At this stage, my top priority is finding a suitable neck, and backing plate. The neck is the most expensive part of the guitar, and I will adapt my design to fit whatever I buy.

Speaking of design, in the 6 month period since my last post, different design ideas have gone through my head. The most important one is having a piece of very hard wood run down the middle of the guitar (from the heel of the neck to the bridge), to hold it together. Originally, I was going to use stell bars. But I looked into it, and found that if I use a wood, I can easily cut it to shape, and even attach parts (such as the bridge, or the neck) to it.

My search for parts is still underway, I’d very much like a neck that I don’t have to finish, as I’m not too experienced with that concept. I’m considering purchasing an old bomb of a guitar, and stealing the neck, and any other parts that I need. But then, I would have taken apart two guitars to make one, which seems a bit silly.

Still no diagrams as of yet, but I wouldn’t hold your breath for any. Also, I rearranged my WordPress user profiles, this site is now run by ‘Lez’, rather than ‘PonyStore’. This is essentially a cosmetic change, and shouldn’t worry you at all. Both accounts are the same person.

Thanks alot everyone. Any questions, leave a comment, or email ponystore@live.com.

So until I have a neck, a bridge, and more Lego, it looks like I’m stuck with a body.

Just letting you know I have nothing to do. Thanks!

About the pictures:

• Yes, those are my keys in Closeup 2.
• In Pickup and Electronics, from top to bottom: Pickup, Volume Pot, Output Jack.
• In Bridge, the screws on the right correspond to the lower ‘piece’, the screws at the top correspond to the upper ‘piece’. Note that the scres screw into the holes on the body in Closeup 1 and Pickguard.

Now, before you all come down on me for destryong a ‘perfectly good Flying V‘, there are a few things you should know:

• It doesn’t appear to be an official Flying V. There is no Gibson insignia on the headstock, nor anywhere else on the guitar.
• That fretboard is 35cm long. The frets are TINY.
• Infact, the whole guitar is TINY.
• It refused to stay in tune.
• It wasn’t all that attractive.

From this guitar, I intend to take the electronics, perhaps the bridge, and perhaps the tuning pegs. Thanks alot, see ya later.

Firstly, I’m gunna need more Lego. Current piece count for the front side is 282. I have some other 2×2 pieces left over, but not even nearly enough to make a second layer. I may even need a third layer, we’ll see.

Because a guitar neck made from Lego would be exceptionally difficult, I need a neck. Naturally, you can’t play a guitar without one. I technically already have a neck that I can use, however it’s 35cm long, and not suitable for my hands. Ideally, the neck will have a rosewood fingerboard, but I’ll take whatever I can get, considering my lack of funds.

A bridge would be nice. I’ve got a Tune-O-Matic bridge from the ‘recycled’ guitar, however I can’t get the metal tubes out. (Note that non-guitarists probably won’t get the next few lines). The screws on a Tune-O-Matic screw into little metal bolts, which are set in the body of the gutiar. I can’t get these out of the old body, and so I may need to buy a whole new bridge.

I am certain that I’ve gotta have at least glue holding this thing together. I’ve gotta use plastics glue, because alot of super glues don’t bond plastics very well. As well as glue, I may have to use screws, or re-inforcing rods to hold this thing together, and to ensure it doesn’t buckle under the tension of the strings.

If they don’t come with the neck, I’ll need tuning pegs and a nut, and possibly string guides, for the headstock. If the headstock I’m given has 3 pegs on each side, I could use the 3 that came with the old guitar, however those pegs aren’t very good.

As if all this isn’t enough, I need a neck plate, mounting rings for the pickup (something I DO have), wire and solder, as well as anything else that may pop up along the way.

Note that this list doesn’t include the multitude of tools that I’m going to need. If anyone can help me locate anything on this list (it’s sorted in order of importance, by the way), PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I’m in NSW, Australia, so unless you are a local to the Newcastle region, I wouldn’t be too sure as to what you can do. That said, if you have something to say, say it.

Email address is ponystore@live.com, or you can just leave a comment here, and let the whole world know how helpful you are.

Thanks for reading.

The first ever body plan

Note the endpins. Using my screwdriver, and the corkscrew on my swiss army knife, I drilled a hole in two lego pieces, and screwed the end pins in. They work, too. The body can be held up by a strap. I stil need to work on the endpin on the bottom though, it’s not entirely secure.

There is a grand total of 282 pieces in this version. The above body is one brick thick (or, two pips thick [I stole that word from Anirama]). I know that I need it to be at LEAST 2 bricks or 4 pips thick, it’s just too thin otherwise. However, I’ve run out of Lego. I need to get some more.

Note that only 6 colours are used. In order of least to most frequently appearing, they are black, grey, white, blue, yellow red. However, this palette may expand when I get more Lego.

So tell me what you think, comment this post. On all posts on this blog, comments can be made by anyone, so drop me a line and tell me what you think. Thanks alot.

Ok, so what do I want to achieve with this? I want to…

• Build a playable guitar made at least partially from Lego
• Make it using as little money, outside help and resources as possible.
• Use this as a project to hopefully complete by the end of summer (the end of Feburary 2009, this is in Australia)

So what should the guitar itself be like? Essentially, this is what I’m hoping for the guitar to have. It should…

• Have at least 1 pickup. I already own one old pickup which I took from an old guitar. It’s an ANCIENT Seymour Duncan, haven’t had a chance to see if it’s any good, because the guitar it was in was unplayable.
• Have a 25.5″ scale neck. Fender style. I’m used to my long scales, the Gibsons scale I find too difficult to play.
• Have a maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard. This many never come into fruition, however.
• Be strong enough to support the strings. I’m considering re-inforcing the body with metal bars, however this may not be necessary.
• Have nothing more than a volume knob in it’s circuitry. It could very well have more parts, but at this stage I don’t have them, and so don’t need them.
• Have a nice shape. I’m quite the fan of telecasters, so I think I’ll model it from my Telecaster. Maybe with some tweaks, to make it look unique.
• A Tune-O-Matic bridge. I’ve already got one of these, however I can’t seem to get the cylinders that the bolts screw into out of the old guitar, meaning I may have to buy a new bridge.

Ok, so these are the goals and ideas, let’s get started on the actual guitar. Next post will have pictures of the intial bodywork.