Miniature Acoustic Guitar

So, I watched a video online (hurray for YouTube) and this person made a miniature guitar out of jumbo popsicle sticks and coffee stirrers. I watched it and was like... I can do that!

At least I was pretty sure I could.

Anyway, I decided to use what I already had on hand, which were some quarter inch wide craft sticks and some bass wood.

I tried for days. So many days, to get the craft sticks to bend right. I boiled some for a couple of hours, frequently refilling the pot with water. Hell, I even put some in my Instapot and pressure cooked the damn thing.

Nada.

So I caved, stole some coffee stir sticks from the coffee shop in the lobby of my work building, and put them in a container with some boiling hot water and let it sit.

So, future reference, coffee stir sticks are what you want to use. They're thin enough and cheaply made so they bend pretty easily given enough hot water.

Anyway!

So, I softened up these stir sticks, and carved out the shape of an acoustic guitar body from two pieces of basswood. Then I took a stir stick and wrapped it around the bell shape of the body and secured with hair ties. I would have used rubber bands but I don't have any in my house for some reason, but I have an over abundance of hair ties. That didn't take long to dry, and once it was, I began the process of assembling the guitar body.

I glued the curvy side piece to the back and then glued the front on. Also, at some point I put a hole in the front... I don't remember when I did it.

After I glued the body together and I was waiting for the glue to dry, I started on the neck of the guitar.

I went through a lot of craft sticks for this because I wasn't thinking and just did, and it didn't turn out right the first time. Honestly the first neck I made for it came out really pretty but it wasn't near long enough so that's why I had to start over.

I used three small pieces of craft stick and glued them together so I could get the appropriate shape and then I carved down the neck as well as sanded it. Then I saw I needed to have the head added to the neck for the guitar, so I made that and put it together with some glue.

The body of the guitar was... okay. It definitely wasn't even on all sides, the front and back of the body didn't match up with the curvy side piece in some areas. No biggy, right? I went ahead and shaved some of those parts off because I wanted it to be even. I had every intention of painting the guitar once I was done, so the cosmetic appearance of the actual wood didn't matter. I just needed it all to be even. After I shaved parts off, I saw the top of the body, where the neck would attach, was very thin. I had even shaved off too much of the curvy part but at least it was all even! In order to make it strong, I decided to patch it up by cutting out the thin area and putting in a piece of stir stick on it's own. No, it isn't pretty, but I was planning on painting it anyway so it didn't matter a whole bunch to me.

After patching the body, I glued the neck on.

I am very pleased with how this came out. Also, on the head of the guitar neck (if you can see them) I used a microdrill and put six holes in it.

Now, because I apparently like doing things in the wrong order, I decided to paint it next. I went with a sunburst design. I couldn't find all of my acrylic paints, so I used some watercolors I got from my mother-in-law for Christmas (Pelikan if you're interested (also, these are amazing watercolors!)). I wasn't too sure how watercolor would hold up on wood, so I did some test paints to make sure I was able to get the desired effect. I also tested the water color on some dried glue to make sure it would dry correctly and not look too different from the rest of it, as I had to use some glue to fill some gaps in the body.

After I painted the body, I painted the neck brown and tried to add some wood grain texture with a lighter brown color.

Also...

I did this part backward.

So very backward.





After I glued it all together and painted (don't be like me kids.. paint THEN glue) I realized I should have added the strings prior to assembly. So, here I am, trying to thread six, yes SIX, pieces of thread through a hole I had to drill through the front (again, after it was put together and painted). But I eventually got it... after a couple of hours of trying.

I wish I was exaggerating. I'm not.

After I got all the strings through I knotted it so they couldn't come back out and I threaded them through the bridge, which is the black thing on a guitar body that holds the strings. I don't have pictures of the creation of that because everything was super small, but I just took a small piece of wood, drilled six tiny holes into it, painted it black, and then threaded the strings through. This will also hide the unfortunate hole I had to drill larger than necessary to attach the strings to the body.

After this I had to string the guitar up. For the tuning pegs you see on the sides of the head of a guitar, I took some small nail like things I have (I honestly think they're for sequins?) and I squished down the heads of them. Then I cut off the pointy bits. I also cut some short length from the pointy bits for nuts that go on the head of the guitar (the part the strings wrap around). I drilled some small holes in the side of the head of the neck of the guitar, used some superglue to glue it back together since it split apart, and then also used superglue to hold the nut and tuning pegs in place.

Then I started stringing the guitar.

This part was tedious and very time consuming. I also used superglue here to hold the strings in place once wrapped around the nuts.

Superglue got everywhere.

While I waited for that to dry, I worked on the pick guard. I made this by cutting out a small tear drop sort of shape and then, because I don't own black nail polish, I used a black paint pen and clear polish to get it black and shiny. And then I set that aside to dry for the rest of my life. After I died and reincarnated, I glued this to the body of the guitar.

Once everything was dry, I thought it looked pretty good, then I realized I was missing parts below the head of the guitar and above the bridge.

So I carved out some tiny wood pieces, painted them white, and glued them on, leaving me with this awesome finished product!

Also, before I strung it up I sprayed it with a ton of fixative. I probably should have put a finish on it so it would be nice and glossy, but I don't have any right now and I don't want to go to Lowe's to buy some.

I want to make more, but the process for bending those pesky stir sticks was rather long and drawn out. If I find a way to... automate it... somehow... would be nice. Maybe I could open an Etsy shop and make millions!

Or like... ten bucks.