Day 16 – A guitar made out of what?!
We’ve known of Justin Johnson for a long time but it has been years since we’ve seen this particular video. And we didn’t mind rewatching it one bit. We’re sure some of the guitarists amongst you will have come across his channel before, too. Not only is he a great guitarist but he builds some unique guitars out of some very unusual things like in today’s instance – a shovel.
We love the creativity! 🙂
If you enjoy today’s video, why not send Justin some love in his comment section:
You can check out the original video here:
Crankin’ Up the 3-String Shovel Guitar!
As it’s Friday today you’ll soon find an MLT Club Wire in your inbox! We’re announcing the exact times for our upcoming live stream:
December 23rd 2022
London – 10 pm (GMT)
Los Angeles – 2 pm
New York – 5 pm
Berlin – 11 pm
Moscow – 1 am
Sydney – 9 am
You can use this time converter if you live in a different time zone.
We’ll remind you again closer to the date but you can already save the livestream link HERE.
Happy Friday!
Mona & Lisa
He is amazing! Love it 🎶❤
Such a fun video !! Not just his virtuoso performance but your reaction. I could see Mona watching his every move and analyzing. Way good girls.
Les Paul played his acoustic guitar on a radio show back in the early 50’s. People called in and said they liked his singing but couldn’t hear his guitar. That night he put a guitar neck on a board, added some strings and a pick-up he had made. His next radio show he played the contraption. The people loved it! They’re only complaint was it didn’t look like a guitar. So he scrapped the board and found a slab of wood. He didn’t like the square shape, hard to play sitting down. So he rounded the corners and the cutaway and just like that the Les Paul we know today was created. People said it was too heavy. Yes, the same people. Then a guy named Gretsch went a step further and hollowed the sides making it much lighter and slightly changed the tone. BTW, that was the first Duo Jet made famous by George Harrison and the Fabulous Lisa Wagner.
Boy, I’ll tell ya, I’m seeing so many new things on these Advent Calendar videos! Loving it!
That was pretty kool. I wonder if he has made one from a pick-axe. It would practically be a self fulfilled pun. It’s really something when he can make so much sound with three strings. His slide looks like a piece of metal pipe.
So we were thinking…we have a thick cutting board we bought from a local shop that makes them. They are beautiful. We could turn it into a Les Paul. It is very heavy, though. And it often smells like dinner. It would probably have a lot of sustain, as the wood is very dense, that is if you believe that has any effect on the guitar’s tone. If not sustain, there will probably be dinner stain.
Hi JP
Sound like a great idea. 👍😀Afterwards you could turn the guitar over and use it as a cutting board or portable picnic table.
This punishment is awfully hard to swallow!
Great post Mona and Lisa thank you for the video link…
I always love the cigar box guitar played by Paul on the song he did with Nirvana “Cut me some slack”
Peace and love Mona and Lisa and MLT members xxx
https://youtu.be/7a8j_LEryAs
That was a very interesting video…he is certainly a very talented musician….OMG ! Mona has a “great mind” as she refers to somebody else and a coconut guitar..”great minds think alike”…gotta luvit 😂❤️🧡
Justin is boss when it comes to improvising on guitars. I love his blues guitar playing. If someone has money to spend, his site contains some really beautiful (expensive) guitars for sell.
How about making guitar out of book.
Don’t if you ever heard of Gabriella Quevedo. She cover’s a lot of popular songs (country, rock, etc) on guitar, but she plays them in a classical stile. Today she on her site she’s playing John Mayer’s “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room.” Really pops. Peace Be
How about putting a rifle to a better use than killing? As a guitar it could be an instrument to create harmony, peace, love, and joy!
There is a semiautomatic styled guitar that Mona briefly wields in the “While My Guitar…” video at around 2:16. I’m a fan of beating swords into plowshares and guns into musical instruments. I’m pretty sure that this video was the trigger event which resolved into an obsessive compulsive and ongoing binge that has lasted close to a decade. I see no end in sight.
It’s simply amazing the talent some people have, getting a shovel to sound like a guitar.And sounds good !
Sticking with garden tools , why not make a hoe sound like a guitar .
Then you could have a Hoe Down ha ha
I am not creative enough to come up with a new instrument design. I was blown away by Mona and Lisa percussion demonstration yesterday!!!
So my contribution today is my local long range weather forecast for Christmas. Snow next Friday, then temperatures don’t reach 20f for the weekend. That means White Christmas! I’m pumped!!!
I wish I had a really cleaver idea for a guitar or another instrument made from an unusual object but I just don’t have right now but perhaps a gourd would make a nice hollow body for a start. Now you have my creative juices flowing and I love a challenge! Thanks for the video!
Ocarinas are potatoes originally.
I don’t remember when I first saw this on FB. And shared it. My tease for the post was, “His axe is a shovel.” I LOVE THIS!
