ShonKy Cricket Bat guitar or Cricket Batar.

I'm not the first person to have built a cricket bat guitar. famously captain sensible sported one although not a real cricket bat I believe.
I was asked If I could make one for a commission and I thought how hard can it be.
as it turns out, not as straight forward as you would think. but as I was going to make one I wanted it to be a good one.

I decided on a tune-o-matic bridge and decided to go for a string through rather than a tailpiece as the posts would have been close to the edge of the guitar.

Most electric guitar bodies are a flat piece of wood whereas a cricket bat doesn't have a flat straight side apart from thankfully the edges. the back is curved with a ridge which expands about two thirds of the way down. the front is concave curve along its length and an arched top more arched than a les paul.

I managed to route out the neck pocket and humbucker cavity without much drama as I could hold the bat in my vice with the top of the bat at the same level as the top of the vice jaws and the templates rested nicely across these.
My first couple of attempts at drilling the post holes  failed miserably due to not being able to keep the bat straight under my admittedly woeful pillar drill.  The distance was ok but the holes where at slightly different angles the bridge wouldn't sit on the posts.
This meant I had to make some jigs to hold the bat steady so I cut v shapes into some blocks of old wood roughly sanded them so the bat sat in them without moving. a bit of double sided tape ensured a steady hold and managed to drill the holes perfectly after that.

I also had to fashion a block of wood to make the neck joint wide enough for the screws, create recesses for the knobs to sit in, and also shape the inside curve of the pick up ring to match the curve of the body.

One thing I forgot to take into account was the holes for the wires. The natural place for the controls are behind the bridge and the jack socket fits nicely at the bottom of the bat but having drilled the holes for the posts and the strings I then had to some how navigate the holes from the control cavity to the pick up route. first attempt I went through the post hole which wasn't a problem as I used that for the earth second attempt I managed to get past all the holes but missed the pickup cavity luckily without exiting through anywhere else.  3rd attempt was successful.  I have a commission for another one and will probably go for a top loading bridge. maybe a wraparound type which would be simpler as a fender hard tail style will require a flat surface. .

Apart from those issues the remaining build was fairly straight forward and I really like the finished result Its very odd to play due to the small width and the ridge on the rear makes it want to lie slightly horizontally the best way is definitely on a strap fairly low strung. and it balances fairly well and I think I've knocked it over the boundary with this one :-D.

Building a Cigar Box style Ukulele from a Firewood log

My firewood delivery arrived back in December and amongst them where several square chunks of poplar So I thought I would challenge myself to build an instrument out of one.
All wooden instruments start of with a log at some point but rarely builders actually start with one preferring to use pre processed wood that is already planed dimensioned to make less work.
Here is the chopped log roughly 12" long and about 5" wide

First job is to process the wood so I cut as many 5mm thick slices as I could whilst still leaving a large enough block for the neck

After measuring the neck pieces I realised I had enough to make a tenor scale but had to scarfe joint the headstock on. The poplar is really nice to scarfe joint as it's pretty fibrous and grips really well so only 1 clamp needed.

Next was to rough shape the neck

So at this stage I have the neck blank top and bottom which are in two halves and the sides and enough left over for bracing. I decided to use a thin slice of mahogany for the fretboard for extra stability and a bit of contrast although I did have enough to make it out of the log.

I then glued on some sides to the headstock to increase the width

Along with the mahogany fretboard I decided on an Amazique bridge as the poplar wouldn't be strong enough for my design of bridge as the strings rest in slots.

Next was to sand the body panels and joint them together I only sanded them on the insides as it's easier to sand the outside once it's been made into a box.

The box construction is simply gluing little bars along the inside edges of the panels leaving a little recess for the sides to fit into (sorry forgot to take pics of this bit) Then clapming the sides down

The picture shows the top on here but that was only to hold it together as haven't put the bracing on yet.

Gluing the bracing you can see the inner frame that the sides fit into here.  The bracing is simple I have no method really for a cigar box instrument my main concern it to re-enforce the top there is also the bridge plate that sits behind the bridge.

I made some dowels out of some of the poplar for the fret markers. (Unfortunately when I stained the uke these virtually disappeared)

So here is the neck Blank Mahogany fret board and Bridge all completed.

Next job is to glue the fretboard on (I always do this before shaping the neck).

Then final neck shaping

I cut an (not sure why but an egg shape took my fancy) sound hole

and glued the top on

Then once that was dry I sanded down the outside of the box thinning the top down to about 3mm

Here it is with the neck placed and bridge on to see what it would like completed.

Next job fretting the board and drilling the holes for machine heads

Once that's done its the job of gluing the neck on. Again sorry for the lack of pics but I glued in a rctangular block of poplar in the L shape of the heel and fret board and cut a slot in the top of the box to make a tenon joint. There is a heel block inside the box for this tenon to fit inside. A bar clamp to keep the heel against the body and a clamp to keep the fretboard on is all that's required.

To fit the bridge I drill two holes with a deep counter sink. Glue and screw the bridge. The screws go through to the bridge plate underneath the top. Then fill the countersunk hole with the rest of the dowell

1st stain going for my rustic aged look

2nd stain and coat of clear matt lacquer

I cut a corian nut and saddle  fitted the machine heads strung it up(Sorry no pics again) and here is the finished Uke

And here is a video demo of the finished Uke

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.

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. .