So, one day I was walking down the road and found an old shovel handle. The thing looked super old so I thought it might look great with an antique box. It took me a couple years to get around to building it.

Box is an old H. Anton Bock, all wood. After drilling out the holes for the shovel handle, I promptly turned the box into kindling by stepping on it. Only the bottom and one side remained intact. I glued it all back together using some thin hobby plywood as a backing. It turned out pretty good. I left the box and handle all natural. If you look close you can see where it is glued, but that just adds to the rustic look.

The tuner is an old Grover type. The nut is a piece of band steel. The bridge is a cool skeleton key I found on eBay. The hardware I bought as relocked, but it didn't look as "bad" as it did in the pics so I soaked everything in saltwater to get it to rust a little.

I decided to try my hand at doing two pickups. The neck pickup is a MGB single pole. The bridge pickup is a small piezo super glued right under the bridge. It's all wired through a three way toggle and two volume knobs. I know that's a bit of overkill for a one string, but I wanted to see how it worked out. It worked out great.

Originally the nut was going to be a hose clamp, but that didn't work out. The key was much shorter than the nut and bolt configuration I normally use. With the clamp the string wound up laying on the box. Now it has super high action on the neck. I have one more broken shovel handle and a new idea for how to get the neck up higher on the box. Just have to find the right box...