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Glass Gits?

So as I'm sure most all of you know, George McLeod won the "Kick The Can" contest with his beautiful double necked git made from a couple of Jack Daniels cans. This has highly inspired me. I'm thinking about making a one or maybe a two stringer using a glass bottle. My question is, has anyone actually done this before with a glass bottle? Did it work? If so, how did it actually play? As I'm not of legal drinking (or buying) age, I have to wait for my dad to finish off one of his bottles, so I have time before I fully commit to this idea.

George Mcleod's "Kick The Can" entry and winner.

(Also, I'm putting this in "Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion" because I'm not really sure where else this would go)

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on January 4, 2018 at 9:25pm

Glass bottles have been used as bridge pieces for 1 string Diddly Bo's. I haven't seen a git made of glass, but I'm sure it's possible if you can figure out how to attach the parts and strings without breaking the glass.

Guitars have been made out of Fiberglass and Lucite with decent results. I've seen a video of a bass made from a plastic 5 gallon water jug. A bottle guitar would need a large bottle like a wine bottle that would use a wooden dowel neck stuffed inside the bottle top and glued into place, but would need a notch at the bottle's mouth for acoustics. Might be able to put 2 strings on it or at least 1. You could attach tuners and a nut to the dowel end, glue a bridge to the bottle, but a stop tail piece to anchor the strings may be difficult to figure out.

It's an interesting idea, hope I've helped out in some way and good luck with your build.

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Permalink Reply by Roland Wood on January 5, 2018 at 9:02am

I believe what I'll do is use a fairly good sized bottle, and turn down a very large dowel on a friends lathe to diameter while still leaving enough meat up top for a head so I can have a total one piece head and neck. And I'll probably drill string holes in the bottle itself (It's a very thick bottle that I have my eye on) and just try running it like that.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on January 5, 2018 at 9:23am

Use a hardwood dowel if you can find one.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on January 4, 2018 at 10:26pm

I was talking about this very nidea with a mate of mine who is planning such a build, I'll let you know if he goes ahead. I,Ve got a feeling it will only be a wall hanger.

Taff

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Permalink Reply by Roland Wood on January 5, 2018 at 8:56am

Please do! I'm very interested in the idea of it

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on January 5, 2018 at 9:08am

I did make a 1 string Diddly Bo out of a aluminum bottle shaped can awhile back. Used the broken end of a pool cue for a neck. I was able to make a sound hole in the aluminum.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on January 5, 2018 at 9:17am

It didn't offer much acoustically and I'm sure the glass bottle would be the same. So if you can figure out a way to anchor the strings at the end of the bottle, don't notch the neck at the bottle's mouth and add a piezo for sound.

Maybe you could use a large screw band clamp(radiator clamp) around the bottle at the end to anchor the strings. Look on the plumbing asile at your local hardware store.

If you can't find a wine bottle, you might could use a non-alcoholic champagne/grape juice bottle.

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Permalink Reply by Roland Wood on January 5, 2018 at 11:36am

I'm gonna use a square glass Jack Daniels bottle, and I'm gonna drill out 4 holes in the bottom of it and then use a diamond file to make 4 separate triangular sound holes at the bottom, sorta like this I'm no artist with MS Paint but the idea is apparent.

Anyway, and if that doesn't work, as Grandpa said in his post about CBG Horrors, "There's always a way"

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on January 5, 2018 at 9:25pm

Drilling holes in glass without breaking the bottle will be hard to accomplish.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on January 5, 2018 at 11:32am

Hi, I recently helped a mate build a CBG for himself. Besides being a woodworker he recently took up leadlight glass work. As thanks for my help he made the "glass guitar" pictured here for me.

When I read glass guitar here I knew a bottle would not produce an acoustic tone,[ oops! I just thought of a way, watch this space] and had in mind leadlight guitar,r box and all. This is what I had discussed with my mate.

Taff