Fitting a Horseshoe Vibrato (Bigsby style) To a Telecaster. ShonKy Bedcaster

Recently I made  a Tele shaped guitar out of my daughters redundant cot bed.
I basically laminated the thicknessed planks together and routed out the shape. The neck and all other parts where recycled and I put a new budget electrical control plate on.
To get a quick sale and a bit of cash in the coffers I put it on ebay for auction.
As with all my guitars I sell I offer to upgrade any pickups and parts and the buyer wanted a Bigsby style tremolo.
There aren't many options for fitting one to a tele. You have the official Bigsby Unit with the replacement bridge and pickup plate which is beautiful and very expensive. (more than the guitar sold for)  There is also the stetsbar unit which is pretty cool looking bit of kit but also very expensive. .
Other options are taking the bridge off completely Making a separate plate to hold the pickup and fitting a TOM roller bridge or in this case adapting the bridge plate.
This one had a top stringing bridge but with 6 individual strat style saddles. To have the strings going from the bigsby through the holes in the back and then through each individual saddle was going to cause no end of problems with the strings catching on all that. so I swapped the bridge for a 3 saddle plate and put some wilkinson brass compensated saddles on. I simply elongated the holes so the strings would pass freely through them without touching anything, attached the bigsby strung it up and hey presto job done.

One final tip. the strings will rock the saddles when operating the vibrato Due to the sharp apex of the compensated saddle and the raised height of them causing a creaking noise I simply put a little touch of copper lube in between string and saddle which eliminated this. It would probably need to be done on a regular basis I expect over time the strings will wear a groove and it will be less of a problem.
Anyhow guitar is with it's new happy owner now. Heres a couple more pics of the finished guitar.

Tenor guitar No 7 with Demo. ShonKy cigar box guitar

It's been a busy couple of months here at ShonKy HQ
I've mostly been working on several commissions for solid body guitars details of which will come later. In between that I have managed to build a few cigar box instruments to sell.
One of them is this lovely little Tenor CBG
The 7th Ive made now.
I made the box on this one as had a bit of spruce doing nothing. The neck is Sapele with some unknown exotic hardwood for the fingerboard. Tenon jointed to the body.
 I decided on ovankol binding for the body and fingerboard too. Square fret markers.
Spalted Beech headstock front and heel cap add just the right amount of interest to an otherwise clean and simple build.
It's really lovely all round and sounds particularly good through an amp. Also very pleased with the F holes which I carved out with a dremel freehand.
SOUnd demo is below the pics.

Primitive Syle Diddley bow. 1 string cigar box guitar.

Here's another recent commission completed.
Its a 1 String Lefty. made in in a really primitive fashion. To get the effect The only power tool I used was a drill everything else was hand tools.
Made from a vintage solid wood German cigar box and a left over stick of maple. I used a  spokeshave to whittle the neck.
A Friend gave me some Deer Antlers that I used for the bridge, nut and end pin/ string Anchor.
I wanted to make a tuning peg out of the antler too but after spending a fair bit of time whittling one it just wasn't strong enough to withstand the stress so I resorted to using an classical guitar peg which I removed the button and replaced it with an Antler piece.
 the fret markers are roofing tacks.
to finish it was give a coat of woodstain. (Ebony and Oak thinned with white spirit.)
The last pic is of The new owner (Kev) who is very pleased with it.

Another tenor guitar

Another tenor guitar the 7th so far.
I made the box for this one from some left over spruce. I used some Ovankol binding left over from a previous fret board for the top of the box and  the fret board.

This one sounds quite nice acoustically but not fantastically loud. it is fitted with a piezo and sounds particularly good through an amp with little of the hand noise transference you usually get so I'm pretty pleased with that.
I'm also pretty pleased with the soundholes. Using a hand held dremel with no templates.

2 string fretless cigar box bass guitar

Its been a while since I posted anything (as usual) Mostly the summer holidays and getting a few commissions which has made me very busy.
The latest creation is this 2 string upright bass commissioned by Gavin Lloyd Wilson of Guitars Blog the second after the Double neck I built earlier this year.

SO here it is a 2 string fretless bass
Made with a vintage cigar box, reclaimed  maple neck with a lovely character grain Ovankol fingerboard.
Split pbass pickups and jazz bass wiring. He also wanted to be able to play it in an upright position which makes sense as it will be so neck heavy. So I used a snooker cue. I removed the ferrule from the unused half which I them embedded into the bottom of the body the thin end then can be screwed in easily or removed for portability. It was an idea suggested by some kind folks on the cigar box guitar builders group on facebook.

Tips and tricks Cleaning a really dirty rosewood fret board

I thought I would start an occasional tips and tricks entry to share some of the things I have learned or developed myself to maintain, repair or get the best out of a guitar.

 

I recently took in  this lovely vintage Japanese Zenta. It's is in very good condition but very dirty. especially the fret board which has a large amount of ingrained grubbiness as can be seen from the first picture here. Must have been a gardeners guitar.

 

Most would get the wire wool out on this type of dirt but the problem with that I find is you have to go across the grain and this will show scratch marks unless you use very fine wire wool which will take an age to clean this kind of dirt and unless you have very good fret work with no gap between fret and board  I find it leaves tiny bits of steel wool fragments catching under the frets.
I use a backed razor blade or a Stanley knife blade and gently scrape the dirt off. Moving between frets along the grain. at pretty much 90 degrees to the board You will find this very quickly and effectively removes the dirt. You will have some dirt compressed into the edges of the frets I use the very corner of the blade to slide right along the fret edge taking care not to dig into the wood.
You shouldn't have to worry about damaging the wood as long as you are firm don't push too hard and be careful not to slip which is quite easy if you go too fast.
If your fret board has wear or if it's shrunk a little and your fret dots are raised you can go a little harder taking the very top surface off the wood or dots off to even it up.  Believe it or not all the dust in the picture below is just the dirt and maybe a little of the dots that where ever so slightly proud of the board.

 

Use a brush to brush off the dust and hey presto one clean fret board.

You can see som lateral scratch marks these are from a previous clean or maybe from the original manufacture.

I also dressed and polished the frets at this stage.

To finish it off I apply two coats of Danish oil thinned 50 - 50 with white spirit. This sinks into the wood brings out the grain very nicely. levels off the surface and dries to a hard durable natural finish which should last for many years.

 

Of course dirt like this can be avoided by washing your hands before playing and cleaning the fretboard with a rag after playing or at least every time you change strings.

 

Two Tenor Ukulele Commisions

Just completed two tenor Ukes for commissions.
The first one is a completely built body from birch ply with a spruce top
I don't have the money to get or the space to have bending equipment so wanted to make a body that I can make without that isn't Square. I made This one similar a while ago and this is a development of that.
The Customer also wanted a highly decorated design with art nouveau patterns incorporating a design of a lady playing the Uke on the back.

The second is a commission from a customer who I built a cigar box guitar for a while ago.

He wanted a left handed electric tenor uke and gave me free reign on it :-)

I have been wanting to venture into resonators (Mainly as I have a potential commission to make one).  but in the tradition of upcycling without using a bought resonator kit. The first one was the 3 string firewood special I built a couple of months ago using a polish tin which worked quite well. So I decide to build the Uke along similar Lines. The resonator for this is a Kettle lid. I routed out a round cavity which the lid fits into snugly. Bored a hole through the back as a soundport and screwed a hardwood bridge onto it. Considering the size it works remarkably well with a nice transistor radio sound acoustically. The pickup is a 60's Japanese red foil lap steel guitar pickup maybe a guyatone. .