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!