The Skateboard Guitar (Skatar) by ntagn33
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How to turn a solid body electric guitar into a playable/ride-able skateboard. A Skatar.

For this project, I started with a Squier Jagmaster (made in China). My friend had painted it, taken it apart, and routed some holes (for parts that he wanted to add) before he gave up on it.

So I got all the parts for free, and since I already own plenty of guitars, I decided to add some trucks and wheels and see if I could skate it. The important thing for me was that it remain fully playable.

I suppose I could have just slapped the trucks on with wood screws, but that would have been too easy, besides, this guitar already had a big hole routed in the front of the body.

Warning: I would never do this to a quality guitar, and never even think about doing this to anything rare or vintage. That would be wrong.
 
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Step 1: Disassembly, Placement of Screw Holes

After disassembling the guitar, figure out where you want the trucks to go. This guitar already had a big hole routed in the body, where a Jaguar vibrato would have gone, so I drilled the holes there. I would have preferred to have had the wheels spaced a bit farther apart, but it worked out pretty well.

On the neck side, I drilled the holes as close as I could to the neck. They wouldn't fit in the neck heel cavity itself, so they went under where the neck pickup goes.

I marked the holes on the front of the body, with the trucks in place, upside down in the pickup cavity and body rout (sorry no picture of that), drilled a small guide hole, then hit it with the 3/4 in. bit, making sure not to go too far.

I used the hardware that came with the trucks.

