"wood salvaged from a skip" guitar & mandolin

[martinedwards]

Hi folks.

Here's a pic or two of some musical instruments I made using mainly wood scavenged from the dumpster of the shopfitter who does all the UK starbuck's coffee shops among other things.

The backs & sides are walnut, as is the mandolin neck, the guitar neck is Port Orford Cedar,
fingerboards and bindings are rosewood and the tops are spruce from stewmac.com

The top mando is now in Newcastle upon Tyne and the guitar will prolly soon be trundling off to Oklahoma.(the second mando i've kept

 

[JFC]

Wow , id love to be able to make something like that .
It would have saved me a few quid as i have 3 guitars a double bass and a bass guitar

 

[mailee]

That is beautiful work. What is the finish on the guitar?

 

[PowerTool]

What a great job from recycled timber

Andrew

 

[DaveL]

Very nice looking instruments.

Do the mandolins have flat backs? I don't think I have seen that shape before.

 

[martinedwards]

Lets see, answers.......

Cheap? well the guitar was under £100 including the pick-up & preamp, & the mandos came in at about £45 each......

finish is Danish oil. I don't have a dust free area to spray, and 8 or 10 coats of Danish goes on easy with pretty good results (with the added bonus of a scratch can be sanded out then re oiled without any diffs.) The walnut really glows under the oil. I'm SO pleased!! the only sad bit is that I don't have much walnut left. I have a doubleneck acoustic and another mando under way then that leaves me with enough for maybe one or two more...... heaven forbid, I might have to PAY for some!!!

flat backs? yup. there is a very slight dome on the tops, but onle enough to see if you look right across the top.

I'm not a traditionalist. doing it because someone else did it 200 years ago isn't a good enough reason for me!! the mando necks are wide compared to normal mandos because I'm a guitarist with big fingers and I just can't play and ordinary trad skinny neck.

the idea has really caught on and since I made my first (in February) I've sold 3!!

as to the wishing you could.......

if you can make a decent halving joint you can make a guitar!!

HONEST!!!

 

[Waka]

Beautiful looking instruments.

 

[dedee]

Very nice Martin.

What some people throw away eh?

Andy

 

[martinedwards]

What some people throw away eh?

yup, never too proud to go dumpster diving!!!

there were planks 3" x 1" x 16 ft !!

I also have a block 14" x 3" x 42" with a corner with bark on it.

it's at least two electric bodies!!