# The "Build It Rather Than Buy It" thread



## HUGH JAYNUS (Jan 12, 2014)

So i have always been a kinda poor man. so acquiring new gear is difficult. I tend to build stuff rather than buy it. I've seen several people doing this also and I'm curious what you creative mofos have done yourselves. 

If you built one rather than bought one, share it! Lets be an inspiration to each other!

My pedal board i built today. Made with a scrap of wood and carpet, some wire clothes hanger, a bit of tape and velcro, and a staple gun. Cost me nothing at all by using crap I had laying around lol





My recently improved on 7 guitar rack. I'll take new pics soon. This is a before finished pic. Cost me $10 for a few things i didnt have laying around. Used some foam i found and used beer bottle caps as washers lol.





Share em and lets see how crafty we SSO people can be! Also I want some new ideas to steal...


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Jan 12, 2014)

Also in the rack pic you can see my strap lock design lol.


----------



## darren (Jan 12, 2014)

That's the EVH strap lock design.


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Jan 13, 2014)

darren said:


> That's the EVH strap lock design.



Lol I had no idea he did that too. I need to look that up


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Jan 13, 2014)

That strap is almost identical lol. But mine the strap doesnt conveniently attach to the clip. I had to use a bolt. I did that for my wireless. One reciever and one strap. Easy to swap guitars on stage.


----------



## patata (Jan 13, 2014)

I'm currently funding a swamp ash/maple only 7FF build.


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Jan 13, 2014)

Pics!


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Jan 13, 2014)

Curiosity and bored bump


----------



## Prophetable (Jan 13, 2014)

My pedalboard:
Wood, black painted L-bar for edging, Black Duct Tape, strip of pile tape down the center, screw on hat hooks on the bottom for feet at the back to tilt it, and black plastic split tube for cable management.


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Jan 13, 2014)

looks way more legit than mine. but mine was made to make set up and tear down at shows take as little time as possible. and it was redneck engineered. with everything attached lol


----------



## silent suicide (Jan 14, 2014)

Builded my own guitarstand




Made my own fretwraps




Made a shelf for my g-major and a keyboard that I can swing out.




I made my own pedalboard aswell with some junk I had laying around at work.
But I don't have a good picture of that right now.
So you will have to be satisfied with these ^^


----------



## Manurack (Jan 14, 2014)

I grew up in Kugluktuk, Nunavut, Canada which is a really remote, isolated fly-in only community.

I wanted a guitar rack that held 3 guitars on it so badly but there are no music stores in my hometown. I decided to build my own in high school!
My class was taking a 2 week welding course and we had to weld something together for the course. Perfect opportunity! I welded a frame together then welded on the hangers. It was sweet! Unfortunately I've only found one picture that was cropped so it's not great and blurry.

It had a Fender Squier Stagemaster 7 string, a Grayson Warrior (BC Rich Warlock knockoff lol) and a BC Rich Kerry King V on it. I loved that guitar rack!
I wish I could've brought it down to BC with me, it would look great in my house! It's probably still behind my Mom's house, frozen in -50C weather lol


----------



## patata (Jan 14, 2014)

METAL_WIZARD said:


> Pics!





> funding



the body however,will look like this


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Jan 14, 2014)

We should start a thread where everyone could donate $1 for us broke asses lol


----------



## patata (Jan 14, 2014)

METAL_WIZARD said:


> We should start a thread where everyone could donate $1 for us broke asses lol



million dollar idea


----------



## Randy (Jan 14, 2014)

Great idea for a thread!

I've got too many of these kinda projects to list, but as far as pics I've got on hand, this is from a pedalboard I made.

Back when I was helping out at a local church, they remodeled the basement and I took all of the scrap. The wood for this pedalboard all came from a single oak door and frame. The top is flat, incase there's anything I need mounted on a level surface, and then the rest of the board is at a gentle slope. All work was done using a table saw, belt sander and drill. 





