AMMO CAN 6 STRING

Today I finished the Ammo Can Guitar I've been working on. It's not as polished as the JR tenor, but it's got an amazing range of tone. I didn't run the neck all the way through this time, gambling on my ability to firmly mount the neck to the body, and it payed off. I think it's maybe a sixteenth out between the head and the end of the fretboard, but it doesn't seem to make any difference, and it holds tune just fine.  This was my first foray into the world of fretting, but it was easier than I had thought it would be- just a pullsaw and a hammer and some fretwire. The key was using a square to guide the cut. I laid out the fret positions using my '75 Harmony 3/4 scale acoustic as a template- the scale is 21.5" from nut to bridge. The hardest part was getting the bridge angle right so the intonation wasn't off... that took a couple hours of trial and error, and I ended up having to shim the nut with a jigsaw blade (whatever works, right?). I keep learning new things about the instrument the more I play it- for instance, I just discovered that if you turn the latch on the box lid by 180 degrees, it creates a rattle that sounds just like someone turned up the gain. It's natural distortion- amazing! And, since it is still operable as an ammo box, I can keep any number of things in it during shows: extra picks, a whole microphone as a pickup, or, best of all, 2 inches of ice and three cans of beer. Best Instrument Ever.

Specs:

-Poplar neck

-Mahogany fingerboard

-Ammunition can body

-10 speed rear cluster guard sound hole co

ver

-Simpson Strongtie neck bracket

-Old Fender Tuners (mismatched, all right handed)

-Maple table leg neck brace

-Abalone inlay drawer-pull bridge

-Light gage strings

-Total Cost: $24.00