Radio silence and industry

Wow! It seems like an age since I last updated you fine people as to my project's progress. It was amiss of me, and I apologize whole heartedly. I know you have been waited with baited breath for over a month now, so without further ado, I present the culmination of my endeavours.

It's come together very nicely, and it even sounds okay. I've heard that most people when building their first guitar experience intonation problems, but by some miracle the tuning is fine.

The sound hole covers are screened grommets I bought from  C.B. Gitty Crafter Supplies. I double-screened them with speaker material to hide the internal workings from prying eyes.

I fashioned a bridge from a metal drawer handle and a piece of stainless steel, which works up to a point. The pressure exerted by the high tension of the six strings is slowly pushing the bridge down and bending the tin lid. I'll have to keep an eye on this, and if need be, solve the problem at a later date.

Once again I apologize for my tardiness in updating you good folks as to my progress. I'll post a video of me playing "Marmite" soon. Thanks for reading.

Are friends electric?

II'm fretted up and nearly ready to go, leaving only the task of wiring up the pickups. Once again I'm severely lacking in the knowledge and skills that are needed.

Previously, however, where my cack-handed bumbling would result in superficial cuts and bruises, this time the stakes are higher.

Electricity or, for those of you in Norfolk, magic sparky light, is something I have a healthy respect for, after receiving a nasty shock from a fuse box, by sticking my fingers where they really shouldn't have gone. It was like being  hit in the chest by Muhammad Ali, an experience I have no intention of repeating.

Now, I'm pretty sure the dangers are negligible, but I'm going to be wiring a magnetic pickup, three Piezo transducer pickups and a 3 way toggle switch. So there's any number of mistakes I could make in the wiring.

Luckily, I found advice, guidance and a diagram on the Cigar Box Nation website.
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/

So, with a newly found devil may care attitude and with my soldering iron in hand, I set about wiring her up.

To be totally honest with you dear reader, part of the job was already done for me. The magnetic pickup I had bought, came pre-wired to volume and tone pots, as well as the jack socket.

With only the bare minimum of soldering, burnt fingers and swearing,  I managed to hookup both of the pickups to the switch, and I was done.

As to whether it worked when I plugged into an amplifier, will have to wait for another time.

"A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the banjo and doesn't." - Mark Twain

Mark Twain

I have a confession, something I need to get off my chest. When I started out on this little project I fully intended to make a six string banjo out of a biscuit tin, that I triumphantly monikered a "banjitar". I even named this humble blog accordingly. But, and I say this with all due regret and humility, that I have unknowingly led you, kind reader, up the garden path.

As my build approaches some form of completion, I have to recognise that there is little, if nothing, of  the banjo in the genetic makeup of my instrument.

I hope that you will grant me pardon for my brashness in this matter, and think no less of me than you did when first we met. Believe me when I say, that I have truly learned an important lesson through all this to-do. I shall not to give sway to hubris so rashly in my future endeavors.

Yours in ignominy,

Vinylhed

Nothing to fret about

Okay! Back to the workshop (or the kitchen in my case). It's about time I gave my banjitar frets. This is the part of the build that has been giving me nightmares. First of all, I need to do the maths to calculate the fret spacing according to the scale length of the instrument, then I need to accurately mark where the frets should go on the fretboard, after which I must cut the grooves straight and then finally insert the frets. Easy!

There's so much that can go wrong, especially as I'm a complete numpty when it comes to maths.

The scale length of a guitar is the space from the nut (the top) to the bridge (the bottom), and for some mercurial reason I decided mine should be 26".

Luckily, I found the web is awash with clever little programs to do the fret calculations for me. Problem solved? Well, it now creates a secondary problem...How in blue blazes do you measure 1.459" with only a crappy tape measure and a 12" ruler?
To cut a long and overly tedious story short, I converted the measurements into millimeters and I was laughing!

So, with the frets marked in pencil I set about cutting the grooves into which the the fret wire would be slotted. Arming myself with the 0.022" TPI (teeth per inch) razor saw, I gingerly started to cut.

Surprisingly, for Jimmy Wild's least gifted pupil in woodwork, I managed to cut the slots straight and in the right places.

Time to bang in the fret wire with my handy rubber hammer.

(It's at this point I wish I'd had the forethought of mind to grab my camera and take some photos of this process, but I was concentrating so hard it completely slipped my mind.)

I added a wee bit of superglue to each fret, making sure the fret wire was going nowhere after I had banged it into place. It made a bit of a mess of the fretboard, but that could be sanded later. Cut the ends proud of the board, filed them smooth, and I had finished. It was time to string her up and see if my endeavors had resulted in a tuneful guitar. But that, as they say, is a story for another day.

I bet you can't wait.

Wireless technology part II

As I've been having a few issues with my guitar build, I've been sidetracked by my amp project.

If you remember my earlier post, I was going to put the workings from an old Bush amplifier into a nice retro wireless I picked up on ebay. I originally hoped to keep the radio working, but there was no way I was going to fit both of the workings into the space available.