OK. Nerd that I am, while watching I thought, “Is that a shovel or a spade?” It’s a spade. A shovel is rounder and looks like the spade in a deck of cards. So his axe is a spade.
Ok, nerd… It looked like a posthole shovel to me. I’ll have to look again. I originally thought the idiom “…call a spade a spade” was a card playing reference but a while back, I became convinced it was about shovels. The reason I looked was because someone suggested that it was a racial thing. I found no support for that.
It does sorta look like a posthole shovel. Could be whose post I choose when I search.
Mona and Lisa, wow another great video, that guy is awesome to play and keep it going. I was sitting here tapping along like I had my drum set in front of me…LOL…But you both do a pretty good slide guitar, Mona on Waiting for the waiter video and Lisa on Sunshine Superman. So my idea is to use a car hop cap, of course a metal one not plastic and a post railing for the guitar neck. Sounds weird but often thought if a guitar can be made that way, I guess it would sound more like a banjo? Hum….who knows? Again thanks for the great time today and looking foreward to tomorrow’s video!
Love and Hugs from Bill and Maddie Isenberg
Hub cap sounds (sorry) intriguing. Back when I was in shape, I would try anything tubular as a flute. Yes, everybody blows bottles. But can you do overtones and harmonics?
testing comment.
Everyone should upvote this!
Howdy,
I am trying to think of something unique to make a guitar out of. I would love to have a baseball bat guitar, which has already been done.
Have you ever seen John Fogerty (originally with CCR) play a baseball bat guitar? It looks really cool. It is modeled after a Louisville Slugger bat. It was thought of after he sang his song “Centerfield”.
Cheers,
Bobby S.
I think making a guitar out of vacuum cleaner would be cool. Maybe a pumpkin.
Michaela continues to choose some great videos, which, of course results in unpredictable spinoffs in the comments section. Weird, wild, and wonderful. Busy time of the year that it is, I’m trying to get other things done, too! Aaargh!
Proud of my brother becoming a credible guitar Luthier for a hobby, he started with cigar box guitar, then progressed to banjo’s, ukulele’s and now he makes top quality hand made acoustic guitars for friends and family. He made these two in the picture for me, based on Martin guitars, but with my suggestions for the details.
So, I told him about the spade guitar asked him as an expert to come up with a creative acoustic (so no electric pick ups), and he’s suggested a 4″ Diameter Plastic drain pipe for the body tapering to a 2″ diameter plastic pipe for the neck!! I think I may have challenged him on this one- watch this space ha ha
I own a purple basic uke as well ….just don’t have a selfie with it..lol…😉
And my 2 Guitar Purse Children …
Jacki, your guitar purse is the coolest, awesome! 👍🙂
What is that you always say in your comments…it’s “ buzzgroovified”…nice to see a pic of you….my pic if this was enlarged is front page on a newspaper that says GOOD NEWS….but I retired from the newspaper business last December after 25+ years…time for me to get a real picture in there…I’m a professional procrastinator 😂
Ok…Found that childhood photo of me with toy guitar but decided to also add a few others of me with guitar purse/banjo while on topic here of guitars/stringed instruments …
Groovy Guitaring , Goin On there….Quite a Cool concept… Shovel Guitar…. , thus the saying goes… You can create anything you put your mind to…. Anything Is Possible…Definitely going to Subscribe to this dude ‘s channel, even pass along link to my 2nd oldest brother, who plays guitar…. There is a local guitarist in my city , –Lucas Haneman–who is blind but can play a mean guitar…. he has a YT channel, he reminds me of another late blind guitarist from Canada, the late Jeff Healey …
Im, well…if I could Conjure up and create a guitar…. well, firstly, it’d be purple, perhaps a dark metallic purple… Maybe I could make it from an old small lawn tractor tire frame, it would have to be WeeJax size for my wee child-sized hands , though I’m a 50+ yr old adult..(just a tad under 5 feet tall, so I look childlike )….If I can find the photo, I’ll post here of me with a toy guitar, this was in my childhood yrs….not when I bought the 2 guitar purses of more recently…
Enjoy Today’s submission, your reactions, commentary…. Happy Wknd….Stay Guitar Groovy 🎸🔊🎛🎚
Happy TGIF! OK, I’m retired so every day is kind of like Saturday haha.
Very cool video and I love the funky Cajun kind of backwater sound of that shovel guitar! Reminds me of Mark Knopfler’s ’37 Resonator to a degree.
I’m not the most crafty type of guy so to build a guitar (or any instrument) is waaaay out of my ken. However, I have seen a really neat/cool build of a Strat look-alike that was composed entirely out of laminated corrugated cardboard. All the talk of the wood of a solid or even a hollowbody electric guitar’s sound characteristics is (by the build on this thing anyway) pretty much proven to be an old wives’ tale. The builder even sent the guitar to Fender’s factory tech team to test, and even they said it felt, sounded, and played like a Strat.
