Bo Diddley-Inspired Custom Guitar! - Strange Guitarworks

Recently our buddy Mike Keller came into the store with an interesting item and an interesting request. The object in question was a solid rectangular slab of blue molded epoxy with a piece of wood hanging inside it, like an old gnat in amber. He told us the wood was a Native American artifact — a remnant of an ancient cypress dugout canoe, or “pirogue,” as they’re called in Louisiana’s bayou region. The desire was to turn it into a Bo Diddley-inspired custom guitar. As a shop that isn’t exactly known for saying no to such things, we embraced the project with open arms.

Part of a bald cypress ‘pirogue’ dugout canoe built by the Chitimacha people around 1220 AD

Before we go any further you might be wondering why we built a rectangular guitar and who is Bo Diddley? Bo Diddley was an American guitarist and singer who played an integral part in the transition from blues to rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s. He was known for his early use of tremolo and reverb effects and distorted amps at a time when many musicians were striving for a much cleaner sound. He also popularized the “Bo Diddley” beat, a variation of the 3-2 clave used in Afro-Cuban music, also known in the American South as the “hambone” beat (think “Who Do love you?”). He was also known for the cigar box shaped guitar he played and helped design at Gretsch Guitars.

Bo Diddley in 1957 with his Gretsch Twang Machine rectangular body guitar

So what does it have to do with a Native American dugout canoe? Bo Diddley, who was born in McComb, Mississippi, once said, “My people are from New Orleans, bayou country—French, African, Indian, all mixed up.” That’s where my music comes from, that whole mix.” For Mike so it seemed fitting to use this artifact to build a guitar for Bo’s grandson, Garry “Reese” Mitchell.

Before being preserved in an epoxy block, this piece of an 800-year-old bald cypress was part of a pirogue found near Grand Isle, LA, in August 2005 after Hurricane Cindy swept it from a swamp in Lafitte, LA to a coast had washed up 30 miles south. The find was published by the Louisiana Archeological Society, and radiocarbon dating, later confirmed by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, suggests that it is indeed a special piece of history. When Mike got his hands on the artifact, he had Grayhawk Perkins of the United Houma Nation tribal council bless it in preparation for conversion into a musical instrument.

This is where we come in.

We ordered an all-parts, mostly pre-built, paddle neck and Mike put us in contact with Hartley Peavey, who generously donated a lot of gold parts to the project. We also ordered a set of TV Jones pickups and off we went to the races!

The first task was to establish a center line and a scale length line, then I milled out the neck pocket.

I used a special routing template to precisely cut out the neck pocket.

After the neck pocket was cut out, I located and drilled the bridge bolt holes.

Then, using a template specially made for the TV Jones pickups, I cut out the slots for them.

With all the main cavities created on the top, I could then move on to the electronics layout.

Our Festool plunge router is one of our favorite tools in the shop.

Then I applied some electronics shielding paint to isolate the components from electrostatic interference.

Once the paint had dried I wired the whole thing up.

After all the wiring was done, I moved on to the neck. I decided to make a recycled cypress veneer for the headstock from an old New Orleans porch column I had laying around. It was a great aesthetic complement to the body.