ShonKy Trashpunk Junkaster

I made this one last year but never got around to writing a blog about it and feel it's worthy of it's own space on the internet.
When I started making guitars I initially though I would make them all wiled and wacky however that hasn't happened nand hadn;t for a while.
I had the need to make something a bit more artistic so hence the Trashpunk was born
 Made with  Brass bits and some broken xmas tree lights and a neck with a broken truss rod lot's of copper wiring other metal bits and odd guitar parts. Some old pine and a part of an Ibanez copy body
AS the neck was unfunctional as a standard guitar I came upon the idea of capo-ing 4 strings at the 3rd fret essentially making it a tenor guitar and having one bass string going to the headstock.
The four strings are tuned to CGDA and the bass string tuned to C.  The other Idea was to use an old microphonic pickup so I could get lots of sounds from the things I was going to stick on like the clock spring. I was almost going to fit a piezo pickup too but the kay is so microphonic there was no need.
Once I had put it together I stained it to look grubby and worn.

The overall effect is post apocalyptic like something in a mad max movie.  Turn up the amp with loads of gain and it sounds pretty apocalyptic too. tap the clarinet horn and the open strings just vibrate the clock spring and bridge really twang through the body too. and the feedback oh yes!
Oh yeah and it lights up too haha. It was a nice alternative Christmas decoration on my wall over the festive period.

 

ShonKy Graffiti

When I first starting making guitars I made up a pine body blank with the intention of making myself a Telecaster. (Pine is easy to cut and route for a beginner and cheap if it goes wrong. I never made that telecaster but the other day I found the blank which was made from 8 or so 40x40mm lengths laminated together. Since then my guitar making journey has gone on a much more artistic direction as soon as I was re-united with the blank I knew I had to do something wacky with it.
My aim when making a guitar is to not follow any preconceived ideas what a guitar should look like. I would almost like to say I'm a freestyle Luthier! Of course it should play well and I also believe it should be comfortable to play seated as well as standing up.
I came up with the shape by drawing straight onto the wood. Once I had this shape and fitted a neck to it It was soon apparent that a neck with a standard strat shaped headstock was going to look pretty rubbish so I cut of the Strat contours leaving a straight edge and spliced a piece of plywood to it which I then shaped to echo the body's wackyness.
Of course having such a bonkers shape just leaving it natural was not going to work so it needed some shouty colours. These where all hand applied acrylic and the top coat is 5 coats of sating water based varnish which leaves a lovely finish. It also makes the neck very smooth and slippery.

The Scratch plate is made from some old oak furniture laminate. It is Shielded with aluminium foil.
The Control Knobs are again  made  from plywood and they are seated on an aluminium cover plate.
The electrics are all new apart from the capacitor which is from an old phone socket.

The pickups are re-used. The neck is a USA Fender Strat Pick-up and the bridge is an unknown fibre bobbin, cloth wired Alnico Strat pickup. I think I'm going to swap them around as the Fender pick-up has a much fuller sound than the other one and be better suited to the bridge position.
It has  a new skeletal style hard tail top loading bridge and re-used but very good condition Jin Ho tuning machines.

Once I had put it together I thought it looked like a graffiti drawing of a guitar so hence I have called it the Graffiti. I have really enjoyed the whole process of making this guitar and I am over the moon with the finished product. Lets face it if you had this amongst several guitars on the wall this is the eye catcher despite its glorious Shonkiness. I have a feeling this is the first of a Graffiti series!

Anyway Here's the pictures. Now for sale On my ShonKy website. Or if you prefer Ebay

 

Royal Wedding Commemorative Paper Plate

Being a loyal subject I thought I would make some paper plates as an alternative to all the other tacky shit wedding commemorative stuff


Theres ten altogether Numbered and signed

Alternative Royal Wedding Paper Plate Ltd ed No 6/10 on eBay (end time 17-Apr-11 20:23:48 BST)
Click on sellers other items for the others