This article is an excerpt from Shane Speal's book, Making Poor Man's Guitars. Get your autographed copy at stubbyslide.comINTRO
This guitar was never built to be a gimmick. I made it simply because I wanted a steel bodied Dobro guitar, but couldn’t afford one.
Back in 1998, I was in the lowest point of my life: Lost marriage. Living in a tiny apartment. No TV. No internet. Yet in all my boredom and depression, I was still obsessed with music. Most importantly, I wanted to own a metal bodied Dobro guitar.
It was 2am when I found myself wide awake, nothing to do and $15 in my pocket. I decided to go to the one place that was open (Wal-Mart) and find find materials that I could build an instrument using the cash I had. After trolling around the empty store, I walked past a cheap metal mailbox in the hardware area and the voice inside my head screamed, “there's my dobro!” I took the mailbox home and started making plans to create the one instrument that could satisfy my obsession. The next morning, I sacrificed an old Kay acoustic guitar I owned. It was the perfect corpse to extract parts: bolt-on neck, floating bridge and trapeze tailpiece. Within four hours, the mailbox guitar was complete. It was perfect. It sounded just like a metal bodied dobro and it was mine!
Want to see how I built it and get a peek inside?
Bracing
A look inside the Mailbox Guitar reveals an extremely simple bracing system made from scrap poplar. The wood was leftover from some cigar box guitars I was building and served as the perfect primitive material.
Here's a rundown of the bracing system:
1. Body brace - A 1x2 piece of poplar runs the entire distance of the mailbox along the back. It is secured simply with sheet metal screws.
2. Neck block brace - Sits next to the neck block that was taken from the old Kay guitar. Glued to the bottom brace, screwed in from the top of the mailbox.
3. Bridge brace - Placed directly underneath the area where the floating bridge would go. Again, glued to bottom, screwed in from the top.
4. Butt brace: Placed at the very rear of the guitar and glued to the bottom brace + additional glue against the back of the mailbox. Screwed in from the top and back of the mailbox. The trapeze tailpiece is screwed into this brace.
Note: I really should have placed another brace between the neck block and the back brace for better stability. Oh well...the guitar has still played fine for the past 17 years.
Here's a rundown of the bracing system:
1. Body brace - A 1x2 piece of poplar runs the entire distance of the mailbox along the back. It is secured simply with sheet metal screws.
2. Neck block brace - Sits next to the neck block that was taken from the old Kay guitar. Glued to the bottom brace, screwed in from the top of the mailbox.
3. Bridge brace - Placed directly underneath the area where the floating bridge would go. Again, glued to bottom, screwed in from the top.
4. Butt brace: Placed at the very rear of the guitar and glued to the bottom brace + additional glue against the back of the mailbox. Screwed in from the top and back of the mailbox. The trapeze tailpiece is screwed into this brace.
Note: I really should have placed another brace between the neck block and the back brace for better stability. Oh well...the guitar has still played fine for the past 17 years.
Neck Block
Another look inside:
I cut, hacked and ripped out the neck block from the old Kay guitar. I originally thought I could just bolt the neck itself to the mailbox, but I was wrong.
As you can see, the neck block is wider than the neck. This enabled me to run a few sheet metal screws from the top of the mailbox into the top of the neck block.
There really isn't much to this guitar. However, it plays amazingly great and has not had a single problem in the last 17 years.
I cut, hacked and ripped out the neck block from the old Kay guitar. I originally thought I could just bolt the neck itself to the mailbox, but I was wrong.
As you can see, the neck block is wider than the neck. This enabled me to run a few sheet metal screws from the top of the mailbox into the top of the neck block.
There really isn't much to this guitar. However, it plays amazingly great and has not had a single problem in the last 17 years.
Componants and Top of Guitar
The guitar's main componants came from an old Kay acoustic guitar that was nearly dead.
The Kay had a bolt-on neck that I originally thought I could just screw to the mailbox. After some trial and error, I found that I also needed to cut out the entire neck block (as seen in the picture above).
What made the Kay acoustic a perfect candidate for this build was the floating bridge and trapeze tailpiece. (A standard acoustic guitar has a bridge that is glued to the top and wouldn't have worked on this project.) These features meant that I could just add them to the mailbox "body" and, with sufficient bracing, had a working guitar.
