ShonKy Breadbin Tenor Guitar

You may remember the breadbin short scale  Breadbin Shortscale Tenor I made and sold a while back well here is the second instrument made from the breadbin.
I opted for a normal 22" scale tenor guitar for this one. I have also gone for a cleaner look with binding around the body.

It features a solid Cedar top. The breadbin is beech.

 Sapele neck with purple heart fret board

 I've actually changed the white plastic ferrules for chrome ones as the plastic ones come off too easy.

 Banjo style heel

For sale at ShonKy Musical Instruments

I can make another 2 instruments from the Breadbin. The next one in progress at the moment is a mandola and it really will be something special

Tenor Ukulele

Here is the Finished Tenor Ukulele that I mentioned a few posts ago.
Mahogany Back & Sides & Cedar Top with Rosewood binding. (the rosewood is not too noticeable but should darken with age. The neck is made from some unidentified exotic hardwood with a Wenge fingerboard. The fret markers are Weng and Aluminium. The Saddle Is made from the the same wood as the neck with a Wenge  accent The Headstock also has a Wenge accent and there is a Wenge Bump Strip and Jack plate on the Bottom. nut and saddle are hand carved from Corian. the machine heads are open faced ones with plastic buttons which I treated to make them look like bone.
The mahogany is reclaimed The neckwood and wenge is very old stock and the cedar is sustainable.
It has Aquila strings and it has been fitted with 2 Piezo discs.

Really pleased with the look and design of this build It's only the second full acoustic build I have done the first being a strumstick which is pretty simple. I found it very nice and comfortable to play. soundwise a very mellow warm sound. Not as loud as I would have liked. I think I am also getting very good results with the antique patina finish. It does look like it's very old and well played and loved.

The owner Marko who originally commissioned a cigar box Uke but due to an error on my part with the original build and the lack of a suitable cigar box to build another one. ended up with letting me build my own body. He has kindly written me a comprehensive review which is under the pics.

Hi Anthony,

 

Uke arrived yesterday. It was very nicely packed, thank you.

 

I really like it. I spend a couple of hours last night playing it.

 

Sound is very nice and rich, very suitable for blues (as well as the looks). It is not as loud as I wanted to be, but it still might get better when it matures. All the sounds come out very clearly, you can hear all the strings individually(what is not always good thing when it shows the lack of your skills J ). Sound is very balanced and it doesn’t get muddy if you strum it harder.

 

I like the aged look. Very nice.

 

The neck is a bit thicker than I originally wanted but it works well with levelled back. Very comfortably to take barre chords. So nothing to complain there. Action is spot on. Very pleased with that. Much better than any ukulele I have played. Very low and no buzz. Perfect. Feel a bit like playing an electric guitar.

 

The balance is pretty good. The headstock could be a bit lighter, but it sits nicely with the quite heavy neck joint. Very comfortable to hold even standing up.  Many ukuleles are very light to give good resonance but are many times very fiddly to hold and move easily when moving chords quickly. Overall this uke is much heavier than most of the ukes I have played (except resonator ones) but it is not a bad thing.

 

Build quality and finish is very impressive.

 

I don’t currently have an amplifier, so I couldn’t test how it would be plugged in, but hopefully soon. I am sure it would be pleasure to play it amplified.

 

It was nice touch how it stands up on the floor.

 

So overall I am very pleased with it and this beauty jumped to my number one uke straight away.

 

Thank you.

 

ShonKybox Flor de Santolina 4 String Slide Tenor Guitar

My latest guitar is this lovely little 4 string slide guitar in a tenor scale.
Made from  a vintage mahogany box, added mahogany bouts. braced and re-enforced. A mahogany neck with an offset open book headstock. The neck is attached to the body via a tenon joint.
wenge fingerboard, Grover tuning machines and twin disc piezo's.
I attached the label from the inside of box from the Pleasant dreams 1 String on to the headstock for a bit of colour.
The floating bridge is a banjo style Walnut and Ebony. It has an Ebony nut. The strings are anchored via a Brass Tailpiece.
It does have Strap pins although I didn't have them on when I took the photo's.

 

Pleasant Dreams

The latest Guitar out of the Workshop is this cute little 1 string CBG. Available from my Website

Although it's probably more decorative than a use able guitar it does have a Piezo installed and it sounds as good as you would expect. I have strung it with a flat wound string I happened to have. A conventional string would be better but I'll leave that up to the new owner.

This ShonKybox is a simple very primitive 1 string cigar box guitar. Built to emulate an early cigar box guitar.

It's been constructed from an antique Pleasant Dreams Cigar box.

The box has been re-enforced and braced.

The neck is made from some exotic hard wood that I don't recognise.

It has been hand carved with primitive style scrolls.

It has a scarfe jointed headstock.

The neck is attached to the body with a dowel that goes right through the body leaving the box to resonate freely.

The nut, bridge and tuning peg are hand carved from Ebony.

All the wood used is re-claimed.

It is strung with a flat wound D guitar string.

Due to the label being where it was It's kind of oriented left handed but it can be played either.

It has a disc piezo installed.

The Box is pretty much as found. the neck has been stained to look old and the whole instrument has been bee waxed.

Sound wise it plays as well as you would expect a very small box 1 string instrument to play.

It is designed for playing with a slide.

Length: 68cm

Box Dimensions: 20cm x 11.5cm x 3cm

 

Any how after a fairly quiet couple of months due to the doldrums of Winter I'm back on form and the guitars are coming thick and fast.

A four string Slider will be unveiled shortly. I also have another 6 stringer on the way and also some a conventional electric Using the Beatnik body shape. I am using some old table tops for the wood.

I really want to find some old Tiesco type thin pick-ups for it but they seem to be few and far between and when they do come up they are not cheap.

 

 

The Firewood Special No1 The most enviromentally guitar ever?

In between other projects and having a new arrival in the family. I challenged myself to making a guitar completely out of recycled stuff.  A  rummage through my scrap wood pile destined for the fire and grabbing all the other necessary stuff from my parts bin and scrap metal bin I came up with this beast.

So not quite 100% recycled as the cable pins are new and I used a bit of solder wood stain and of course the glue, but every other part is. even the strings, electric wires etc, I even used some waste paint that I get from my local paint shop.

To make this even more environmentally friendly I used the minimum amount of resources to finish it. It has been sanded enough to take any rough edges off and then given a wood stain and a beeswax polish. most of  the wood is as found.

It has 4 strings.  A bass string and 3 guitar strings. It's a 2nd bass string and 2nd 3rd 4th guitar strings Tuned to D D,A,D.

The neck is an old Fender Starcaster one. The pointy arrow shape which is a terrible neck hence why Ive used it for a slide guitar.

The top bout of the body is from a horrible plywood Strat which I quickly attacked with the belt sander
The rest of the guitars body is made from Mahogany pieces.

I don't know where the Humbuckers come from but they look to be pretty cheap and nasty. I wired them together in effect to make 1 4 coil pickup.

An old volume and tone control attached to a bit of old steel sheet. (tone doesn't do much if anything).

The nut is carved from solid bone found in the hedge.

The bridge is from a brass off cut.

Various old tuning machines.

How does it sound?  Well pretty damn raucous!

I'll be putting this on Ebay as an Auction soon.