Hawaii Five-O on my Home-Made Electric Guitar

I just made this guitar and was noodling around in front of the TV with it, watching a recorded episode of the new Hawaii Five-O and I tried to play the theme song. After struggling with it for about an hour, I went to my office and downloaded some tab for it and managed to play it without too many mistakes. I set the reverb to max on my amp and added a bit of chorus. Then, I recorded it...perhaps I should have practiced a bit more, but hey...you don't have to listen to it! LOL.

The guitar is made from wood that I was going to burn in the fireplace this winter! It is a bit of an oddball guitar. I love the look of a telecaster, so that's what the primary shape is. I made the tummy cut and arm cut contours on it (exactly like a stratocaster has) and milled the pickguard to allow the centre pickup from a stratocaster to fit. I created a custom metal bracket to mount the stratocaster bridge pickup in the fixed telecaster bridge. I drilled the control plate out between the two normal telecaster knobs for the additional tone control normally found on a stratocaster. I couldn't get the electrosocket jack locally, so I milled one on my metal lathe from a piece of aluminum. I cut a notch on the end of a stratocaster neck so that the neck length would be the same as a telecaster neck's length (so I could set the intonation properly), allowing the 22nd fret to overhang the pickguard. Finally, I wired in the five-way switch. So, what is this guitar? I'm not sure, but as close as I can guess, it is a cherry-maple-tele-strat!

Anyway, I think the tone sounds great on it and it feels very good in my arms. I don't think my wee point-and-shoot camera can capture the tone properly, but it's all I've got to use.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Guitar
• Electric Guitar
• Hawaii Five-O
• Hawaii 5 O

[jonnda]

Bravo! (for building the guitar). I always encourage people to make a guitar for themselves, especially out of wood that has been reclaimed and sourced locally. I dig the striped butcher block look. I wish I could see the mount you made for the bridge pickup better. And yeah, the Five-O could use some more work.

[ACFerguson1965]

@jonnda When I get some time, I'll go through my photos as I know I have some that show the mounting plate that I made for the bridge pickup. Eventually, I'll get the up somehow on youtube. Cheers, Tony

[delzirockz]

Sweet!

[austinisadragon0318]

That's a sick guitar man

[honeythief98]

Excellent

[snickersfan15]

Nice guitar! :)

[MrMike81800]

It is really neat!!. as they said back in my day. I Love the fact that you rescued this wood from the fire place I thing it is a crying shame they we burn up beautiful wood just for a little heat. I have never met a piece of wood that I didn't like. You inspire me do the same. Thanks

[emanuelsuperford]

Great job building that guitar... it looks great. I apreciate when I see home-made guitars... It is a lot of work but it worths the effort... nice sound;)