...after this, I painted it black (Krylon brush on paint ~$5), then velcro (~$12), then added a small black surge protector ($5) and extension cord ($8) to the bottom of it. Came out really nice for that it cost ($30ish) and how long it took (2 - 3 hours, all things considered).

I'll have to dig up some pictures of the finished product.


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Jan 14, 2014)

Randy said:


> Great idea for a thread!
> 
> I've got too many of these kinda projects to list, but as far as pics I've got on hand, this is from a pedalboard I made.
> 
> ...



thats a pretty genius idea. id like to see it finished


----------



## BlackMastodon (Jan 14, 2014)

Made similar fretwraps like silent suicide did and they work pretty well. I'm considering using some kind of plastic behind the foam to make it a bit more rigid and spread the tension across the strings more evenly. It seems to pull harder on the 2 outer strings otherwise.


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Jan 14, 2014)

I used hairbands. Recently I just put foam under the strings


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Jan 15, 2014)

Lets see some pics yall!


----------



## Randy (Jan 15, 2014)

METAL_WIZARD said:


> thats a pretty genius idea. id like to see it finished



Updated pics:









The cables after I tamed them a little earlier today:





On the face, there's a mic. stand pickholder I was using for a while by wedging it in an opening but I switched over to a spring-loaded holder, which is what you're seeing on the right. The elastic/velcro wrap thing across the top is what I'm using to keep cables from just hanging loose.

I took my pedals off the top of the board so you could get a better look at it, but what I'm usually running is my Yamaha DG Stomp -> Korg Pandora PX4 (for riff learning, jamming over drum tracks for brainstorming, etc.) -> Fender Vibro Champ XD. I mention all that because, with the rig the way it's setup, the amp is plugged into the pedal board and I obviously have cables running to the amp itself (so stuff running back and forth) but they all collect up into a fairly neat little cable snake. I'm using this with an apartment rig, so the way it's run, I can put the whole pedalboard ontop of my amp (so the dog doesn't piss on it or tearing anything off) and when I want to use it, I can just set the pedalboard on the floor up to ~5 - 6 feet away, flip the switch and I'm playing; no messing around with cords or anything.




BlackMastodon said:


> Made similar fretwraps like silent suicide did and they work pretty well. I'm considering using some kind of plastic behind the foam to make it a bit more rigid and spread the tension across the strings more evenly. It seems to pull harder on the 2 outer strings otherwise.





METAL_WIZARD said:


> I used hairbands. Recently I just put foam under the strings



I used a couple of elastic/velcro bands like the one mentioned above. They worked pretty well but I still haven't found anything that works better than:





...the 'fluffiness' and the grouping of three of them makes the biggest difference. I've tried using one single hairband but they don't make sufficient contact across all the strings, so the nuance of the three different bands seems to be enough to mute pretty much every string.


----------



## UnderTheSign (Jan 15, 2014)

I'm just here to tell Randy I dig his Warlock.


----------



## Taylor (Jan 15, 2014)

UnderTheSign said:


> I'm just here to tell Randy I dig his Warlock.



Looks more like a Virgin to me. And a damn sexy one at that!


----------



## sifi2112 (Jan 15, 2014)

Innovative ! ... been thinking about a diy pedal board myself


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Jan 15, 2014)

sifi2112 said:


> Innovative ! ... been thinking about a diy pedal board myself



Do it! There are endless options. And you can just use scraps lol


----------



## Walterson (Jan 16, 2014)

.


----------



## Captain Butterscotch (Jan 16, 2014)

I came here to post pics of my .strandberg* build. Then Walterson happened.


----------



## Randy (Jan 16, 2014)

Personally, I think we've already got the http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...1-guitars-built-members-ss-org-pic-heavy.html for showing off guitars that've been built, so I'd rather this was specific to things "other" than guitars but it's not my thread, so whatev's.


----------



## UnderTheSign (Jan 16, 2014)

GraveyardThrone said:


> Looks more like a Virgin to me. And a damn sexy one at that!


Now that you mention it... Yeah, upper horn curves give it away.


