Build a Guitar from Junk

I finally have something to document on this blog - a 'build it as cheaply as possible' guitar inspired by a neck I already had lying about waiting for a home. The neck came from a Fernandes "Zo-3" that I originally picked up from the junk corner of the local Hard-off store.

The body and many of the fittings (bridge, tuners, etc) have degraded somewhat, probably as a result of storage in humid conditions, but the neck seems surprisingly intact. Here's a photo of an intact ZO-3 (not mine):


http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fernandes_ZO-3.jpg

When spoken, Zo-3 becomes "zou-san" and is Japanese for elephant. Perhaps you can see the resemblance in the design? (picture the guitar in playing position).

The following principles will apply:

- Use existing scrap, junk, parts, bits and bobs, etc that I have lying around the house
- Allow aesthetics to dictate the flow of project (more below)
- Learn something new - in this case that'll probably be winding my own pickups
- Have fun

My Yes/No of Aesthetics

Yes - the guitar should appear to be:
- Space junk mated with agricultural machinery
- Earth bound but beaming out to cosmos
- Transmitting the unknown

No - the guitar should not embody:
- Machismo
- Death
- Auto-industry(?)
- Rock without any roll

(will probably add more to the above as the project progresses)

I sketched out a few shapes and used photoshop to get a full-size template:



Next step is to make a proper template out of ply or hardboard. This will be used for routing the body.