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.

 

 

Spiderman Guitar

One of 2 commissions recently completed. The other one was a Dulcimer that I forgot to take pictures of! This one was for the son of a friend of mine.
It's a Brand new Tanglewood Acoustic Classical. Even though Tanglewood have a reasonably good reputation I felt the action was still way too high so I changed the strings for some D,addarios and lowered the action to make it as playable as possible for a beginner.. The stock action was pretty bad It had a QC sticker with the action height signed off 4.6mm at the 12th fret make it more 6.4. Maybe the QC guy was having a lazy day!. It's now 3mm.
The Artwork was created using alcohol pens and white enamel. few coats of  Acrylic Clear coat to seal and protect. I nearly used Poly by mistake which would have dissolved the pen!

New ShonKybox 6 string cigar box guitar

Happy new year
Just completed the latest ShonKybox guitar
This one has the obligatory Cohiba cigar box. A little different is the neck from a First Act Sheena CE 220. This is a 25" scale length. very nice and well made neck. I've also used the pickup from the same guitar which is a single coil and has that old school blues sound.
I've kept things simple with a single volume control.
The neck is attached to a central block of mahogany which runs the length of the box.
The  added bouts are also from reclaimed mahogany and hand carved.
It has re-used tom bridge and tailpiece.
It has been given my signature aged "oil stain" finish created using wood stains.
It has new Wilkinson ez lock tuning machines.
 

ShonKy S-Honk 6 String

I just realised I neglected to post a blog about this one. It's quite hard to keep up with listing them on Ebay, my website, here and my facebook page
It has been sold and migrated to California the second of my cbg's to do so. maybe they will start an owners club there soon haha!
Here was the listing as it was from my website.

It features a Cohiba Cigar box with added re-claimed Mahogany body bouts. They are not just for show they are designed specifically to make the S-Honk a very comfortable and ergonomic guitar to play and to add weight.

The neck is a re-used Squier Strat maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. The headstock has been re-shaped. The neck is straight and the frets are virtually wear free.

Brand new tuning machines

It has a single re-used humbucker of unknown origin in the bridge position which has a volume and tone to control it.

It also features the "S-Honk" control which makes the tone more honky. It actually is 2 piezo discs attached to the underside of the box lid with there own volume control. The Tone control also works for the piezo's. Turn it up and you get all the acoustic tones of the box you can even hear your fingers on the fretboard.

The neck is attached to a solid Mahogany core which runs the length of the box. The lid of the box (guitar top) Isn't fixed to the central core so It can resonate. This means the S-Honk can be played acoustically albeit at a quiet volume. Ideal for late night noodling. It has a boxy tone as you would expect from a box!

It is not possible to open the lid access to the electronics are via 2 panels on the rear.

Hardwear is all re-used but very good condition and good quallity chrome.

The body has been given an aged but not too battered finish to offset the shiny chrome.

 

 

ShonKybox Tenor guitar

Here is my Tenor guitar made from an Aurora Preferidos cigar box.
This was a nice big cigar box and I wanted to make an instrument that would benefit from the volume.
Unfortunately I had to lose the lovely artwork as it had an MDF lid which doesn't make the best soundboard so I thought I would make my first tone wood topped instrument. I got  some Cedar of a seller on Ebay. Why cedar and not spruce? I have made a few CBG's out of boxes with cedar lids and I love the tone. whether spruce would be much different I don't know.
The neck is made fom my dwindling pile of exotic wood offcuts from a retiring wood turner. I don't know what wood type it is but it has similar grain and structure to the wenge which I used for the fingerboard.
I made extensive efforts to make the top reverberate and keeping the rest of the box still. recent CBG's and my last ukulele had the problem of the whole box sounding rather than just the top thus when resting against the players body muffling the sound of the guitar. The trouble is the top is generally thicker and stiffer than the the rest of the box particularly the back which is usually made from very thin wood.
I ladder braced the back and X braced the top.
Instead of having the neck going through it is attached via a tenon joint to allow the whole of the body to be an open space. I don't know anyone else doing this with CBG's.
The rest of the box is re-enforced along the inner corners and around the neck joint to provide stability.
The end result is a great sounding instrument. Better than I expected. The bracing has worked beautifully. No muffling. The top rings out with a clear crisp tone and extraordinary volume.
I have tuned this standard Tenor tuning (GDAE) with the correct gauge strings from Clifford Essex Music which unlike most CBG's is suitable for folk rather than Blues.
Now available on the ShonKy website

Here's the pics and Spec.

Specification:

Body: Aurora Preferidos cigar box, Cedar tone wood x braced top.

Neck: Unknown exotic hardwood.

Fingerboard: Wenge.

Dot markers: Wenge and Aluminium

Bridge: Australian Walnut.

Nut: Brass and Paduak.

Tuning machines: Gold plated Sealed. Heart buttons.

Finish: Brush applied water based satin polyurethane lacquer

Length: 760mm

Width: 205mm

Depth: 100mm

Scale length: 560mm / 22"

November Update

You may of noticed if you are a regular reader (Do I have any? Still no official followers sniff). That I have changed tho look of the blog. I felt it looked a bit stuffy serious and formal which just isn't me so I have a play around. Please let me know if you like the change.

Today I realised it's going to be difficult to work in my workshop as it was so cold. I have no heating in it though so I'm looking for a cheap mini woodburner. It will make good use of all those offcuts.

On the table at the moment is a First act Sheena which had a seperating fret board, broken machine head and missing bridge. I've repaired the neck and I am just waiting for the bridge to turn up. Typically I have a box of tunomatic bridges but none of them fit. It has slightly bigger post holes and slightly wider spacing. I can't wait to get it finished as I'm quite keen to hear it. They are lovely looking guitars, however, this one is still going to look a bit trashed.

Also on the table and not far off finished is a mocking bird copy, a new 6 string cigar box guitar and a tele-esque guitar Which I am doing a stained glass type montage with pictures of classic 70's Album covers.

Remember my Yamaha Pacifica. Although I had restored it, after a couple of weeks the novelty had worn off and it had been relegated to the back of the guitar rack again. I decided the neck for me had  past it's best. I had a neck from a Yamaha RGX 121z (3 a side) and all the cosmo black hardwear.
one thing that had never occured to me was the fact that my Pacifica 112j has got an ash body yes that's right an ash body. I have not seen another one. I sanded it to get to the bare wood. Given it a dark woodstain. put the 121z neck on and all the black hardwear and it looks so much nicer. and plays a lot better. the newer neck feels a lot more lively.  I still have to tidy it up and I'm going to get a black scratchplate. Once3 that's done I'll get some photo's up.
by the way as testament to Yamaha's build quality the 121z neck fits perfectly the neck holes where spot on although I had already filled them.

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