The Guitars of Buck Hollow! by John Condon
I was a High School shop teacher for 20 years in Decorah, Iowa. A local manufacturer gave the school a used but very expensive CNC router in 2014. I gave a student (not shown) credit for learning how to program and run the router and then he taught me. One student, Tristan, (shown) wanted to make a guitar on it, and he wanted it shaped like an ear of corn. (We are in Iowa after all!) It turned out well, and I built one at the same time. This was the first of many guitars that I built in the next few years.
I am not a luthier, not by a long shot. I know just enough to construct these very playable props. I have learned so much in the many hours that I have spent building and tweaking these instruments. My motivation to build these guitars comes directly from a love of bands like Cheap Trick, ZZ Top, and Prince, who all used unique and sometimes comical custom guitars.
This is version two of the Corn guitar. Finishing these guitars always taxes my painting skills, and seems to take forever. This guitar has inspired a thousand corn puns. This guitar was made of Ash, and doesn't get played a lot, though it does play well.
This Iowa-shaped guitar is made from Ash and Walnut wood grown in Northeast Iowa. All of the guitars that I perform with have Mighty Mite rosewood necks, Lace Sensor pickups, hardtail bridges, and locking tuners (with a couple of small exceptions). The guitar is chambered, meaning there are hollow sections between the top and back. The letters are inlaid, using the CNC router for the cuts and the letters. Iowa is the perfect shape for a guitar, with distinctive east and west coasts, a perfect bump for the neck by the Quad Cities, and a cool little point down by Keokuk. Can you tell I love maps!
My Number One guitar is this U.S.A. - shaped guitar. It plays and sounds wonderful, and it is set up like a Stratocaster. I have recently installed a Lil' 59 Humbucker in the bridge. The wood is Ash on top and Walnut underneath. The picture below shows the body chambers which reduce the weight of the guitar. Ash is a fairly common guitar wood, and Walnut less so. The grain is gorgeous on this guitar.
My latest guitar is Texas-shaped. It was inspired by our many performances in the Rio Grande Valley near McAllen, TX. We perform at the RV parks in that area for the many Winter Texans who flock there. The body is poplar, and was cut out on a laser CNC cutter by a craftsman who makes signs in the RV park where we stay. This guitar has the strings threaded through the body unlike the other guitars shown here. My back tells me it is my heaviest guitar, and it sounds great. Since this pic was taken I have added a middle pickup, like a Strat. The strap was hand-tooled by Nick, a Winter-Texan friend from Nova Scotia. I had to build a custom case for this big guitar, and it's huge!
I drew and cut out this Viking guitar in 2019. It remains at the High School, where the school mascot is the Vikings. I think I used good quality plywood for the body and an old neck. My colleague, who painted it, is shown playing it.