If I had just used wood screws, at least for the body side trucks, it wouldn't have ruined the look of the body, but this guitar already had the big rout. I suppose I could have filled it with Bondo auto body filler or wood filler and painted over it, but as you will see, I found a simpler solution.
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isaacwilk says: Dec 20, 2011. 4:42 PM
Thats awesome! When you ride it don't you break the strings?
raith2006 says: Dec 8, 2011. 7:16 AM
why would you combine these things?
khurlxen says: Sep 3, 2010. 6:38 PM
...what the kind of freak....but its awsome......
Stratocouper says: Aug 28, 2010. 1:40 PM
Hey fellow guitar playing skate-boardists! We started playing surf guitar in SoCal about the time skateboards got popular (1963) and did both non-stop! Fender even had an ad then with a skateboarder playing a guitar and also built a one-off Fender Skateboard in sunburst. Eventually in the early 80's Drew with the Surf Punks road his skateboard on to the stage fully equipped with a strung up neck, pickup and rocked out at the Santa Monica Civic. About eight years ago, guitar builder Dave Flood (apprentice to John Dopyera inventor of the National-Dobro and Pebble Beach Concours winner for his incredible interiors and restoration, built the first ofiicial Skatar for his ex-wife's son. It is legally patented and trademarked too. He has built two dozen so far with many cool themes including a Les Paul Sunburst version (at my request), and a Gretsch Cadillac green version with Powertrons, plus Skull & Crossbones etc. Their all handmade and truly works of art. Yes, the wooden wheels spin but not for riding. These are real guitars that look like fancy skateboards, and really play great!
skuitarman says: Jul 17, 2010. 10:23 AM
cooool
ghostrider2 says: Jun 16, 2010. 10:34 AM
hell no. never do this to a guitar, its blaspheme.
Jodex says: Feb 6, 2010. 1:55 AM
We should recommend this project to this guy www.youtube.com/watch
ntagn33 (author) says: Feb 6, 2010. 8:13 PM
That link didn't work. Can you try it again?
Jodex says: Feb 7, 2010. 2:00 AM
Weird, it works for me.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzXs16_H18k
Or actually we should make one of these to that guy :P
cloggy01 says: Jan 23, 2010. 3:24 PM
DUDE!
Sweet!
All you need anow is a amp backpack! XD
That is sooo cool! :D
cloggy01 says: Jan 23, 2010. 3:26 PM
Oh and dude learn to play with your feet
and you can skate and play guitar! XD
chilly9781 says: Jun 22, 2009. 12:40 AM
If I ever see you, I want to give you a hug. You mixed two of my favorite things. Now make it shoot frisbees and I think you could win the Nobel Peace Prize for the advancemnet of Awesome.
fearme36 says: Dec 2, 2009. 8:12 PM
and make it eatable ;)
MrRodrigez says: Aug 4, 2009. 6:51 PM
Yes, I believe he would!
fearme36 says: Dec 2, 2009. 8:09 PM
Simply amazing. Next up: Guitar surfboard. Or guitar airplane, whichever comes first.
skipernicus says: Aug 9, 2009. 4:56 PM
So, this is how they make "Road worn" guitars - wow, I had no idea!
ryland2605 says: Aug 15, 2009. 8:04 PM
yeah.. literally road worn lol..
mangomango says: Aug 4, 2009. 7:06 PM
I'm surprised you didn't totally mess up your guitar! what if you crash??? huh? then what?
ntagn33 (author) says: Aug 4, 2009. 7:16 PM
Ha! You obviously didn't read the whole thing. Watch the end of the video.
mangomango says: Aug 4, 2009. 8:42 PM
oh woops:P
judaith says: Aug 4, 2009. 6:31 PM
You did this backward- unless you are planning on guitar pop shoving or doing any major tricks, you could have actually done this, made it work, preserved the guitar, and avoided the risk of endo by having the neck be the tail and not the lead. Balance wise, I think the weight of the tuning keys and frets could be close to the wide guitar base so leading with the wider, heaver part wouldn't seem to off. I am going to go do this now but plan to add a string guard and give it to my son who is always complaining about how hard it is to skate with my guitar. Thanks.
ntagn33 (author) says: Aug 4, 2009. 7:23 PM
If you watch the video you can see I did ride it with the neck as the tail. It was pretty well balanced that way. It was my friend who was riding it neck-forwards when it crashed. I would recommend screwing a big chunk of plastic on the back of the headstock near the tuner for the high E. That will prevent scratches on the tuners and headstock.
mike patterson says: Jul 22, 2009. 11:28 PM
nice looking repair on the neck and like the colour--however the grip tape pickguard may be a little hard on your fingers......Very Cool Idea alround
mrworf says: Jul 16, 2009. 11:40 AM
I can't believe it, how can you do that horrible things to guitar?!?
ntagn33 (author) says: Jul 18, 2009. 5:56 AM
It was pretty easy. Its funny, a girl I know was really offended by this, but I have a dozen other guitars that I treat quite well and this guitar was just a pile of parts in someone's closet that probably would have been thrown away. This way the guitar got some love, I fixed it after it broke, and now it gets played. I use it to make music! The most horrible thing you can do to a guitar is hang it on a wall or leave it in a closet and not play it.
itsachen says: Jul 12, 2009. 2:24 PM
Wow...it is hard to believe that's the same neck.
itsachen says: Jul 12, 2009. 2:17 PM
Awesome instructable man. Guitar experimentation to the max, keep up the great work.
for2abs says: Jul 7, 2009. 4:52 PM
this looks like a good -if you want to destroy your guitar
DELETED_trevyboy says: Jun 24, 2009. 4:56 PM
(removed by author or community request)
ntagn33 (author) says: Jun 24, 2009. 5:17 PM
The strings just go through the body. I just drilled six holes underneath the bridge. So no, nothing special, same as a hardtail strat or tele.
flyingmerlin says: Jun 23, 2009. 10:20 AM
You are really, really brilliant. If a compliment from a girl who can neither skate nor play the guitar is worth anything at all--you can have it!
bustedit says: Jun 22, 2009. 9:53 AM
genius indeed. add a wireless to it, then you can ollie nose grab and play a quick lick, or get on a halfpipe and hit some chords as you clear the lip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
sysse says: Jun 21, 2009. 6:13 PM
Ingenious!
DRADIS says: Jun 21, 2009. 6:11 PM
You are my new favorite person. This is awesome!
Hatredman says: Jun 20, 2009. 10:43 PM
Well, it's the only useful thing you can do with a Squier...

(YES WE CAN!)
pedroion says: Jun 21, 2009. 8:05 AM
Win.
Ward_Nox says: Jun 21, 2009. 6:58 AM
id think the ballence of it would make it hard to ride that said i figure weel see this in a music video eventually
Ionic Hamster says: Jun 21, 2009. 4:53 AM
Dude that is sick
kosmo0483 says: Jun 20, 2009. 5:08 PM
awesome, it would be great for making some noise music, just shredding on the skateboardguitar--skatar--around a room and generating noise. i'm recommending this to a friend.
ToniRose says: Jun 20, 2009. 5:06 PM
Brilliant! Too bad it didn't last long enough to ride onstage, pick it up and start jammin'! (Nice that you weren't mad at your friend either.)
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