Hi All, I made a Guitar to go with my practice amp described previously.
I wanted it to be as light as possible!
When I was young I would pick up a 9Kg instrument without thinking, nowadays something that heavy feels like its glued to the floor.

The good news is I wound up with 3.5Kg, my target was 3Kg and I see now I could do that with a bit more trimming of wood.
To get the basics right I used a Kit from "Bulldog", the overall dimensions, fret spacing are then already set and you get a set of parts that you know will work together.
This is not a precision guitar! It is made from wood by Bunnings and work by Lever who makes things up as he goes.
The performance is as good as any other $200 shop bought guitar. Not being a player I would not know the difference.
Players say its a bit dull and light, the action is too low (or too high) and so on.
The strings are just standard working strings, a tin bridge, creaky tensioners but it sounds fine to me.
The appearance makes people laugh, like a 1960's throwback, see what you think.


Fred.

Making a lightweight bass guitar

Making a lightweight bass guitar, Part 2

Another good job, Fred.

This does remind me of the time I was about 9 years old and I made a 'guitar' out of timber from a pie crate as part of a school project. It was just a box shape about the size of a banjo and it had four fishing lines stretched at different tensions to make them sound different, though obviously not the right material to get the right notes. It was back in the days when pie crates were rough-sawn softwood of some sort rather than the more durable plastic ones we see these days.

That said, I am sure that your creation will sound much better than mine did. It also looks better.

Hi Brad, yes mine is probably a tad better than the pie crate model!
That would have been a mighty good project however and demonstrate the basics of a stringed instrument.
If you were driven you may then have wound up making concert level Violins!!
That yearning to mimic a real thing with whatever you have at the time is the basis of the success of any inventor or specialist in any endeavour.
Then all one has to do is improve each bit until the whole then does really do what it should!
Astronauts start off making balsa planes, F1 drivers make orange box Karts, they imagine, then do, then improve the model or circumstance.
While not at that level, through my working life I could imagine what I wanted to make and could not understand while others could not "see" the finish product and work out the steps needed to arrive there.
As you can see now I just get stuck in, use what I know or think works and hack away until I get there.
C'mon guys how about a few of you wanting and doing and making a few superhet radios or similar from the chassis up and wood up..
Don't worry about not "knowing" how to do something, not knowing anything about guitars didn't stop me from making one.
If only I had a shred of talent in playing it!!!
Fred.

To be honest, I don't ever remember what inspired me to make it. I do remember that our class was asked to make some sort of musical instrument and most just made basic ones like a length of broom stick with beer bottle tops to mimic the sound of a tambourine or a drum kit from paint tins and rulers, etc. I guess I just had that urge to go the extra mile.

I was one of those nerdy kids who used to make the morse code outfit with the dial lamp, dolphin battery and copper strips for the key, etc. When I was in third form I made a full size gold rocking cradle from the same pie crates, complete with wire grids, carpet to trap the alluvial and to add the finishing touch, I reinforced the corners of the cradle with strips of copper. This was a history project and it gobsmacked my teacher not just because of the nature of what I did but because I was usually a lazy turd at school and never did homework or assignments.

My only regret is that I don't have any photos of these things that I used to bang together.

I was usually a lazy turd at school and never did homework or assignments.

Same here. I never liked the idea of unpaid required overtime.

Second document uploaded to Post 1.