There’s a tendency among cherished brands to licence their name and logo onto all sorts of novelty items in order to make a quick buck. Joining this trend is the guitar maker Fender, who have lent their name to a chopping board in the shape of their famous Telecaster. The existence of such a product seems to have been a direct challenge to [Not A Luthier], who promptly bought one and turned it into a real guitar. It’s a genuine Fender, but is it a genuine Fender guitar? Not really, but it’s an entertaining build.
The chopping board isn’t made of great material, instead it’s a set of strips of wood, we’re guessing probably bamboo or rubberwood, glued together. It’s robust, but noticeably thinner than the guitar whose shape it takes, and with a not-great finish. The build is not too different from any other electric guitar build we’ve seen, with the main challenge being that the bridge and pickups need spacers underneath them to compensate for the reduced thickness of the wood.
The video is below the break and makes for a soothing watch as an in-depth guitar build, complete with a moment of drilling all the way through the board and fabricating a plug to hide the evidence. The final guitar seems to sound alright, but we’re not guitarists so maybe a more practiced ear should judge. The genuine Fender logo is still proudly on it so it’s a Fender of sorts, but just like with the chopping board, it’s best value is in novelty.
Meanwhile if guitar builds are a thing, we’ve had a few in the past.
You can also make it from shovel https://hackaday.com/2010/09/04/shovel-guitar/
I don’t understand why people pay so much for “brand name” guitars when you can buy better sounding gear from China for 1/5th the price. It’s no different from Makita selling cheap tools and overpriced batteries.
Well, people gladly pay for identity, status, and the feeling of belonging to a tradition. There is even a name for goods where a higher price makes them more desirable instead of less, Veblen goods.
“we’re guessing probably bamboo or rubberwood”
No guessing necessary, it’s 100% bamboo, says Fender’s webshop. And they are asking about 40€ for it. So it’s just an overpriced cutting board from Asia in a silly shape.
One needs to guess – if didn’t watch video ;)
100% BAMBOO at 0:16, 0:40, 0:56 and so on and so forth.
Building your own guitar or hacking on an existing one is great fun.
NotALuthier does some great builds very much in the HackADay spirit. His other builds get deep in moding, retro restoring, and getting creative. Go check out the other vids
Folks into egomaxing will name brand drop and price tag flash. For myself I’d rather build a cigar box guitar or a CuttingboardCaster , get a ton of enjoyment from building and then playing on it.
I am often surprised by the number of musicians who know absolutely nothing about maintaining their instruments. That said, it’s fine to be that way, just like it’s fine to not make or maintain your own cars.
+1 to this … On seeing the video, and starting to watch it with my 7yo, I ordered the stratocaster version and we’re going to build it together as a fun project.
Just google Bo Diddley guitar build to see many articles on building your own guitar!!
Add some graphics of veggies, slice it up on the green onions solo part. Or maybe a decal of The Onion might be appropriate.
What a trip to see/listen this last hippie journey while I’m half past out from all the “potions” I imbue myself this evening. Magic! Cheers!