Volume and Tone Controls for an Electric Guitar in a Whiskey Flash.

When I built the sledge hammer electric guitar, I built it without any controls: with just a single 1/4" socket attached to the piezo buzzer pickups (look at my other instructables for that build.) As a result there are no control knobs on the guitar for volume or tone. To fix that I built this in-line volume and control box that clips onto your belt/pants waist seam. To keep with down and dirty motif, I house it all in a whiskey flask, and to add to is style, it still works as a whiskey flask.

Supplies

1- whiskey flask from temu.com for about $5.

2- pot switches b500k from ebay about $2 each

1/2 - the male half of a 1/4" guitar cable extension (the female half was used on the guitar.)

1 - 1/4" audio jack about $1 on ebay

1 - capacitor I don't remember the ohms, bu tone of the recommended for a gibson guitar online. I think I paid $2 for a bag of 100 of them,

1 washer for a control knob

1 nut for a control knob

14" of 12 gauge wire for the clip

4" of light guage wire for the flask cap

1 used nip bottle to hold the drink

2" of tubing to bring the nip bottle to the opening of the flask so the drink won't spill on the internal wiring.

22 gauge wire to connect the internals.

xxx pieces of shrink wrap tubing to isolate exposed electrical parts (the pots, the capacitor, etc)

xxx 2 part 5 minute epoxy

xxx glue gun to cement everything down on the inside, re-attach the door.

Step 1: Make the Wire Harness

so here is the wiring diagram I use for my guitars. as you can see in the first picture you exchange the piezo pickup (the gold circle with the white center,) for the 1/4" male plug. You'l have to do the soldering as usual, (plenty of tutorials on that online,) You may notice that I used some quick connect test cables but those are not really necessary. I also did not wire the bridge ground.

Step 2: Cut Up the Flask

what to say that the pictures don't? drilled three holes in the top, one in the bottom. used a dremel to cut out the back square, and the catch for the cap was too bulky so I used some very thin wire to keep it from getting lost and attached it to the hinge assembly that I had to remove (it was too bulky.)

Step 3: Getting the Flask to Work Again

albeit with a lot less, but its still fun to after playing, the guitar, to be able to pull it out and take a swig and see every ones face to the fact the whisky flask sill holds a liquid. Here is where the 2 part epoxy comes into play it make a great waterproof seal between the 7/16 tubing and the inside of the flask. Then as well when you push the other end of the 7/16 tubing through the opening in the flask to attach the outside of the tubing to the flask. When the glue dries, slice off the excess tubing.

Step 4: The Clip

the 12 gauge wire is pretty stiff and makes a great clip whe you make good sharp bends with a pair of pliers. Look at the second picture. The folded over wires pinch nicely on the inside of the flask.

Step 5: Finishing Touches

the crazy glue holds the washer (which I had to cut up so I could spin the tone control around the cap,) and another nut on top of the volume control, I was trying to keep to the stainless look of the flask. Hot glue glues the cut out secton of the flask back in place by gluing it to the nip bottle, and then coating the edges so there are no sharp parts.