I saw an old dresser on the side of the road with a "FREE" sign on it. I had to stop and bring it home. I broke it apart and stacked the various pieces of wood with the idea to make a few instruments out of it. The first was a 3 string fretless that used a nice piece of old, stained oak for the neck. It had an "Indios" cigar box, which was all wood, and a CB Gitty 3-string single coil pickup. The neck is an "almost through" neck with the strings passing through the body and neck. Bicycle spoke nipples reinforce the holes the strings pass through. No sound hole, and shellac finish. I love the old stains on the neck, and the wood is really hard from years of aging. It sounds great, both acoustically and plugged in. This was my second CBG, and I learned a few things, the most important is to angle the neck back a bit to get good action on the neck without having the strings too close to the top of the box. I applied that lesson going forward. But, it is a nice looking CBG!
The second instrument I made from this dresser was built from the drawer sides. They had developed a nice patina over the years that I thought would look great under the shellac. This was a diddley bow that I tried to apply some classical guitar building principals to.
The neck does not pass through the body. Instead, it is attached to a block at the front end of the box. The block is carved to a classical foot shape. The other end of the box has a tail block that the string passes through. Both blocks were made of wood from the old dresser.
The box itself is not a cigar box, but is built from the drawer sides. The top is planed down to about 3/32" thick. All around the inside are 'liners' made of paint stirrers or yardstics (if you go to home depot and sort through the paint stirrers and yardsticks, you'll find a few that are truly quarter-sawn. Just takes some time looking...). The outer joints of the box are finished with strips from the same drawer liners. I think the color of the wood is really nice.
The neck itself is a hockey stick. Since I took the picture I removed the printing from the stick because the rest of the instrument was too pretty. Hockey sticks make great diddley bow necks because they are straight and stiff. The tuner is a zither pin, and the bridge is a sawn-off penny.
I used a 20mm piezo encapsulated in hot glue in a bottle cap, hot glued to the top just behind the bridge.
The string is an unwound .017" steel.
This instrument has a great acoustic voice, but the real surprise was how well it sounds plugged in.
Old wood can be had for free sometimes, and it offers character you can't find at Home Depot!
Replies
Congrats, it looks great. I've been making gits and other things from stuff I found on the curbside for years. Why turn down free stuff? Join the Dumpster Divers Union group here on CBN.
gotta take em to the house you found the dresserat , and show em ;-)
even better , sell them one .. then tell em what its made from ;-)
Make a little like 13" scale 2 string one and give it to them free... The first one is always free, right?