Gas Can Electric Guitar?

[Justin Exline]

Hey everybody! Pretty new to building and working on guitars. I'm looking to build an electric guitar out of a gas can. Looking for plans online but cant really find what I'm looking for. Was wondering if anybody here could point me somewhere to get started!
Thanks for any help!

[Leonardo Silva]

what do you mean by "gas can"?, are you planning on building something similar to a cigarbox guitar?

and by "plans", there are a bunch of sites with plans, but the issue is to print them in real-life scale, some measurements are crucial, like scale and bridge positioning, if you can have a trustworthy real life plan printed, then it's cool, if you can't, some stuff might not fit.

[Peter Wilcox]

First, do you want to use a pre-made neck, or make your own neck?

[Beate Ritzert]

I know a German hobbyist who has done that (a full 6 string with 2 pickups). There is a build thread in a German speaking forum. A funny project; i saw the guitar on a German hobby builder's meeting. You might ask me via PM if You're interested. I do not see a significant difference between the use of an already existing neck and a self made neck except of the additional work of building the neck, of course.

[Justin Exline]

Yes, it's is just a cigarbox guitar but instead using an old gas can. And yes, I plan on using a pre made neck.

[Peter Wilcox]

I do not see a significant difference between the use of an already existing neck and a self made neck except of the additional work of building the neck, of course.

Yes, like about four times the work of building the whole guitar with an existing neck.

Justin, here's a youtube series on building one http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... iJPhrDlJS9

I didn't watch them all, so don't know how detailed it is. The two things to be very careful about are the scale length of the neck you use (you can measure from the nut to the 12th fret and double that if you don't know it - that needs to be the distance between the nut and the saddles/bridge), and the height of the bridge (or angle of the neck) to have a reasonable action (height of the strings over the frets.)

I'm sure you can get lots of help here while you are building it.

[Beate Ritzert]

Just a remark: the build i mentioned was a neck through. That's needed for stability. Without a "stick" going through the body it will work somehow, but tuning stability might be a problem.

[Keith Howell]

Like this one Peter Buck of REM is playing?

That's Mike Mills to his left looking like Peter is about to spear him through the chest with the head stock.

Graham Wells the original designer of the Afri-Can Guitar in the middle and me standing behind Peter.

PM me if you need any advice. Yes it needs to be a neck through to stop the body collapsing.

[Mark Swanson]

It wouldn't have to be a neck through if you build a piece through the can and make a place to bolt on a conventional neck.

[Keith Howell]

It wouldn't have to be a neck through if you build a piece through the can and make a place to bolt on a conventional neck.

Yes quite true. We did look at that but found the neck through easier to implement as we could never really work out a suitable way of doing the neck joint without hacking up the can. We generally found the less you hacked the can the better the tone (certainly acoustically) The one in the picture in fact has an aluminium neck with the fret board laminated to it. This allowed a simple slot in the end of the can, slide in and bolt can on. The pickups and bridge being put onto the can at a separate assembly station. So all the structural integrity was in one piece with the can simply a resonator and pickup holder.

[Art Davila]

It wouldn't have to be a neck through if you build a piece through the can and make a place to bolt on a conventional neck.

We found the neck through easier to implement as we could never really work out a suitable way of doing the neck joint without hacking up the can. We generally found the less you hacked the can the better the tone (certainly acoustically)

If you want to use a bolt on neck, and have the body that goes with it (hardtail would be best) cut the body down to look like a neck thru but leave the bridge area wide enough to remount the bridge. Now fit it in the can and your bridge placement work will be already properly placed.
The gas cans are pretty cheap buy 2, cut the first can open and make the correct placement of the last fret of the neck and the bridge end up where you want them. Once you have it how you need it to be placed, make the cuts in the second can so as to retain the look and sound quality.

I saw a slab square body fitted with a can which had been cut so that the face of the can was epoxyied to the slab body, this was done have the body thickness about an inch and a 1/4.
The can itself before cutting is much wider. The look of the finished product was of greater importance than any benefit of the gas can acoustic properties.

[Mark Swanson]

That sounds like a good way to do it, Art.