What enclosure is that?

[Pauleo1214]

As some of you know, I build guitars as an avocation. As I say goodbye to my pets, I like to build a guitar in their memory. I have two models called the St. Humphrey and St. Lily.

This guitar is called the St. Daphne.Daphne was not long for this world. We had her for two years; she battled asthma and congestive heart failure. Despite a strict regimen of treatment and medication, she passed suddenly of a blood clot.


Here is the guitar in her memory.






















So why is this here? When routing the top for recesses for the knobs, I screwed up, plunging my router a bit too soon. To make the controls somewhat symmetrical, everything had to be squashed in.

The layout never looked right and bothered me. When placing knobs on this top I noticed it looked purposeful if I put two sets of different knobs instead.

That begs the question, why would you put different knobs on a guitar? Only if you put a PCB in it. @JamieJ suggested the Electra distortion. Some research showed the MXR Distortion+ was a close relative and was a PCB I had on hand. So in it went!



I really don't know why onboard distortions aren't more of a thing. This guitar sounds ace with it and it's versatile to boot!

Cheers!

 

[HamishR]

I think it's a nice enclosure but I doubt it would fit on my pedalboard.

 

[Mentaltossflycoon]

Condolences, that's a really nice tribute.

 

[MichaelW]

Very sorry for your loss, but what a fitting tribute. That is a gorgeous looking guitar and looks right up my alley!
Would love to see you document your process someday!

 

[giovanni]

Very nice build! Did you shape the body from blank yourself?

 

[PapaBear]

Beautiful Tribute, and sorry for your loss!

 

[jimilee]

Very beautiful and bitter sweet!

 

[Pauleo1214]

Very nice build! Did you shape the body from blank yourself?

Yes indeed. For all my shapes, I make a template from 1/4" plywood.

I will cut the blank out as close as possible to the edge and bolt up the template to the top. I put it on my routing table where the bit will shave off the rest and a bearing will follow the template.


Thank you for the kind words all!

 

[giovanni]

Yes indeed. For all my shapes, I make a template from 1/4" plywood.

I will cut the blank out as close as possible to the edge and bolt up the template to the top. I put it on my routing table where the bit will shave off the rest and a bearing will follow the template.


Thank you for the kind words all!

Very cool. We are renovating our house and had to replace 100 years old joists so I saved one and want to make a body out of it. Can I bug you with questions when the time comes?

 

[Pauleo1214]

Very cool. We are renovating our house and had to replace 100 years old joists so I saved one and want to make a body out of it. Can I bug you with questions when the time comes?

Absolutely!

 

[Synchrony Pedalworks]

Gorgeous guitar and cat! You are truly a master. I really like the soft contour of the body and colors are fantastic.

I feel your pain about your cat. We lost a dog with diabetes a while back. It was hard taking care of her and there were a lot of tenuous moments, but in the end, all worth it. She was a joy to us, just like your furry friend.

 

[Fingolfen]

That's an amazing guitar and a wonderful tribute to your cat - and a lovely idea. We've lost a few cats, but it was before I was building anything like guitars or pedals. My son recently lost a pet (guinea pig), so I was thinking about a pedal tribute to her - now I'm definitely going to have to make it happen.

 

[Feral Feline]

Condolences.

Beautiful guitar for a beautiful cat.

 

[iamjackslackof]

Gorgeous guitar for a gorgeous cat. Read this post with my cat on my lap, and I can't think of a better way to honor a loved pet than this, well done.

 

[Pauleo1214]

Thank you again for the kind words all. This is my third pet memorial guitar model. I would not have posted it if not for the Distortion +.

Here are my other two.

St. Lily after my 16 year old golden retriever.






St. Humphrey after the cat my wife had when we first met. He hated my guts and was really overweight.

 

[MichaelW]

Those are some fabulous looking guitars! (And pets)