Had a guitar made out of barn wood

davis224
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davis224
Edited Date/Time 12/15/2018 4:57am
Been wanting to do it for a while and finally pulled the trigger a while back, and just finished it this week. Boards came from a barn on my parents farm, so I wanted to utilize as many parts from the farm as I could. Tone knob is a push/pull bright switch, so I used the choke knob off of an old grain truck laid to rest in another barn, the volume knob is an old shotgun shell casing I found inside that was likely used for trap shooting off of the north side of the barn sometime in my childhood, pickup selector is a buckeye from the tree next to the house, and the truss rod cover is the tin roofing on the barn. Neck is from warmoth, 24 3/4 conversion, roasted maple with rosewood fretboard, Fralin hum cancelling p-90s. I thought this would calm my thirst for more guitars, but I'm already wanting another!
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agn5009
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agn5009 12/1/2018 12:31pm
12/1/2018 12:31pm
Wow that is really cool! Nice work.
borg
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borg 12/1/2018 6:00pm
12/1/2018 6:00pm
This would start a tonewood debate on some forums. I'm a skeptic on that shit. Major skeptic.
What you have here is what custom guitars should be about. History, family, keepsake originality. I love it.
Play some riffs and post em up. I would like to hear what it sounds like.
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TXDirt
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TXDirt 12/1/2018 6:04pm
12/1/2018 6:04pm
That’s an heirloom piece right there!! Well done!!
davis224
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davis224 12/2/2018 4:10am
12/2/2018 4:10am Edited Date/Time 12/2/2018 4:13am
borg wrote:
This would start a tonewood debate on some forums. I'm a skeptic on that shit. Major skeptic. What you have here is what custom guitars should...
This would start a tonewood debate on some forums. I'm a skeptic on that shit. Major skeptic.
What you have here is what custom guitars should be about. History, family, keepsake originality. I love it.
Play some riffs and post em up. I would like to hear what it sounds like.
I assumed that with the boards likely being one, that it would be tinny sounding, anemic almost, so I had both pickups over wound 5% to make sure it had some girth to it. It is actually quite thick/bassy sounding, with the neck pickup sounding more like a humbucker than a p-90. Bridge pickup has some serious bite, and using both pickups I do get a bit of the snap I was looking for. I might swap them out for a lower winding, but I'm impressed with how it sounds. I'll see if I have time to make a video today
KMC440
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KMC440 12/2/2018 5:20am
12/2/2018 5:20am
That is one cool guitar. Wasn't sure how it was going to look but you/they did a really nice job.

Definitely would like to hear the difference between that one and a "standard" model, if there is such a thing.
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Foghorn
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Foghorn 12/3/2018 6:37am
12/3/2018 6:37am
borg wrote:
This would start a tonewood debate on some forums. I'm a skeptic on that shit. Major skeptic. What you have here is what custom guitars should...
This would start a tonewood debate on some forums. I'm a skeptic on that shit. Major skeptic.
What you have here is what custom guitars should be about. History, family, keepsake originality. I love it.
Play some riffs and post em up. I would like to hear what it sounds like.
Cool looking axe! Some serious mojo. I'm with Borg on the wood. It's 95% electronics and 5% wood affecting the sound. Just my experience.
davis224
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davis224 12/4/2018 3:45am
12/4/2018 3:45am
I'll try to post a video up tomorrow night, been working long hours.

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borg
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borg 12/5/2018 7:15pm
12/5/2018 7:15pm
borg wrote:
This would start a tonewood debate on some forums. I'm a skeptic on that shit. Major skeptic. What you have here is what custom guitars should...
This would start a tonewood debate on some forums. I'm a skeptic on that shit. Major skeptic.
What you have here is what custom guitars should be about. History, family, keepsake originality. I love it.
Play some riffs and post em up. I would like to hear what it sounds like.
Foghorn wrote:
Cool looking axe! Some serious mojo. I'm with Borg on the wood. It's 95% electronics and 5% wood affecting the sound. Just my experience.
I'm threatening to build a guitar out of steel tubing or something to get to the bottom of this. BTW, I've had problems micing my acoustic when I want to record so I took an old humbucker from a Les Paul I had and rigged it up in the sound hole so I could plug it straight in to my audio interface. Sounded just like my Les Paul.
jeffro503
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jeffro503 12/5/2018 7:47pm
12/5/2018 7:47pm
Whoa! That is one neat looking guitar Davis. This is another thing I never got the chance to add to my life experience.....learn how to play a guitar.
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dadofagun
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dadofagun 12/10/2018 2:21pm
12/10/2018 2:21pm
That’s really cool! I contacted DW to see if they could build me a drum kit from an old tree on my family property. Really cool idea, awesome work Sir!
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Sheriff245 12/11/2018 9:29am
12/11/2018 9:29am
dadofagun wrote:
That’s really cool! I contacted DW to see if they could build me a drum kit from an old tree on my family property. Really cool...
That’s really cool! I contacted DW to see if they could build me a drum kit from an old tree on my family property. Really cool idea, awesome work Sir!
If they won't do it, Luka percussion might.
dadofagun
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dadofagun 12/11/2018 9:56am
12/11/2018 9:56am
dadofagun wrote:
That’s really cool! I contacted DW to see if they could build me a drum kit from an old tree on my family property. Really cool...
That’s really cool! I contacted DW to see if they could build me a drum kit from an old tree on my family property. Really cool idea, awesome work Sir!
Sheriff245 wrote:
If they won't do it, Luka percussion might.
I’ll check them out, thanks man!
Tiki
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Tiki 12/11/2018 8:01pm
12/11/2018 8:01pm
Very creative and cool looking. What is the switch made from? It looks like an old gumdrop.
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davis224
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davis224 12/13/2018 2:58am
12/13/2018 2:58am
Tiki wrote:
Very creative and cool looking. What is the switch made from? It looks like an old gumdrop.
It's a buckeye. Sorry, no video yet. I'm in day 11 of 12+ hour shifts and am physically and emotionally drained!
davis224
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davis224 12/15/2018 4:57am
12/15/2018 4:57am
borg wrote:
This would start a tonewood debate on some forums. I'm a skeptic on that shit. Major skeptic. What you have here is what custom guitars should...
This would start a tonewood debate on some forums. I'm a skeptic on that shit. Major skeptic.
What you have here is what custom guitars should be about. History, family, keepsake originality. I love it.
Play some riffs and post em up. I would like to hear what it sounds like.
Foghorn wrote:
Cool looking axe! Some serious mojo. I'm with Borg on the wood. It's 95% electronics and 5% wood affecting the sound. Just my experience.
borg wrote:
I'm threatening to build a guitar out of steel tubing or something to get to the bottom of this. BTW, I've had problems micing my acoustic...
I'm threatening to build a guitar out of steel tubing or something to get to the bottom of this. BTW, I've had problems micing my acoustic when I want to record so I took an old humbucker from a Les Paul I had and rigged it up in the sound hole so I could plug it straight in to my audio interface. Sounded just like my Les Paul.
I fall somewhere in the middle on this, I think that the woods do make a difference, but it's not the end all-be all for what makes a guitar sound "good". I will say, switching back and forth from my other guitars to this one, they sound and feel just a bit "sweeter".

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