Here are the next steps in the process:
1. I used a Dremel rotary tool with a cutoff bit to cut a rectangle "neck pocket" into the top of the mailbox. Because I used the entire neck block from the Kay guitar which was wider than the top of the neck, I was able to connect the top of the mailbox with the 'wings' of the internal neck block.
2. I used the Dremel cutoff wheel to carve a big X where the sound hole would be. I then bent back each section of the X to reveal a square sound hole that contained no sharp edges.
3. As mentioned above, I used sheet metal screws to hold the internal bridge bracing. This left the screw heads exposed right where the floating bridge would go. I had to use my Dremel routing bit to remove a little wood from the bottom of the floating bridge to get around the screw heads.
The Kay had a bolt-on neck that I originally thought I could just screw to the mailbox. After some trial and error, I found that I also needed to cut out the entire neck block (as seen in the picture above).
What made the Kay acoustic a perfect candidate for this build was the floating bridge and trapeze tailpiece. (A standard acoustic guitar has a bridge that is glued to the top and wouldn't have worked on this project.) These features meant that I could just add them to the mailbox "body" and, with sufficient bracing, had a working guitar.
Here are the next steps in the process:
1. I used a Dremel rotary tool with a cutoff bit to cut a rectangle "neck pocket" into the top of the mailbox. Because I used the entire neck block from the Kay guitar which was wider than the top of the neck, I was able to connect the top of the mailbox with the 'wings' of the internal neck block.
2. I used the Dremel cutoff wheel to carve a big X where the sound hole would be. I then bent back each section of the X to reveal a square sound hole that contained no sharp edges.
3. As mentioned above, I used sheet metal screws to hold the internal bridge bracing. This left the screw heads exposed right where the floating bridge would go. I had to use my Dremel routing bit to remove a little wood from the bottom of the floating bridge to get around the screw heads.
Tailpiece
A quick shot of the butt-end of the Mailbox Guitar. The trapeze tailpiece has one simple screw that goes through the mailbox and into the rear brace. Simple. Effective. Oh...and one more secret: The flag was originally made to go on the opposite side of the mailbox. I, of course, placed it prominently on the front of the guitar because, why the hell not...
The amount of string tension started to warp the door of the mailbox, so I added a small block of poplar to the base of the door.
It give just enough reinforcement to keep the guitar solid. You can see it in this picture. (I used a wide Sharpie marker to darken the poplar.)
ONE MORE DETAIL... About a year after I created this, I had a chance to meet B. B. King after a concert and I had him autograph the Mailbox Guitar. Of course, I had him sign the door so it looked like I stole his mailbox and made a guitar out of it. (BB looked scared.)
Performance and Recordings
The Mailbox Guitar was a mainstay in my former band, Jug Fusion. It has been used on several of my early recordings, including "Jesus Is Coming Soon" and "Red Letter". Both of these songs are available on Shane Speal - The self titled album.
I don't really use this much in concert anymore simply because of its bulky size. The guitar sounds absolutely kickass, but it's like trying to hold a pig onstage...especially when I have to also stomp on my foot stomper. I keep it in my home studio and spend a lot of time enjoying the clangy, primitive dobro tones that only a mailbox can give.
Hmm...maybe I should bring it out in concert again.
It give just enough reinforcement to keep the guitar solid. You can see it in this picture. (I used a wide Sharpie marker to darken the poplar.)
ONE MORE DETAIL... About a year after I created this, I had a chance to meet B. B. King after a concert and I had him autograph the Mailbox Guitar. Of course, I had him sign the door so it looked like I stole his mailbox and made a guitar out of it. (BB looked scared.)
Performance and Recordings
The Mailbox Guitar was a mainstay in my former band, Jug Fusion. It has been used on several of my early recordings, including "Jesus Is Coming Soon" and "Red Letter". Both of these songs are available on Shane Speal - The self titled album.
I don't really use this much in concert anymore simply because of its bulky size. The guitar sounds absolutely kickass, but it's like trying to hold a pig onstage...especially when I have to also stomp on my foot stomper. I keep it in my home studio and spend a lot of time enjoying the clangy, primitive dobro tones that only a mailbox can give.
Hmm...maybe I should bring it out in concert again.
Replies
That's really cool Shane.
The weird thing is, my mailbox needs to be replaced and I was thinking that it would make a nice Resonator with a built it arm contour.
I guess that means we both need serious help. LOL
Not a mailbox - made from an old snare drum.
