The crappiest guitar possible-project

[deeaa*]

Well, I was tidying up in the basement and it dawned on me that I had a freak assortment of old parts lying around, possibly enough to build me a guitar, even.

Then it occurred to me, since they won't make a _good_ guitar, I could make the crappiest possible guitar with as little effort as possible, and proceeded to work.

Got me a beat-up plywood strat body, and affixed an old Flying-V neck. Well it didn't seem to fit well so I sawed off an inch from the end w/a power saw, then used a rubber hammer to force it in the pocket. Fits snugly, but kind of droops downward a little. Accidentally also sawed thru the truss rod end, but that's only good as it should be a truly shitty ax in progress. Found some assorted screws and spacers and screwed it tight.

Then I eyeballed where approximately the bridge should rest, and used an old warped piece of sideboard to get it pretty much in the center in relation to the neck. Found an old Nashville bridge, and since it seemed by eye to be about the right height, I just screwed it down. Adjustment options are just too hi-fi for this build! And to accompany a stop-piece, this time I didn't bother with screws, just nailed it there.

Well at this point I remembered I have this entire Squier picguard with mics and all in place, but decided that'd be too hi-fi so I rummaged thru the shelves till I found three different single-coils from satan knows what guitar, and used a couple of thin nails to nail one down at the bridge, eyeballing the height to be and position. Should work well!

That took me literally less than ten minutes in all, but now it's nearly done!

All I need to do is solder in a jack for the mic, I think I'll skip even the vol pot for now, and then I need to find some machine heads. Some screws to hold something for a strap, and it'll be good to go when stringed.

I'll be really interested in seeing how well or badly I can make this bastard sound :-)

Pics follow in a moment...and when it's all done, expect also videos :-)

[deeaa*]

- Detail of the magnificent bridge system. It's a little off-center because the neck isn't quite straight in the pocket, this corrects the situation.


- Backside view showing the elaborate neck fastening.


- Neck pocket. You can see the extreme speed luthiering skills at work here; revealed and broke the truss rod cavity...


- She goan be a beaut! :-)

[kiteman]

Now that's a real frankenstrat.

[Zip]

Awesome build. No pickguard, please - it'll detract from the natural tone & beauty. I'd leave it as is.

And the bent nails are sheer genius. Should really add to the sweet sustain.

[deeaa*]

Been thinking maybe I should after all put in the whole 3-pickup set...just so that then it'd sound just like any Squier at least pickup-wise, and people could better detect the fine nuances my specialized build creates in the instrument sound :-)

I mean, it's just a few more nails at this stage.

Just looking for a set of tuners now...found one set for sale for a fiver, but they're 3+3 as they should and the price is kinda high...I'd like line 6, so even that would be wrong, and even cheaper, after all, this build has cost me virtually zero euros so far, all parts have been given to me or literally from some junkpile :-)

[marnold***]

The guitar will certainly have a punk vibe. My guess is that it will never come close to intonating, but it should be interesting.

[Bloozcat]

I'm not sure that"crappy" goes far enough, Dee....

[FusedGrooves]

Awesome.....put it on Ebay and see what you can get for it. I'd love to see your Item Description!

Nails and all.....you Sir, are a genius!

[omegadot]

I'll buy....but not for much.

[Katastrophe]

Awesome.....put it on Ebay and see what you can get for it. I'd love to see your Item Description!

Nails and all.....you Sir, are a genius!

Be sure to call it a "heavy relic," filled with "mojo," if you do sell it!

Genius, indeed, a mad, guitar ripping genius!

[deeaa*]

UPDATE: I scored a set of tuners for it, so now I have all parts I need. Just need to attach those machine heads and nail in some assorted pickups - I decided I'll put in all three in traditional Strat style - and it's string-up time!

Killer busy at work&other too just now but expect video clips soon(ish).

[LeadedEL84]

OMG this is funny stuff. I think I've seen guitars like this on ebay before. That's what you call a RAT O CASTER! Those in the traditional hotrod scene will know what that means....

[deeaa*]

Well, the guitar is now ready. It is axtually quite a nice player. At first the bridge was too low, but I crammed a screw under it , forcing the treble side higher so it will allow bends high up too without problems. The neck is rather thin znd nice, and the scale allows for soft touch. Intonatipn is quite OK no worse than those one-piece stopbar gibsons or 3-saddle teles - slightly off here and there but much less than your regular acoustic for instance. Luckily the neck tension works ok.

I need to post some videos/sound clips, but also on that front it's quite usable...I will probably use it to record some parts where I need a soft strat sound.

All in all, it sounds and plays better than my first factory-made strat copy ever did...

[deeaa*]

Here:



Overall photo shows well how much to the side the bridge was set due to neck direction. Now has Squire pickups; just snapped a piece off the pickguard to jam it in.



Got tuners! One is broke, the shaft I mean, but somehow works just about.



The Gibson scale neck fits in place with an inch sawed off.



The hi-fi style bridge height adjustment screw and nail...



A good view of the nailed stopbar. Only later realized the nails went straight thru, so I had to pound them flat on the other side.



The neck pocket might have cracked some when I hammered the neck in (it was a bit too wide to fit so needed plenty of power. Also it's a bit tilted still so I had to raise higher strings to compensate.



Finally the backside showing off the quality of the woods...and some nail protrudement correction marks, plus someone carved a foul word up there, not me...

[deeaa*]

OK!

Here's a video for your...eh, pain?



With those squier single-coils and an amp less than famed for drive sounds, the drives are a bit lacking. But, all in all, it sounds quite OK to me. Even intonation was close enough just by eyeballing the distances.

This is not meant to say that small changes in material etc. won't change the instrument's sound, but seriously - this guitar has _nothing_ good or correct about it, everything is made as bad as I could, built in 30 minutes flat all together, and it cost under 20 bucks but _still_ it is quite useable both playing-and soundwise, and, well, I don't know if putting thousands in a guitar would really make any better noises for a lot of uses. It's just a plank of wood or whatever, and pickups, no magic. Of course a few hundred more will buy a much better instrument, but hey - I've played worse factory-made instruments too!

[deeaa*]

As of now the video won't show...here's a direct link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugOxWQIjOTY

[Monkus]

That.is.awesome.....wow.!

[oldguy]

I like it, Deeaa!
Really nice, and goes to show ability is a big part of the equation.

[marnold***]

Sounds pretty good, actually. You've certainly got yourself a one-of-a-kind guit-fiddle!