Being completely clueless about electrics and electronics, I was going to need to be hyper careful when removing the amp parts. If I pulled out wires and damaged components, I would really be up shit creek without an amplifier.

The gods of badly thought out electrical endeavours looked kindly over me as I undertook the tricky operation. Apart from having to connect a new jack socket in place of the old din plug input and soldering longer wires to the bass and treble pots, it all went better than could've been expected.

After some fiddly and cramped screwing and bolting of the components firmly into place, I put the back on and hoped for the best.

I fitted to the back a brass handle and a couple of hooks to spool (is that the right word?) the power cable round, to make the amp slightly more portable.

The brass/gold jackplate and guitar knobs give the front a classy period look...in my not-so-humble opinion.

My girlfriend, Louise, watched with a look of terror on her face as I plugged the amp into the mains and, with a silent prayer to the gods of badly thought out electrical endeavours, I turned the knob....

There was a satisfying clunk from the knob, followed by an electrical hum twined with the light behind the dial coming on. Amazed that I hadn't received a life-threatening electric shock from the metal knob, I glanced at the still terrified Louise and then back to the amp, checking to see if there was any signs of smoke emanating from it, the flex or the plug.

Still no signs of impending danger, I twisted the knob fully, which was accompanied by a satisfying increase in the electrical humming. No fire. No explosion. It was time to take the final step and plug in my acoustic guitar.

What do you know! It works! The twangy sounds of my classical guitar were pouring forth from the speaker.  Louise's expression of fear had now turned to one of incredulity. Between you and me reader, my better half's surprise was dwarfed by my own disbelief that I had succeeded in creating a damn fine looking amp without fire, explosion, serious injury or death.

Oh, well, enough prevaricating. Time to get back to guitar making.

String theory

For those of you who I've been boring with my endeavors, pay attention, this is where things hot up! Time to string her up and hear what she sounds like for the first time.

I've fitted the tailpiece that will hold the strings. The actual tailpiece is a second hand stop bar from an electric guitar and I fashioned a steel guard to stop the metal strings cutting into the tin. It looks quite neat and tidy, if I don't say so myself.

We need to talk about nuts! To be precise, the guitar's nut which guides the strings down the neck. I've got a piece of steel I intend to use as the nut, but I've slapped in a bolt for the time being to check the hight it needs to be. The thread allows me to space the strings and move them if need be. If I make another of these, I'll maybe use a bolt for the nut as it gives a rugged industrial look.

Right! Machine heads on? Check! Bolt on? Check! Bridge on? Check! Tailpiece in place? Check! Okay, string her up and make like a banjitar god!

I now have a playable banjitar. When I say playable, I mean you can twang the strings. Without frets, I'm finding the playing of notes and chords a very tricky feat. Now, I'm no Hendrix on the old guitar, but playing my banjitar makes me feel like a complete novice.

On the bright side, I do like the tinny twang that it makes,and that's before I've cut a couple of sound holes.




In case anyone out there wants to hear how awful I sound, check out this vid and the face of a goon trying to concentrate.

I'm bored! I'm the chairman of the bored!

The fretboard glued very nicely to the neck with only a few gaps visible. I'll plug those gaps with wood filler later.

The spokeshave saw another tour of duty to plain the fretboard flush with the neck, and I still can't believe how well it came out. The neck's a little thick, but I'll wait until I've played it to judge if I need to shave any more off.

Wireless technology

As my biscuit tin banjitar will have pickups, I'm going to need an amp. Buying a cheap amp would be far too easy, and my custom banjitar deserves something special.

I've got an old amp that works just fine, but looks nasty and has a din plug input. I'm intending to put the workings into this retro-looking radio I got off ebay, and add a new socket.

Compared to the banjitar this is a piece of cake...I wish I hadn't said that!

Truss-ed in me

I lay awake last night worrying about my stiffness issues, and how I might overcome the problem of bending at a critical moment. The only thing for it was to fit a truss rod to the neck of my instrument before I glue on the fretboard.

So, with my mighty chisel of power in hand, I cut a thin groove in the centre of the neck face. Next, I placed the truss rod into the groove, encased it in glue (to stop it from rattling and a buzzin') and then slapped the fretboard on top. I don't want the action to be adjustable, so using glue, as opposed to a more flexible option, to hold the rod in place is okay in my book.

We're getting there! A bit of planing and sanding, and then the frightening task of fitting the frets.

I love it when a plan comes together

Well, here we are, it's starting to come together.

I'm a long long way from finished, but it was pleasing to fit the neck to the tin for the first time.

The tin was tougher to cut than I thought it would be. I was thinking that a stanley knife would work, but apparently tin is a metal and thusly pervious to all but tin snips and semtex. So, putting aside the semtex for another day, I attacked the pesky tin with tin snips.

To call the edges jaggedy arse would be an understatement.

Check out the handiwork.

I bent in the flaps I cut and they'll be screwed to the neck to hold the tin in place. I'll file down the nasty edge and everything will be hunky dory.

A close shave

I reckon there's more wood on the floor than on the neck after I went at it with the spokeshave. It's starting to look like a guitar, and I'm a smidgeon of a teeny-weeny bit proud of my endeavours, considering I'm an utter arse at woodwork.

