The Maui Pallet
This guitar is not particularly about high end parts, in fact thats the whole point of it. Its about 95% pallet wood. Not sure about some of the woods - maybe some folks can help me out there.
Neck:
3-ply neck-through: pallet oak | poplar | pallet oak
Rosewood (stewmac) fretboard - 24 3/4 scale, 24 frets
$8 trussrod from amazon.
Sculpey (took from my kids) brewed fingerboard dots
I mixed white and gray Sculpey (polymer clay), pushed it into a drilled aluminum mold then baked.
Body:
Back is maple (I think) from a rather strange pallet I dismantled.
Top is oak. I happen to get a pallet that had rips from the same log that match up pretty good.
Electronics:
Cheep imported humbuckers from amazon. About $8 for both.
CTS pots, and 250k orange drop caps
Les paul wiring. 2 volume, 2 tone.
Tele style side jack plate.
Hardware:
More cheep imported parts, tune-o-metic bridge, and stop.
Same for the machine tuners.
Why:
This guitar was a personal experiment to see how cheep I could build a guitar out of the abundant pallets available on Maui. I've built lots of furniture and other projects out of pallets, and figured I'd give a guitar a go. While it was fun, I won't do it again -I'm on to using nice normal wood for my next guitars.
Its sound is... well, not the best, and I really should have put some hollow chambers in it because its too heavy. Better pickups would probably help for sure.
Where:
I built this one in my back yard mostly over this last winter. I now have a shop and also with my work shop I have access to much better tools, but this one (as an experiment) was built with hand planers, a 14" band saw, a skill saw and a router.
The Back (Pre-wired)
My workspace for this guitar:
The pallet.
Sizing up the sides and neck plys.
The Maui Pallet This guitar is not particularly about high end parts, in fact thats the whole point of it. Its about 95% pallet wood. Not sure about some of the woods - maybe some folks can help me out there. Neck: 3-ply neck-through: pallet oak | poplar | pallet oak Rosewood (stewmac) fretboard - 24 3/4 scale, 24 frets $8 trussrod from amazon. Sculpey (took from my kids) brewed fingerboard dots I mixed white and gray Sculpey (polymer clay), pushed it into a drilled aluminum mold then baked. Body: Back is maple (I think) from a rather strange pallet I dismantled. Top is oak. I happen to get a pallet that had rips from the same log that match up pretty good. Electronics: Cheep imported humbuckers from amazon. About $8 for both. CTS pots, and 250k orange drop caps Les paul wiring. 2 volume, 2 tone. Tele style side jack plate. Hardware: More cheep imported parts, tune-o-metic bridge, and stop. Same for the machine tuners. Why: This guitar was a personal experiment to see how cheep I could build a guitar out of the abundant pallets available on Maui. I've built lots of furniture and other projects out of pallets, and figured I'd give a guitar a go. While it was fun, I won't do it again -I'm on to using nice normal wood for my next guitars. Its sound is... well, not the best, and I really should have put some hollow chambers in it because its too heavy. Better pickups would probably help for sure. Where: I built this one in my back yard mostly over this last winter. I now have a shop and also with my work shop I have access to much better tools, but this one (as an experiment) was built with hand planers, a 14" band saw, a skill saw and a router. The Back (Pre-wired) My workspace for this guitar: The pallet. Sizing up the sides and neck plys.
