4 string hubcap slide guitar

Hi, I've been playing blues guitar for a while now and I finally decided to make my own slide guitar after checking out Jess Allred's awesome site http://totalrojoguitars.blogspot.com/. As an obvious car fan I also saw Seasick Steve's appearance on TopGear where he played a slide guitar made out of a broom stick and two Morris Minor hubcaps. So I went down to my local Hubcap City on W San Carlos and after having a great conversation with Sean Hamblin about what I'm going to use my hubcaps for, I got a great deal on a pair of 1966 Jaguar Mk2 S-Type hubcaps. Then after a trip to Home Depot here is what I have got so far.


One of two 1966 Jaguar Mk2 S-Type Hubcaps

Hubcap on 3/4 x 1.5 x 36 inch piece of cherry oak. I cut it down to 31 3/4 inches to have a 17 inch fretboard.

To get the strings a little closer to the fretboard and to give the two hubcaps a flush look, I cut out and bent back a 1.5 inch wide flap to give me around 3/4 inch clearance for the neck.

Same for the back end, but this time I bent it to 90 degrees so I can drill and attach a strap button straight into the bottom of the neck.

Test fit. Perfect clearance.

I'll drill out and screw down the hubcap flap with two brass machine screws.

I sourced the tuning pegs from a cheap acoustic I was trying to rebuild. I only want four strings so I cut off the extra tuner... I also had to file down the inside top edges of the mounts to slant the pegs a little for string clearance.

Came out nice. I wont insert the bushings until after I stain and satin coat the neck.

1/4 inch dowel for the nut. I might notch out a slot on the neck for extra strength.

I couldn't figure out what to use for the bridge as it would be attached somewhere on the hubcap. After looking through my bicycle and car parts I came across some extra bicycle fender brackets which were perfect!

I tried to drill a hole in it so I can mount it with some bolts and it worked great. Then I used a square hobby file to notch a groove for a string and again the stars were in alignment. This was just a test, next I'll cut out a section of the bracket drill two holes on the ends and notch four... notches. Stay tuned for more!

I managed to get a little bit of work done on the guitar today. I finished making the bridge and mounted it with some machine bolts and a couple of nylon lock nuts.

I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. Nice and adjustable too.

I also managed to glue an 8 inch piece of 1.5 x 3/4 inch oak to the back of the neck to help mount the second hubcap flush onto the back. I'll drill through both pieces and use a pair of large bolts to hold the back hubcap in place. That's it for today. Please come again.

Ok more progress, I got some Poly-Shades Stain and gave the neck two coats to get it nice and shiny.

For the frets I decided to use the last of my 25 feet of 16 gauge copper wire. After measuring the fret placement I used a square hobby file to notch out the frets and used superglue to glue the frets to the neck. For the position marker dots I used 3/4" copper plated weatherstripping nails and just hammered them in.

Finished 19 fret neck with tuner bushings, frets, and dots.

I did a quick mockup with an old set of strings and found out the neck nut was too low. So I sourced the original nut from my donor acoustic and cut it down to size, notched the neck again and superglued it in place.

Small piece of wood as a base to attach the pickup.

Drilled out control and pickup holes. I used a unibit for the pickup slot, drilled about five holes and after tedious filing I smoothed out the pickup hole. 

For the tailpiece I used a pair of picture wall-hangers from Home Depot. They are rated at 50lb so I figured it could handle four slinky guitar strings.

For the electronics I decided to go with one pickup, one tone, and one volume pot. I had a cheap knockoff Tele neck pickup lying around and the chrome cover was a perfect complement to the chrome hubcap. I used two 250k pots and a 0.02Mfd capasitor from Frys. 

After I soldered it all up I put some round connectors on the ground wires to attach them to the bridge bolts to ground the strings.

All wired up and ready to go!

Finished pictures... Stay tuned for a video of it in action.