The Spampinato Barnyard Salvage Special

Why build a plywood guitar?  Well, there are several reasons I decided to undertake this project:

The Spampinato Barnyard Salvage Special
  • It’s a great way to test out new tools, methods, and materials in the workshop
  • To find out how good a guitar can sound with inexpensive material
  • Because I’ve never seen one

With the proper motivation in place, I selected my materials:

  • One 8 x 10 sheet of shop sanded 1/4″ plywood from Home Depot for the top, back, and sides
  • One 4×4 pine fence post for the neck

The first real challenge was reducing the 1/4″ plywood to three millimeters without the aid of a drum sander, surface planer, or jointer.  Instead I used a hand planer, a belt sander, and elbow grease.  But this turned out extraordinarily well…just get rid of two plies, and you have a top and sides.

The next big challenge, which did not turn out so well, was my plan to use a 4’x4′ fence post for the neck.  Just as I got down to the nitty gritty, a knot chunked out while I was shaping the neck.  I had to then melt the glue on the fingerboard and start over.  Second time around it was mahogany, a tried and true standby.

The rest was pretty smooth sailing, and the Spampinato Barnyard Salvage Special is now for sale at Victor Guitar.

In the end, this was a very worthwhile project: the guitar sounds great, the new building techniques and tools were a success, and there’s a very unique guitar joining the world of lutherie!