Not Everone's Cup of Tea or Beer

[Rich Robichaud]

Hi All,
It's been quite a few years since I have posted anything on the forum but I still read the posts. Here is a guitar I made for an actual paying customer. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, or "beer" in this case, but I thought some of you might find it interesting. The customer owns an antique store and asked me to make him a guitar from an old crate. The head stock cover is from a beer can.

[Pete Halliday]

That's fantastic! I love this.

[Bill Raymond]

I kind of like it.

[Mike Conner]

If you just described it without pictures I would have expected a "cigar box" mess, but this is really cool looking! And I am sure, very special for your client.

[Jason Rodgers]

That's super cool! Totally my pint o beer, and I'll take another.

[Aaron Helt]

I'll drink to that!

[Karl Wicklund]

I like this a lot. I'm a fan of the look of a laminated neck for one thing, but the whole vibe is cool. How does it sound?

[Arnt Rian]

That's super cool!

[John Kingma]

That looks great.

[David King]

So it's a carved top or it appears to be and I want to know how you maintained or projected the images onto the wood. Also please describe the staining and finishing process because there is a lot going on there that I don't understand. It looks great and I really want to take a peak behind the curtain now.

[Rich Robichaud]

Thanks everyone for the positive feedback.
The customer is an old friend and his specs were it had to have a Bigsby, maple finger board with black dots, black nut, cream binding, cream switch, vintage looking tuners, and a "carved top". The finger joints of the crate had to show as well along with incorporating the beer can in the design. At first I didn't think it could be done but he showed me pictures of guitars made from old crates and I decided to give it a go. At first I was going to use the can as the control cavity cover but we decided to go with no control covers and use the can as a head stock cover.
Karl, I like laminated necks too. The guitar has a nice sound. I used Golden Age pickups that weren't potted. It's very bluesy sounding.
David, Yes it is a "carved top" but it's more of a arched top. What I did was disassemble the crate and planed the back surface of each piece down to 1/4". Then I glued the pieces back together again after re arranging them to expose as much of the printing as possible while incorporating the finger joints in the top. I cut out the shape and planed it down to 1/16". I then carved a piece of mahogany and glued the cut out crate onto the mahogany to create a cap. I added a couple of pics to show what I mean. Then I put the binding on and glued it to the body blank. I finished the guitar using Tru Oil. Most of the examples he showed me were left unfinished on top but we decided to make the top more glossy.
It was a fun project but the most difficult part was trying to get a high gloss on the back with the tru oil. It came out ok but not as good as lacquer. I didn't think lacquer would work on the top since it was so uneven I didn't think sanding it would be possible. That's what made me decide to use the tru oil.

[David King]

Wow! That's totally crazy and lots of work to boot. My hat is off to you sir. Must have made quite the pile of shavings along the way. Thanks for the explainer.

[Jason Rodgers]

Clever solution. But a handful of spring clamps and a pile of clothespins were enough (and even) clamping pressure to apply the crate veneer to the carved top?

[Rich Robichaud]

David, You're right it is crazy but that craziness helps me maintain my sanity. LOL This is just a hobby for me and it helps me unwind from my real job.
Jason, I did use more clamps on glue up. This picture is my response to my client and friend's text asking if I was in the shop. He always had an open invitation. I did get good squeeze out of the glue by using the clothes pins but the edge was uneven, That didn't matter much since the top was uneven anyway. The client wanted the top to be obviously made from a crate. He didn't want it to look faked. I dealt with the un even edge by installing extra wide binding and scarping it down to meet the top and back of the plate. One of the tough parts about making this guitar was changing my normal sequence of construction steps. I really had to think ahead to avoid extra work.

[Jason Rodgers]

If you got in the habit of making such themed instruments, you might consider investing in a vacuum press setup. Even for basic droptop glue-ups, a vacuum bag is so much easier than a million clamps. The joewoodworker.com system is fun to build, and the uses are many.

[Randolph Rhett]

I've seen lots of spectacular LP clones. Exotic woods, incredible dyes and bursts, gorgeous hardware. I'd be more interested in having yours than nearly all of them. What great character and eye for design!

[Matthew Lau]

[Bryan Bear]

That is really cool. You did a great job with the parameters. That's an electric I would like to have. What I expected based on the first description was something much different. I was pleasantly surprised when I scrolled down.