The sounds
you’ll tease out of these instruments will be rough, and
strange, and beautiful
—
but one thing’s for certain
—
they
will be sounds YOU made.
Papier Mache Guitar
BY DUSTIN BROWN OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
This is a 15" (380mm) concert-scale paper ukulele. The back and sides were
cut from black mat board left over from a photo framing project, and covered
with veneers made from an old Taylor guitar catalog to give the illusion of
Macassar ebony on the sides and maple on the back. The top was cut from
spruce left over from a mandolin rebuild, and was finished with expired shellac
and stain. The neck was made from black and white mat board laminated
together and stiffened with a jatoba floorboard scrap. The fretboard was
also cut from jatoba floorboard scrap and fretted with vintage brass frets
pulled from an old Kraftsman archtop. A piece of Koa scrap was added
to the headplate for a touch of island mojo. The tuners and bushings were
reclaimed from an old Yamaha acoustic.
12
Handmade Music FactorY
The body is a vintage galvanized chick feeder that was found in an abandoned hardware store.
The neck is crafted from scrap plywood and heart pine, with a fingerboard of rejected jatoba
flooring
—
as is the bridge. A spoon serves as the tail piece; stock thumbscrews for tuners; and
cork flooring for the chin rest. Miscellaneous scrap wood was used for fine tuners and support.
The bow was $5 from a used-instrument store. The decorations include craft store paints, glitter
glues, and Mardi Gras beads and mirror shards inside the body.
Chick Feeder Fiddle
BY LEE CONNAH OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
13
Ask your local
auto garage for extra
HUBCAPS
they make great banjo
resonators.
Most parts for this six-string guitar could be found out in the garage. An antique license plate serves
as a resonator, with a wrench and bolt for the bridge and nut. A shotgun shell is used to adjust the
volume from the piezo contact pickup, which itself was taken from a broken videogame drum set.
The neck is fashioned from two broken dowels, saved from being thrown out on garbage night.
A hinge and bent nail hold the strings down on one end, while zither tuners from someone else’s
craft project serve as the tuning mechanism.
Junkyard Dog
BY WADE COSTENBADER OF CATASAUQUA, PENNSYLVANIA
14
Handmade Music FactorY
Introduction
One Man’s Trash:
A History of the Cigar
Box Guitar
is the
FIRST WRITTEN
HISTORY
of the instrument.
The resonator is a handmade box,
built from an early 1900s barn board.
The frets, nuts, and tuning pegs were
all old nails purchased at yard sales.
Each fret nail was placed in a unique
hand-carved groove, since each nail
was a different size and shape. Brian
noted that the only downside is that
the strings tend to break since the
tuning peg nails have rather sharp
edges
—
but this would be the guitar
for you if you frequently play in bars
and get into bar fights!
Canjo
BY NINE-YEAR OLD ETHAN WALAK AND HIS
FATHER, BRIAN, OF PITTSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
Ethan made his instrument from items his father was
throwing away. He cleaned out a quart-size paint can
and used it for the body. He found a board for the
neck in the scrap bin and some old rope in the garage,
which he split for the strings. Nuts and bolts were used
to string the canjo.
Barn Wood
“
Cigar Box
”
Guitar
BY BRIAN WALAK OF PITTSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
15
