I was the only pasenger on the bus heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.
so I started chatting with the driver
He was more than willing
After a few pleasantries, he looked in the mirror again to see what I was holding.
After a glance, he asked, "What have you got on that guitar, is it a drive-in-movie speaker?" (It was the bulky Harmony Bass in the picture to the left)
I said, "No, but that's a really good idea!"
After that, I was on eBay every day, searching for drive-in-movie speakers from the 1940s and 1950s. They are beautiful in every way.
The first guitar that I made with one was sold to a European traveller less than a week after it went on consignment at Rogue Music.
When I had time...
I made more of them
But none of them are quite as pleasing to look at as the headless Mini4 is.
One of the finer aspects of it is the way that the tuning machines are hidden inside the enclosure. Normally on headless guitars, there is some sort of pully wheel system where the strings wrap around to go back to the tuners, but I like the way the speaker is shaped so I used it as a path for the strings to slide on for tuning.
out of many, one.
E Pluribus Unum was once the motto of the United States of America and references the fact that the cohesive single nation was formed as the result of the thirteen smaller colonies joining together.
Toy guitar neck
I never had the guitar this was on. I scored it on eBay. It needed frets.
Body
Cast Aluminum
1940s drive-in movie speaker enclosure.
Bridge
floating
trapeze style
Pickup
Hum-bucker
unknown brand
Amplifier
TEA 2030A
It's the same circuit as the vintage Harmony PowerPal but it was made recently in China on a compact Printed Circuit Board and sold through eBay. I just love the sound of a Harmony PowerPal to begin with, but when you run them on Lithium rechargeable batteries at 12v. they sound marvelous. The battery is built-in and is charged through a port on the side.