Sometimes its best, not to spend any money !

[Tony Burns]

Odd title - but i keep reading about this or that and where to buy it- why not try to fabricate it yourself out of some old discarded item -recycle is the new word .

1.) an old rifle sling for a guitar strap ( Army surplus etc- flea market )- maybe a little bit of cash on this one

2.) old wine bottle top for a slide

3.) lemon oil from a real lemon for your fingerboard ( maybe the peel of a used lemon )

4.) made a nut from old piano keys ( laminated it and glued it with super glue )

other ideas -lets save us a boat load of money here !

[atty26.2]

+1 on the wine top as a slide. I used my neighbor's glass cutting tool to take off the top. You probably need somewhat narrow/skinny fingers (depending on the wine bottle), but it's a lot of fun to play around with.

Great ideas! Hopefully others will chime in.

[Kerbie]

Great ideas, but then you don't get to carry home any new toys from the guitar store.

[zombywoof]

I have been making my own slides out of bottles as long as I can recall (my favorite is the neck off a bottle of Fighting **** Bourbon) and still own a strap I made from a rifle sling I bought in an army suprlus back in the late 1960s. Took a bit of work though to get the sucker supple enough to use.

Then there is always the capo made with a pencil and rubber band.

[zombywoof]

Originally Posted by atty26.2

+1 on the wine top as a slide. I used my neighbor's glass cutting tool to take off the top. You probably need somewhat narrow/skinny fingers (depending on the wine bottle), but it's a lot of fun to play around with.

I make mine by soaking a shoe lace or heavy string in kerosene, wrapping it around a good thick bottle neck, light it and let it burn a bit, and then douse the whole thing in a bucket of ice water. You hear that snap, crackle and pop and know you are in business. Then just sand the edge down.

[cotten]

Enough generic Cheerios, cancellation of newspaper subscriptions and tired old movies at home can save one enough money to spend on a new guitar! First things first!

Then again...

[Opa John]

I can remember my Army days, back, in the 60s, when there were times I didn't have the spare change for guitar picks. Made quite a few of them out of plastic snap-on lids from anything I could find. They were kinda thin and "clacky" sounding.........but better than nothin'!

I also made a beautiful shoulder strap for one of my mandolins out of a braided leather belt. I remember when I sold it, the buyer remarked about how nice that shoulder strap was. He didn't know it was once a belt until I told him.

I've also come up with several different methods of keeping fiddle tuning pegs from slipping......simply because I flat refuse to pay $9 for a half-ounce bottle of "peg drops".

Now, if I could just come up with some sort of home made substitute for gasoline...

[atty26.2]

Originally Posted by zombywoof

I make mine by soaking a shoe lace or heavy string in kerosene, wrapping it around a good thick bottle neck, light it and let it burn a bit, and then douse the whole thing in a bucket of ice water. You hear that snap, crackle and pop and know you are in business. Then just sand the edge down.

This is awesome! I'll give this a try this weekend once I kill off this bottle of whiskey...

[Garthman]

Take care with the lemon idea - the "lemon oil" you buy for guitars is actually mineral oil with a bit of lemon scent.

[RogerC]

Originally Posted by Tony Burns

1.) an old rifle sling for a guitar strap ( Army surplus etc- flea market )- maybe a little bit of cash on this one

You mean like this?


It's not actually a rile sling, but a WWII general purpose strap. Of course that led to the building of a guitar on which to use the strap .



I'm using an old ammo can for the control plate, bridge, neck plate and jack plate. I recycled the wood from an old church as well.