In this video I'm gonna show you how I managed to make a guitar using my Ikea furniture as a primary source of material.
This idea came to me while I was making a Brian May's Red Special replica: while I was following the footsteps of Dr. May, like anyone who's ever made a Red Special I guess, I kept asking myself the following questions: "what the ....?", "how did he ...?", "wait a minute ...", "no way, that's brilliant!".
Having access to the plans felt a little bit like cheating so I started wondering how I would personally do it in 2022 ? e.g design and build a guitar from scratch, using nothing but what's available around me.
Truth is, ever since the "Electric Shelf 335" became viral (4 million views, thank you), I've been wanting to make something like this. In my original design, I was trying to emulate an actual solid body guitar, so I had to find a way to make bent sides, which is not an easy thing to do when all you have is stuff from Ikea. Another problem I had was that, to my knowledge, the only tone wood that Ikea uses is acacia, which they use in some of their outdoor furniture (and I don't have any of those at home). Anyway, I kept finding excuses not to make the final jump, but the Red Special really opened up my eyes: Brian May taught me that they are no rules, as he demonstrated by making a legendary guitar with a body that is essentially pine and oak.
The guitar started out as a joke. I remember going upstairs and telling my wife "I'm gonna make a guitar out of Zoé's old bed". She rolled her eyes to the ceiling and asked me "why". Then I immediately thought "This is the way".
Now I could have done everything differently. For example, I could have glued all the bars together, routed the whole thing and make a generic shape like a tele or an SG. Or, I could have used some solid pine tabletop or a chopping board and call it a day. But it's not 2019 anymore !
Today, the tone wood myth definitely lost another believer.
Why Vecna you might ask ? Well, why not. I think it's suiting for some reason.
The pickup is the only thing that I bought for this build, I took the bridge from build VII (the wenge neckthrough), and the tuners from build XI (the ocean blue top), I had spare frets and electronic parts. So in the end the guitar only cost me the price of the pickup !
OK, enough rambling. Here are the specs
Neck : STUVA cot
Body: HENRIKSDAL chair, LACK shelf
Fretboard: MÅLERÅS picture ledge
Knobs: APTILIG chopping board
Jack output plate: LILANGEN door handle
Strap buttons: KALLAX insert knob
24 frets - Lace Alumitone pickup - Split coil push/push (turns on an LED when engaged)
Hope you enjoy the video.
I'm always making something, so follow me @ / tchiksguitars
Bisous !