I was amazed how easy it was to shape the curvature of the neck with the spokeshave...almost too easy. I got carried away with my newly learnt skill and managed to shave the once straight edges curvy.

I finally cut the neck to the right length, glued and clamped it to a second piece. This was done to add strength and also to allow me to make a groove in the original neck piece where the electric pickup will need space.

If you look closely at the photo, in the background,  you can see a sketch Mike Kazybrid kindly drew for me when I met him at a Leeds comic mart. It's a sketch of Humph the Cat, a character from a comic strip he drew for the UK Transformers comic in the 80's, a strip I have fond memories of. Mike's other past work includes, The Bash Street Kids, Bananaman, Dangermouse and Masters of the Universe among many others. He is currently working on Wallace and Grommit for The Sun.

Here's a link to his blog:
http://twomenandaghost.blogspot.com/

Can you tell what it is yet?

Today was good and bad. It started with me making a lovely saw cut through the face of the head to make it thin enough to locate the machine heads. Of course, when everything's going well, misfortune can't be far away.

Head, cut, sanded and looking very good. Then! A foolish use of the spokeshave and I split the wood.

Arse!

I ended up having to shape the top of the head to fix my mistake. It's a little lopsided, but I'm going to do some more work on it.

I was really pleased to see the machine heads fitted okay. At least now I have the holes drilled, I can go back to work a bit more on the head.

I showed my day's handiwork to my girlfriend, and she exclaimed "Aren't you clever!". It reminded me of the way a parent might praise a toddler for using their potty on their own for the first time.

There will be blood

Blood! My blood!

Who knew a bastard file could be so sharp? I suppose the name gives it away.

...And yes, that is a fine collection of hardcover comic collections in the background.

You can when you oil can

Township Guitars in Cape Town, South Africa make lovely oilcan guitars.
Check out the website:
http://www.townshipguitars.com/main.htm

It's great to hear those African sounds!

They called him Sand

I got myself a sander today, as there will be much sanding ahead. This is a really cheepo model, but it had good reviews and you save money by using any sandpaper. (I'm writing this incase my beloved reads this.)

I must say, I feel far more manly as a result of my sander purchase. Someone should do a study into the correlation between buying power tools and testosterone levels.

Reading the sander's instructions, they advise the wearing of safety eyewear. Brilliant! It gives me an excuse to break out my welding goggles.

Head case

Okay, so today I finally got off my arse and entered the wonderful world of woodwork. At school I showed absolutely no aptitude during Mr (Jimmy "check your jobs") Wild's woodwork classes, and it seems the intervening 20 years have changed nothing.

My task for the day was to cut the neck to make an angled head. This is done by sawing diagonally through the wood and gluing the reversed piece making a scarf joint.

Like the fool I am,I thought this part was going to be a doddle. I couldn't have been more wrong.

A combination of the wrong type of saw, the lack of some sort of sawing jig and my woeful skills, led to an awful cut.
Huzzar! My first problem.

Putting the cut piece on top of the larger piece, the angles should match, creating one smooth slope. As you can see from the photo, I bolloxed it right up.

After some frenzied chiseling, rasping, filing and sanding, I managed to get the angles smoother. A little more work and I'll be ready to glue the pieces together.

Today I learnt that this project is not going to be as easy as I thought.

First blood!

Stiff neck?

Well, here's the piece of wood I picked out for the instrument's neck.

(I hope it's strong enough!)

I've decided at this point that I'm going to have the neck about as wide as a classical guitar neck. I'm used to playing on a wider neck and like the space it gives my chubby fingers to move. This decision is bound to cause me problems, but we live to learn.

I picked this piece of North American Tulipwood up at John Boddy Timber in Borough Bridge. I'd had a lovely day out with Chin, Emma and my goddaughter Martha at the RHS garden at Harlow Carr, and happened to mention I was looking to make a biscuit tin banjitar. The next thing I know, we're strapping toddlers into car seats and zooming north on the A1 on the hunt of wood.

Between shepherding two toddlers around an assault course of splintery doom, and Chin waving lumps of wood under my nose saying "smell that", I picked out a nice piece of wood.

http://www.john-boddy-timber.ltd.uk/

http://www.rhs.org.uk/harlowcarr

My mate Marmite

I've found the perfect tin to add that extra retro feel. How proud I'll be, picking away on my homemade banjitar whilst proclaiming my love of the black salty gold. I wonder if there's a sponsorship deal in the offing?

http://www.marmite.com/

What's a banjitar?

I can't remember when or why I decided to make a biscuit tin banjo guitar. Considering I have no experience of banjo or guitar construction, or any substantial woodworking prowess, I must have been out of my mind!

Being a bit of an amateur guitar picker, and fan of old time sting band music, I've always fancied a bit of banjo action. Looking for a project over my break from college, I decided to make myself a rough and ready instrument!

It started out as a simple little project, and has snowballed into something of a behemoth. I'm going to attempt to blog my progress through the ups, downs and (even further) downs.