----------



## stevexc (Jan 16, 2014)

Yeah... I made the mistake of trying to "save money" buy building a multi-guitar stand out of PVC instead of buying one.

On the bright side, it turned out pretty good, I think... the downside is a) it's not perfectly level (although with guitars on it it's stable enough) and b) it cost me almost the same (if not more) as buying a stand.

After this shot I added foam to the bottom and top - all the points of contact the guitar would have - and spraypainted the whole thing black (also it's not glued in that shot but whatever). But not in that order because that probably would have messed up the foam.


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Jan 16, 2014)

Randy said:


> Personally, I think we've already got the http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...1-guitars-built-members-ss-org-pic-heavy.html for showing off guitars that've been built, so I'd rather this was specific to things "other" than guitars but it's not my thread, so whatev's.



i dont count strandbergs as real guitars. so its ok
but i really wanna try one so maybe i should do that too



stevexc said:


> Yeah... I made the mistake of trying to "save money" buy building a multi-guitar stand out of PVC instead of buying one.
> 
> On the bright side, it turned out pretty good, I think... the downside is a) it's not perfectly level (although with guitars on it it's stable enough) and b) it cost me almost the same (if not more) as buying a stand.
> 
> After this shot I added foam to the bottom and top - all the points of contact the guitar would have - and spraypainted the whole thing black (also it's not glued in that shot but whatever). But not in that order because that probably would have messed up the foam.



yeh mine was just worth it cuz i had most of the material already


----------



## feraledge (Jan 18, 2014)

Not mine, but great use of an Ikea shelf.


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Jan 20, 2014)

Badass. Looks like he made it out of a bunkbed


Lets see some more!


----------



## sifi2112 (Jan 20, 2014)

Here's a little practice cab I built, does it qualify ?

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/ge...andmade-celestion-eight-15-a.html#post3878245


----------



## BlackMastodon (Jan 31, 2014)

A bumpity-bump for me finally finishing this:
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...4-homemade-guitar-rack-build.html#post3908658


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Feb 1, 2014)

thats badass! lets see some more


----------



## Prophetable (Feb 4, 2014)

Project I just finished:
Since the Pod HD500X has no power switch and I found unplugging it between uses annoying I made a footswitch for it.














After taking the picture I put a piece of velcro on the switch and the corresponding bit on the Pod to keep them together.


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Feb 19, 2014)

lets see some more you crafty fvckers!


----------



## monkeysuncle (Feb 19, 2014)

No pics, but one slow day at work I took a forklift outside, grabbed a used skid, cut it in half, and screwed a even, square piece of hard plastic to the top. Viola! 10 minutes of work, free materials, and a new pedalboard!


----------



## ZeroS1gnol (Feb 21, 2014)

Built my own pedalboard, couple of years ago already. Has seen a lot of gigging. It used to be twice as big, containing five more pedals and a footswitch, but that was just too much.


----------



## Connor94 (Feb 21, 2014)

I've build a few things! I built a custom case for my Les Paul, a pedal board out of a breifcase, and also a mesa style 2x12!!!





[/URL][/IMG]



[/URL][/IMG]



[/URL][/IMG]



[/URL][/IMG]



[/URL][/IMG]



[/URL][/IMG]

I built these simply because i felt i could


----------



## FIXXXER (Feb 21, 2014)

4HE "camouflage rack" i made a while ago...


----------



## Yo_Wattup (Feb 21, 2014)

Manurack said:


>


----------



## jarnozz (Feb 21, 2014)

I made myself a 3 ch preamp which runs on 5ax12 tubes. It is based on a soldano amp and sounds killer. A nice fenderish clean, a great chuggy rhythm sound and a killer lead tone!

I'll make a post with a demo some day.


----------



## helferlain (Feb 21, 2014)

My little amp design project:

Small trainwreck style tube amp kit with 1.5 or 3.0 Watt (depending on the tubes) that fits in a 4unit rack including a 8" speaker. Looks nice as a desktob combo or even used as head...











