Jazzcardster??

[norris2002]

It’s been a while!

Years have passed since I’ve posted anything on here. Like lots of people I have a passion for building guitars (less for playing guitars), but also have a real job (selling lights to people), and a real life (beautiful wife + house that needs work + 18 month old daughter that needs work). Luckily for me, my work has given me the opportunity/inspiration to build a guitar.

Specifically a guitar made from cardboard.

Posts to follow = pics and hopefully some description of what is going on.

[norris2002]

[epizootics]

Hmm, your picture does't seem to work with BBCode, but I gave the 'right click + Open in a new tab' trick and it worked...

I'm trying to find the right words...What the hell?

That's funny, I work with a guy who used to be a fish maker in the 70's. He worked in LA and Minneapolis as a constructor of HUGE decorative fish, and did so with glass at first, then resin, and from there he designed his own cardboard material, which had an alveolar structure and offered the same strength as wood. No one was interested in a full-scale industrial development of the material back then and he gave up trying to market it, but the other day he told me how it would have been a suitable basis for a guitar body.

Sooooo...Did you fill up the cardboard with anything to harden it, or did you go the straight up route? Is the tremolo functional?
Looking at it, I only see one strap pin, I assume the other end of the strap is attached to the neck the acoustic way to prevent neck dive?

Tell us more!

[oid]

Is it a wood center from a cut down guitar to which you are applying cardboard wings? Can not tell much from the photos, a pure cardboard guitar would be an interesting engineering puzzle. I remember many years ago when I was young on a trip somewhere we went by a place which made engineered materials, out front they had a car suspended a good ways off the ground completely by cardboard, a couple A frames and a long beam with the car hung by chains from the center of the beam, stood out there in the weather for years apparently.

Look forward to more details.

[Futuron]

Very curious!

Hope it's moisture proof in the end

[Trout]

https://youtu.be/7Oo2H-W7d6A

[norris2002]

I should have been a bit more descriptive! The sparkly gold thing is an old cut down Encore strat (I think) being used for parts. The 3 x blocks of card in the image are to become the body blank for a jazzmaster themed build.

Trout has the right idea, and the genesis of this project was the Fender video for their cardboard strat. RE epoxy / moisture / hardness - its all an experiment with no real useful end goal other than seeing what works. I think someone mentions 'resin' during one of the fender vids about their efforts, and it defo looks like it has some finish on it.

I think the body will be quite simple, and stresses not too great. Biggest dilema is whether to use the shitty donor (wood) neck, or to build a likely shittier cardboard neck. I imagine that will at least need a stiff rod up the middle of it, or something laminated between the cardboard for hidden stiffness.


I'll try to sort the pics out when I get some time this weekend.

[norris2002]

Remembered how to post photos on here!

Small bit of progress on this one. Body blank is now glued and cut out. Needs levelling (belt sander) and contouring (belt sander).

This is by far the easiest/quickest build I have done so far. Quality of finish leaves a bit to be desired, but what more would you expect from cardboard??

[norris2002]

Blank glue up:




Outline marking:


Marked it with spray paint. Much easier to see on the cardboard end grain (is it end grain?)


Mostly cut. Offcut stuck on with superglue:

[dylanafghjkl]

interested to see how this turns out!

[norris2002]

Body cut and all colours made with a belt sander (a bit rough, but I couldn’t think of a better way). The bridge and neck are mocked up - string through to a captive plate on the back for string ball ends.

The bridge screw area is reinforced with CA, and seems to be holding ok, but will probably need a bit more stability here for long term use.

Its strung with a 48 on the top, and it’s way too unstable so I’ve ordered a set of super slim 8-38 strings for it.

I think it’s cuaranteed to feel like a toy by the end of it.

[solfege]

I think it’s cuaranteed to feel like a toy by the end of it.

I feel like you need some kind of material to stabilize and harden the cardboard. You mentioned above that the Fender people made some mention of resin. It seems like something like a fiberglass process would work to stabilize it here, impregnate the body with some sort of resin and let it set, allowing the cardboard to basically function as a matrix for that.

[dinosaurkale->]

this is awesome !

[hpr_hpr]

I think it’s cuaranteed to feel like a toy by the end of it.

I feel like you need some kind of material to stabilize and harden the cardboard. You mentioned above that the Fender people made some mention of resin. It seems like something like a fiberglass process would work to stabilize it here, impregnate the body with some sort of resin and let it set, allowing the cardboard to basically function as a matrix for that.

I have to second that . . . at least between the neck and bridge, strings exert quite a lot of force and I think that area might slowly collapse (if it doesn't have a catastrophic failure).