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.