric. The neck is a little long maybe I think it will look like it's been stretched rather amusingly when played.
I made it a neck through construction out of some Sapele with a maple fret board
Another challenge was the headstock which is the chickens head how the hell do I get that looking like a chicken head whilst the same time incorporating the machine heads? I decided to construct a cover plate that would sit above the machine heads. It had to be the right shape and cover them completely with the machine heads still being functional. Although you can tune the guitar freely with the head plate It would have to be removed it to re-string but it is only attached by three screws.
I placed the jack socket on the rear. Although that may seem silly it doesn't come any where near the players body. I didn't want to put it on the front for aesthetic reasons The natural place would have been between the legs but there really wasn't enough room with the string retainer plate being there.
Anyone who is familiar with my work will know I don't really do painted finishes. If I do they are very thin translucent finishes so a solid colour finish is a new thing. This is where I ran into a bit of trouble as I decided to do a hand painted finish firstly which turned out terrible. So I stripped it all off and got the spray cans out which ended out to be much nicer although not perfect
John is right handed so I moved the controls to the lower side. I also went for green chicken head knobs to match the green painted fret markers. .
The pickup is a nice little 4 pole cigar box guitar pickup that John kindly supplied.
So It's all built and strung up how does it play and sound? Actually it's quite nice to play the body has a natural knee rest and is nicely balanced. I have left the fitting of strap pins if required up to John. The neck is a quite chunky C profile so sits in the hand nicely. John is mainly a slide player so it it has been tuned up to open D with a fairly high action. The Little pickup delivers a really pleasing tone Nice and crisp on a clean setting with a tight overdriven tone with gain.
It has now flown the coup and on it's way north of the border. I have been informed that it will be maing it's performance debut on the 13th of December at Savifest at the the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow. With Johns band Colonel Mustard and the Dijon 5.
I'm pretty happy with it I only wish that I had better painting equipment alas space and money don't allow me this luxury.
The winner was John McInnes From Glasgow who designed a tenor guitar in the shape of a rubber chicken.
Here is his design.
Size wise It's not much shorter than a standard electric. The neck is a little long maybe I think it will look like it's been stretched rather amusingly when played.
I made it a neck through construction out of some Sapele with a maple fret board
Another challenge was the headstock which is the chickens head how the hell do I get that looking like a chicken head whilst the same time incorporating the machine heads? I decided to construct a cover plate that would sit above the machine heads. It had to be the right shape and cover them completely with the machine heads still being functional. Although you can tune the guitar freely with the head plate It would have to be removed it to re-string but it is only attached by three screws.
I placed the jack socket on the rear. Although that may seem silly it doesn't come any where near the players body. I didn't want to put it on the front for aesthetic reasons The natural place would have been between the legs but there really wasn't enough room with the string retainer plate being there.
Anyone who is familiar with my work will know I don't really do painted finishes. If I do they are very thin translucent finishes so a solid colour finish is a new thing. This is where I ran into a bit of trouble as I decided to do a hand painted finish firstly which turned out terrible. So I stripped it all off and got the spray cans out which ended out to be much nicer although not perfect
John is right handed so I moved the controls to the lower side. I also went for green chicken head knobs to match the green painted fret markers. .
The pickup is a nice little 4 pole cigar box guitar pickup that John kindly supplied.
So It's all built and strung up how does it play and sound? Actually it's quite nice to play the body has a natural knee rest and is nicely balanced. I have left the fitting of strap pins if required up to John. The neck is a quite chunky C profile so sits in the hand nicely. John is mainly a slide player so it it has been tuned up to open D with a fairly high action. The Little pickup delivers a really pleasing tone Nice and crisp on a clean setting with a tight overdriven tone with gain.
It has now flown the coup and on it's way north of the border. I have been informed that it will be maing it's performance debut on the 13th of December at Savifest at the the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow. With Johns band Colonel Mustard and the Dijon 5.
I'm pretty happy with it I only wish that I had better painting equipment alas space and money don't allow me this luxury.
