As with Project Fire Dragon (below), we were given an old guitar for free and thought we'd experiment a little. We're not real sure what brand it was, but it was definitely made in Japan. Our guesses have been Teisco or Kay, but most likely it wasn't one of the more well-known brands.

At any rate, a few months back Zec saw the cardboard chairs of Frank O. Gehry and wondered if a cardboard guitar would be possible. After much debating, we decided that at least the neck and the structural part of the body would need to be wood. Laminated cardboard is strong, but not quite strong enough to take the tension of the strings. The idea was put on hold because the thought of chopping up a brand new guitar for something that we weren't even sure would work was a little too unsettling. Yes, even to us.

So along came the afore mentioned free guitar, and the body was just the right configuration to modify, plus it was just a body and a neck, so a resto was out of the question anyway, thus Project Gehry was born at last.

First up came chopping the body, of course. We didn't just want it to end abruptly after the bridge, so we gave it a nice Gothic point. Apologies for not having any before shots, but you should be able to tell that not much is left of the original. Note the nice cavity in the center, which will be covered by the plexi piece you see (above). This cavity allowed us to make basically a seperate piece out of cardboard that can be simply dropped in and screwed down.

Above you can see the "body" we made. I believe there are four sheets of cardboard laminated together with epoxy resin. We used the thickest cardboard we could find, which turned out to be that from a guitar shipping box, then laminated the sheets in alternating directions for added strength. The edges were then cleaned up with a strip of thin card from a giant drawing paper pad. We also poured resin into the voids and added extra to the center portion. We debated whether or not to coat the whole thing, but the resin darkens the cardboard a lot and we didn't want to lose the look. We simply protected the surface with several coats of clear acrylic medium.

This last shot is of everything assembled with the neck. Note the strips of mirrored plastic. We thought this gave a more retro look, especially with the card details running the length of the body on either side of the wood. The blue cylinder in the upper right is the color that will be used on the neck and the wood part of the body, as well as the plexi center cover.

Lastly, if you were puzzling over where all of the electronics are going to go, it was decided that a normal pickup would break up the clean look too much, so we will be using a simple piezo system that will run straight out. This will eliminate the need for volume and tone pots and with the right setup it should sound more acoustic than electric, which will be fun to have on such a modern-looking guitar. Of course the main reason is that a piezo system can be built for about $4, versus $30 or more for the cheapest magnetic pickup that might not even sound that good anyway. =o)

BEFORE:

We were given this old Tele-Star for free, which was in pretty bad shape. Unfortunately the bridge was missing, and finding an exact replacement would be near impossible. Also missing were the electronics, and the chrome scratch plate (as cool as it was) had been cut rather badly at the neck pocket area by the last owner, so reusing it was pretty much out of the question.

CURRENT STAGE:

We decided on a Japanese theme for the guitar, since it was made in Japan and because we could feel a radical design coming out of this one. This will come out more in the paint stage.

A major hurdle was the fact that the last owner had glued the neck on, such that removal would basically involve breaking the guitar in half. We were able to whittle away enough of the body so that the truss rod could at least be tightened, since it was so loose as to emit an unnerving rattle when handled. Since we were able to get that taken care of, we decided to leave the neck glued on and pin it with brass rods in the original screw holes, just for extra insurance, since we weren't sure of the exact glue that was used. We took down some of the body wood around the neck and filled the joint area, resulting in the nice smooth transition you see above. Also above is the custom cavity cover for the back, which will get painted black.

Here you can see that we cut the body into a more fluid shape, filled the entire front cavity which was originally covered by the chrome scratch plate, and relocated the cavity opening to the back. Unable to find an exact replacement for the bridge, we decided to go with a Tune-O-Matic style, since the thin body didn't allow for a tremelo, and a string-through fixed bridge would've been more time consuming. Unfortunately, this presented some unforseen problems.

A Tune-O-Matic bridge is usually fitted on a guitar with an angled neck because it sits a little higher off the body than most other bridges. We thought the generous height of the fingerboard off of the top of the body would be enough to have proper action, but upon fitting the bridge and lowering it completely flush with the mounting bushings, we found the action to be about 1/8" too high. Normally one could simply make a recess for the bridge to sit down into, but again the thin body presented a challenge. If we recessed the bridge and drilled the mounting holes deeper they could potentially stick out the back, or at the very least create weak spots on the back that might cave in later on. We ended up having to cut out the area all around the bridge and tailpiece and drop it down 1/8". We then had to fill in the recess and drill holes for the bushings to recess. Luckily it turned out that this was enough and we didn't have to make a recessed slot for the bridge.

This of course meant that the lowered "plug" stuck proud of the surface on the back. More filler was used to sculpt a raised area on the back, which is somewhat visible in the picture.

Lastly, you can see where we're going to be putting a Strat-style jack, as well as the bezel for the P90 pickup, which will be painted black to match all the hardware. The partial fretboard scalloping we did is also visible.

Above is a closer shot of the new fret dots in an unscalloped section (pardon the dusty frets). We used brass tubing filled with black epoxy. It's an experimental project anyway, so why not try an experiment?

Finally, a shot of the re-shaped head. We decided to use a locking nut, even though those normally go on a trem-equipped guitar. We just liked the look. This of course meant that we needed to carve out the back of the neck and drill holes to accept the mounting screws. For strength and a smoother look, we imbedded metal washers in the holes.

That about wraps it up for now. Check back for more progress shots. We know it looks a little rough at the moment, but it'll all come together in the end.