Electric Scrap Wood License-Plate Guitar

Have you ever wished to travel in the apocalypse in style? Perhaps you wish to wander the wastes as a diesel-punk bard serenading raiders, or maybe you need a new instrument to play on your mad max mobile stage while driving to wipe out a settlement of surviving scavengers. Well then you should consider building the Scrap Guitar, a grungier counterpart to the more commonplace cigar-box guitar. In this article I will teach you to build a electric four-string guitar out of scrap-wood, two license plates and inexpensive electrical components perfect for all your post-nuclear parties!

Tools

• Drill
• Screwdriver
• Hand saw
• Nail gun - optional
• Drill bits and a 3/4" spade bit

Wood

• 3' - 2"x1" a soft wood.
• 36" - 3" x 1" hardwood. I chose maple.
• 2' - 3" x 3/8" hardwood.

Electronics & Hardware

• 1/4" input jack
• Piezo sensor
• Tuning machines
• Guitar strings
• Hinge
• Spatula?

Note: This isn't precision work. Use what you can find and/or get at Lowe's or Home Depot.

Build a simple wooden-box the shape of a license plate (6"x12"). Cut a notch in the top of the box to allow the guitar neck to pass through. Cut off the top of the neck at a 15 degree angle. The piece removed will be flipped over and wood-glued back on for the tuning machines.

I used a combination of screws and brads from a nail gun to assemble the body and neck. Because the wood is small be sure to drill pilot holes for all screws so the wood doesn't split.

Once the wood is assembled, attach one of the license plates to the back of the wooden frame.

As shown in the pictures, you may want to trim a piece off of the bottom of the neck piece to give yourself more room near the input jack. I also chose to make the neck ~1/8" thinner inside the guitar body. This was to make sure that the top plate of the guitar had clearance to vibrate without touching the neck. You could also just make the notch slightly deeper.

Lastly put the guitar neck in place and put one screw through the bottom of the guitar and into the bottom of the neck

The top of the guitar neck needs to be slanted backwards so the tuning machines are below the nut at the top of the fretboard. As shown in the image of body parts for the frame, the angled top-piece of the neck was cut at a 15 degree angle. It can be reattached to the top of the neck with wood glue to achieve the correct shape.

The electronics are very simple consisting of two inexpensive parts, a 1/4" guitar input jack and a piezo pickup. In short, the piezo and jack are connected and attached to the top license plate of the guitar.

The guitar jack is mounted at the base of the guitar by sinking a 3/4" hole roughly half way through the wood from the inside with a spade bit and then drilling a 3/8" hole in the center of that. This allows the threaded neck of the jack to extend outside of the guitar body and the washer and nut that secures it to be attached.

The leads of the piezo are attached to the two terminals on the guitar jack. I recommend using liquid tape to hold the wires in place or solder if you're more comfortable doing that. I used a hair dryer set to high heat and low airflow to harden the liquid glue more quickly rather than waiting.

The piezo is hot glued to the center of the top license plate and taped just to be sure, this will last a few years. Duct tape also works.

Now that the piezo and input jack are in place and wired it's time to attach the top license plate. The only caution is to use pilot holes for the four screws and be sure not to drill where the input jack or screws from the other side may be.

The fretboard can now be attached with wood glue. Apply the wood glue, get the fretboard in place and clamp in place until the glue dries (~30 minutes). You may want to leave room for the nut just above the fretboard if it will be large.

I decided since this guitar will have no frets that I could decorate the fretboard. I chose to use old ink stamps to write out the background text to the intro of, "Cowboy Bebop" since I like the composers of their original soundtrack. This print covers the length of the fretboard and was done manually over the course of what I would say was 25 to 30 minutes. It looks good, but was very tedious.

Tuning machines: Drill four holes in the top of the guitar neck large enough for the tuning machine collars to fit through. Push the collars into the holes on top of the neck. Push the machines through from the bottom. Drill pilot holes for the tuning machine screw with a small bit. Screw the tuning machines into place. This requires a very small screwdriver.

Bridge and nut: At the top and bottom of the guitar we need something to keep the spacing between strings correct and set the string height above the fret-board. The nut at the top of the fret board is a bolt, making use of the threads to set the string spacing. I used a rubber-headed spatula handle with slits cut into it as a nut at the bottom of the guitar, this was out of convenience however it does fit the makeshift vibe of the scrap-guitar. It should be noted that usually this is made of a harder material.

String fastener: For this guitar I chose to use a small hinge with additional holes drilled through it as a string fastener. Strings can be looped through the holes, over the bridge to the nut and ending at the tuners.

All that's left is to tune the strings, plug it into an amp and test it out!

Remember to secure your input jack beforehand, I had to remove the back after I accidentally pushed it in.