Oil can guitar build

[beerbelly]

Some of you may have seen my muffler guitar build in this forum. I'm really happy with the way it turned out- it plays & sounds like a good electric, but even with recent weight reduction, it comes in at around 13 lbs. Uff Da!

I came across some videos of these 'Bohemian' oil can guitars, and thought that might be a fun (and lighter) version of the metal can idea.

So that's the next project. The scale of body-to-neck looks 'off' to me using a 1 gallon can, so I found a larger 2 1/2 gal. can on ebay, an old Montgomery Wards oil can with some nice old car graphics. The neck is coming from GFS, the Squier vintage split shaft tuners from The Stratosphere, and the bridge is a Fender Duo Sonic, kinda like a Tele but a top loader. I'm keeping it simple with one pickup, and have either a P90 or a mini humbucker to choose from; haven't decided yet.
I'm also working on a headstock design, and thought a cut-out of a drip (or drips) might be nice- any thoughts?

 

[pancake81]

Will be following intently

 

[Go Nigel Go]

A straight up Tele headstock would look pretty nice and be in keeping with the simple aesthetic. Always curious to see what you will come up with. The muffler build was fascinating and came out great even if it was on the heavy side. This one should be a real featherweight.

 

[Decadent Dan]

Filter'Tron!

 

[Von Trapp]

Just an opinion but as opposed to the muffler I think it way more cool to just leave the can as is and just put some clear coats on.

 

[beerbelly]

Just an opinion but as opposed to the muffler I think it way more cool to just leave the can as is and just put some clear coats on.

Yep, that's the plan.

 

[beerbelly]

Enough parts are showing up that I can do a mock up. By adjusting how far I set the neck into the body, I can locate the pickup and the bridge without covering up the car graphics or the majority of the text.

 

[beerbelly]

Got the back opened up, and it doesn’t look like this can ever had oil in it. Also cut out for the P90 pickup:

 

[beerbelly]

Cut & fitted the inner structure today, and glued in the end portions:

 

[beerbelly]

The GFS neck finally got here, and it's a really nice piece of straight grain maple. The fretboard is some kind of engineered wood-ish material, but hey, $32!

 

[Decadent Dan]

And no odd scarf, looks great

 

[beerbelly]

I'm trying to figure out what the fretboard material is; it looks like it's made of layers, like rosewood 'plywood'. Any thoughts?

 

[beerbelly]

New idea for the headstock design- mask & spray black oil drips from each tuner:

 

[Von Trapp]

Wow, great idea!

 

[Go Nigel Go]

I like it too! Very creative.

 

[beerbelly]

After I shaped & sealed it, I'm having second thoughts about using this GFS neck on the build- it's just too nicely quartersawn for a novelty guitar. I think I'll keep this one for a future build and use an old Squier Tele neck I have.

 

[beerbelly]

 

[beerbelly]

Got a lot done today- cut the neck pocket, attached the neck to the internal 'spine', mounted the neck to the body, and mounted the pickup and the bridge. Everything is lining up perfectly.

 

[Go Nigel Go]

Looking good! Great progress.

What is the car? I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess '62 Falcon? Love the Steve McQueen "Bullitt" Mags, makes a great guitar stand for the photos of your car related builds!

 

[beerbelly]

Thanks, and yes, there's a car-related theme to these latest builds. It's a '65 (Falcon) Ranchero, factory 289 V8 4 speed car.