Friday, March 28, 2008

Haha dang, I guess we are going to have two guitars in here. I promise I didn't copy you! I've been wanting to do a guitar since the day we saw the slides, I promise :)

My plan is to construct an acoustic guitar model out of audio cassette tapes. There are three possible routes for it to go:

1) If I'm able to find a crappy, super cheap guitar at Savers or Goodwill, I will incorporate the neck, saddle and bridge into the cassette model to preserve actual guitar functionality, complete with strings. Basically to make it strummable.

2) If I'm not able to find it in time, I will not incorporate actual guitar parts and make it purely made of cassettes, with the tape of the cassettes used as "strings." So this is the model that would have no functionality.

3) A second option that would be an additional step added to #2 (without guitar parts) would be to incorporate keyboard-based elements to the functionality of it. I have two mini-mini-cheapo "keyboards" meant for young children, and taken them apart. The length of the keys is approximately that of the bridge of a guitar, so I would place these in ascending order on the bridge where normally frets would go, and preserve playability, wiring the speakers to be placed on the head of the guitar. Additionally, I found an old mickey mouse keyboard which has a very large button which operates very simple drum sounds - on alternating hits a bass drum and snare hit play. I would place this where normally the hole or pickups are on the guitar. Essentially, you could operate the drums with your right hand, tapping on the main body of the guitar, and play melodies with your left hand via the keys on the bridge.

Any opinions on any of it? I'm leaning most towards #3. I dig functionality.

5 comments:

Lynette said...

As a jeweler and object maker myself, I too "dig" functionality. I say number three sounds very ambitions and I will be disappointed if you go for anything less:) Take risks. I want to see you challenge yourself! I am more concerned with how much you learn from the project than how perfectly it matches your original conception.

Lynette said...

Lets talk about how exactly you are going to constrct this if you do not find an actual guitar...

tsallen said...

Dont worry! You arent copying me! Your guitar is going the acoustic route while im keeping mine electric! But i totally dig option three and think it would be a blast to have functionality to it! I think you could also pop the little circle parts out of the cassettes as the knobs if you needed!

Alex said...

That sounds fantastic with those knobs! You are full of golden ideas my friend.

Lynette, yeah, I wasn't sure entirely what would be the best option for the backing structure without a guitar -- what would you suggest? Cuz I'll probably have to do kind of a backing silhouette of it, but I'm not sure what material would be best for that.

Lynette said...

I think you should buy some plywood or some MDF board and we can cut the shape out on the band saw. Ill have to help you, but I think that would be a good interior structure. You will still have to figure out how to attach things though...