The Zero Budget build

[G-Axe]

I'm probably not alone in this. Has anyone else found themselves at a point in a build where they're waiting on hardware from overseas, or waiting for something to cure and jonesing for a hit of craftsmanship?

I'm at a point where a I'm either waiting on hardware I've already ordered or saving up for stupidly expensive hardware, but I'm itching to build. So the challenge I'm setting myself is to build something amazing from whatever rubbish I have lying around. The goal is to spend literally nothing.

So where to start? With this marvel of shoddy craftsmanship of course!



This is an eBay job that I'd originally bought about 10 years ago for about $20 that I was going to give a swimming pool rout and use as a pickup test bed. Until I discovered it is completely unplayable. The intonation is complete rubbish. My first thought was an incorrectly located bridge but as it turns out:



It's just the worst nut placement in history. About 3-4mm out on length, and a few mm out laterally. Soon the plus side, the actual frets are pretty much bang on for a 25.5" scale length - so my plan is to experiment with a zero fret, and clean up the shabby fret ends. Since I'm on $0, I can't buy fret wire, so the 21st fret is going to be relocated.



But first I need to test out the kerf of my various saws to find the narrowest.

Having a close look at the body, there's really nothing I want to keep beyond the cheap, nasty hardware:



But that's good, because I can make a new body using some old bench tops we saved from a reno a free years back. I want to stick with a fairly classic offset shape so I'm going for a twist on the slightly oddball Danelectro 1449. Seen here in glorious two tone because printer ink is more costly than GAS.



It won't look quite as tropical, I'm going to pop the grain of whatever this random timber is and give it a tru-oil. The pickguard will be improvised from something, and I'm considering bending my own Tele style bridge from aluminium scraps.

The only thing I'm genuinely concerned about is the knobs, but I think I can pilfer some from an old stereo.

Game on.

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[G-Axe]

Also, any thoughts on this timber? It's fairly light, with big fibres. Here's 3 sides of the grain with a quick wipe of turps:





It's possibly some kind of mahogany, but it's very light in colour.

[vh2580]

Meranti possibly - but im definitely not a timber expert

[vaxis85]

Looks like meranti to me


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[corsair]

My sort of build!! Zero dollars to spend and big ideas to be going on with - excellent!!

Watching....

[JohnH]

What a great idea! Love these kinds of projects

[G-Axe]

A little bit of progress over the last couple of days. Here's the timber (thanks for the tips on it being Meranti) in it's primal state. Should be able to get 3-4 more bodies out of it!



And here it is stripped back and wiped with some turps:



There's a bit of light figuring from the curly grain. Will definitely have a red hot go at popping it.

But first, some shape! I've knocked up a model in Blender, and usually I'd send off the plans to the big blue shed for an A2 print but instead I'm doing it the old fashioned way. I've marked out a grid on the surface and I'm transferring the intersection points of the curves with a ruler and pencil:



Might be a bit hard to see the grid, but here's the end result:



The cutting itself is a work in progress. My little bandsaw is struggling with the thickness and density, and the grain likes to deflect the blade off in funny directions - so I'm taking it slow. It probably doesn't help that I cut a bunch of aluminium on it leaving the blade a bit blunted. Anyway, hoping to finish roughing it out tonight.

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[G-Axe]

Lots of elbow grease tonight! I decided to give my poor bandsaw the night off, and took to it with a couple of different sizes of hole saw, and then a handsaw to rough out the rest. Then I used a mix of my parmesan grater and a big course belt sander to do the fine shaping. I still have the top cutaway to do, but otherwise it's about the shape I want it to be.



It's quite a diminutive little thing. Here it is with the neck and the old strat body for comparison:




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[G-Axe]

Some progress after a week down the coast - pickguard plotted out on graph paper, next up, MDF template.

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[G-Axe]

A little bit of progress on this one until I can get the router bit I need for my baritone.

Mainly that I've graphed the bridge plate, and finally gotten around to sanding the edges and cutaways.

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