The wooden front panel is only for testing of the concept. If I still like it in a few months, it will be redone nice and clean.


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Mar 3, 2014)

jarnozz said:


> I made myself a 3 ch preamp which runs on 5ax12 tubes. It is based on a soldano amp and sounds killer. A nice fenderish clean, a great chuggy rhythm sound and a killer lead tone!
> 
> I'll make a post with a demo some day.



make this post asap! im dying to hear this frankenstein


----------



## jtm45 (Mar 3, 2014)

Here's a couple of pics of my only amp build to date. It's a little single-ended Class A design with a pair of ECC83/AX12 pre-amp tubes, a single power-amp tube (i swap back and forth between a 6L6 and a KT66) and a rectifier tube. It's probably pushing out around 12 to 15 watts which is surprisingly loud.
I built the chassis from some aluminium plate which i bent and riveted on the corners and then i built the cover from a sheet of aluminium chequer plate riveted onto aluminium angle strip. I'll probably make a more traditional wooden head cabinet covered with black tolex for it in time though.
The electronics are all point to point wired with some homemade eyelet board to hold the components. The amp sounds absolutely fantastic!!!
It was a really enjoyable little project and i'd love to have a go at something more serious in the future.


----------



## Xibuque (Mar 3, 2014)

I built my own hardcase when i was 15( 11years ago). I made it using pictures as reference( I live in a small state here in brazil so never had the chance to use a real hardcase as reference for the build).

the picture was taken in my sister's bedroom, my bedroom was messed up cause i built part of the case there(i got high because of smell of the glue that i used lol)






ps i did not find pictures of the hardcase 100% finished


----------



## BlackMastodon (Mar 3, 2014)

What material did you use for the inside lining of the case (the blue)?


----------



## Xibuque (Mar 3, 2014)

BlackMastodon said:


> What material did you use for the inside lining of the case (the blue)?



Hi Blackmastodon,

The blue part is plush lined styrofoam


----------



## cdf294 (Mar 16, 2014)

The OP had mentioned to me while I was on a rant elsewhere that this thread existed.

Figured that I would add to this thread since I just got done with the first of 2 DIY rack projects. 
I found some appropriately sized black nylon washers to replace the oversized white ones and it looks much better now.







*EDIT: Now with the new and improved black washers. Also, a few shots of the sides.*


----------



## heero22 (Mar 16, 2014)

I built this guitar rack last year... Its still not finished, I'm having trouble figuring out how to cut the fabric so it goes around the divider pegs. In total it only cost me about $30 us to get all the parts.


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Apr 19, 2014)

im bored. show me what you got


----------



## patata (May 26, 2014)

bump


----------



## DreamError (May 26, 2014)

A 6U rack I made from an IKEA RAST nightstand and some 6U rails from Guitar Center. A 6U rack for $20? Don't mind if I do.

And one of my cats photobombed the pic 






With a little modification, people have drilled some holes and gotten 8U out of these, too.



METAL_WIZARD said:


> My pedal board i built today. Made with a scrap of wood and carpet, some wire clothes hanger, a bit of tape and velcro, and a staple gun. Cost me nothing at all by using crap I had laying around lol



That is the most metal f'ing pedalboard I have ever seen


----------



## Solodini (May 27, 2014)

Connor94 said:


> I've build a few things! I built a custom case for my Les Paul, a pedal board out of a breifcase, and also a mesa style 2x12!!!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
That pedalboard is excellent!


----------



## TubeOrgasmer (May 30, 2014)

Didn't want to buy a board so I built myself one






Didn't want to buy a power supply so I built myself one






Didn't want to buy two overdrives so I built myself two 

Among a million of other things


----------



## HUGH JAYNUS (Jun 12, 2015)

and here is the new 6 guitar vault my band just built. still needs finishing. needs the corner covers, a Korg Pitchblack rack tuner in the back, a florescent light, and a rubber butthole to push the power supply in and out of so its not dangling all the time. also maybe a kitchen cabinet magnet to hold the door over on the side out of the way.


----------

