When Matt from the Outpost here in Brisbane asked if I'd make something for his annual "I Used to Skate once" art exhibition, there was only one thing I could do........
Being that all the "artists" (and I use the term loosely in my instance) had to work with Skateboards and I make guitars, the end result was obvious.
The process was kind of easy. Use the deck as the body and attach a neck, right.
Apart from the obvious differences between a guitar body and a skate deck the theory is the same. You just need something to bolt the neck and bridge to and have somewhere to attach the pick ups, pots, jack etc.
Once I worked out the shape (keeping the deck shape as intact as possible) and bolted the neck to it, the idea of using the truck as a wraparound bridge hit me !!
With the neck and bridge in place I needed a design for the headstock. This I took from a skate ramp, and yes, it has a lot of vert for a ramp but it looked different and fitted in with the guitar. Tuners run all the way around the "ramp".
The knobs were obvious.
Wheels were used as volume and tone knobs.
The pick up is a P-90 and sits on two wheel "spacers" for the right height adjustment.
The neck plate is the bottom of the truck. The bridge is machined for intonation and is height adjustable using the torsion bolt of the truck.
This guitar is fully playable and sounds, I might add, TOO GOOD for the sum of it's parts ? It, with lots of other great skateboard art will be available for sale at this years show on the 24th June 2009 at The Zoo...
HERE'S a Skateboard Big Mud I made for the same show a few years later.