Sadly I cannot find a link to the build or the result but if I can locate it, I will certainly post it. There is another cardboard build out there, but it isn’t the same. It is “see-through” where the one I’m speaking about is truly a solid body looking instrument.
People have always fabricated musical instruments out of whatever was handy at the time. Back in prehistorical days (who really knows when it started?), beating on logs in rhythmic fashion started it all. Then voicing with, I imagine guttural grunts and howls, eventually led to more melodic and obviously pleasing to the ear singing. From there, all manners of instruments tried to copy, mimic, or accompany song in one fashion or another. We’ve come a long way, baby!
But still there exists that desire to create something unique and different out of the most unlikely tools or objects.
Far out, solid and right on Justin Johnson!!!
Have a groovy great day
D
I found this video. I’m not sure if it’s the one you were thinking of: https://youtu.be/7Oo2H-W7d6A
That’s the gipper! I just found it again too. I thought I remembered it as being solid front and back but it isn’t. Sure amazed the Fender custom shop boys though.
And then there’s this one made out of colored pencils: https://youtu.be/NmnVYSsE8NU
Wow! What a cool idea!
Hello Ladies
I’ve seen Justin play the shovel before in a video, but forgot about it. Very interesting and a great idea.
There is a local Judge that makes 3 and 4 string guitars out of cigar boxes. He makes it by himself. He also puts the pick ups (? Not sure that’s right) in and they sound like electric banjos. He has a Mini Vox amp and plays songs on them as a demonstration.
Thanks for today’s video and have an extra Groovy weekend.
Rick Ross
Fun and amazing video! It takes a fair amount of combined musical talent, engineering talent, and ingenuity to do this sort of thing. The sort of talent we have seen over and over from Papa Rudi. I wonder what kind of guitar he would come up with if he had nothing else to do (not likely to happen I’ll bet).
I was thinking of what to make a guitar out of, but I don’t think I can’t beat the toilet seat guitar idea posted by Roger. I can think of a lot of follow on comments for that one, but you’d have to censor my log.
Percussion stuff is much easier, as the twins showed us yesterday. We a set of stainless steel mixing bowls that we swear were made for music. If you bump them against anything hard they ring load and clear, and they carry that ring for quite a while unless you touch them to stop it. I’m sure Mona would have fun with them.
There were plenty of comments made at that show, believe me. 😀 The same band also recorded and frequently performed a song featuring percussion from a 7qt inset pot (like this one: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/vollrath-78184-stainless-steel-7-25-qt-vegetable-inset/922V78184.html) turned upside down with a set of keys placed on top and struck on the side with a quarter, key, or whatever else they happened to have. I have a picture but I’ll have to post it after I get home from work.
Cool video. Check out Brian May tell the amazing story of how he and his Dad built his guitar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS6bPFoCIkc
Brian May is amazing!
Oh, and I forgot to mention that Brian May is my all-time favorite Astrophysicist!
How about a Loom? Just to let everyone know that my truck should be ready today. I walked 2 miles to a dollar general store and got a plan B if all my frozen went bad. It’s actually snowing in Amarillo this morning. Will take a miracle to be home this year though. Might not catch the live stream live if I’m working. I’ll be there in spirit and I’ll watch that evening. Everyone be safe. Stay Groovy! ❤️🌹🤘
https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/jZLP7W6FOYva
Praying for a miracle for you.
Fretless! That brings me back…in Grade 4 and Grade 5 I learned how to play the guitar through lessons at school. By Grade 6 the teacher suggested that I take private lessons so she set me up with a teacher who became quite a role model. Anyhow, I wanted to take lessons in school on another instrument.
My mom was a violinist so there were a couple of violins at home. So I chose that. After looking at the instrument, I said…”Wait, there’s no frets. How do you know where you are going?” Mom said “Positioning…you will figure it out”.
Thanks Ma, lol!
When you have that kind of talent, there’s no need to fret.
That was amazing! Very talented person, Thank you for sharing.
have a nice weekend everyone
Thank you, Mona and Lisa for another wonderful episode of the MLT Advent Calendar!
I’ll think of this video every time I’m out digging in my garden next Spring! The inventiveness and creativity of some people is impressive indeed. While I try to stir my own inventiveness regarding what to use for a guitar, I’ll leave you with a clip from an old album called Toolbox Christmas, which features music created by an “extraordinary orchestra of hammers, saws, drills, ratchets, 2x4s, pipes, planers, and much, much more”. It is incredible what can be used to make music!
(3) Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy – YouTube
Like that spade guitar -well if you have music in you, you can play on almost anything you just have to be good at it, else it’s crap.
I want to present you for two sisters from Georgia in USA, who I’ve followed the last couple of years. Both playing guitar as you – or should i better say one of them, the other play a sort of slide guitar at a sublime state me thinks. They also play tunes from the past and their own music. Mostly played in videos recorded in their home, but the last couple of years they also play at concerts with a band. Hope you’ll enjoy a couple of their somgs – women as I mostly watch – well enough enjoy.
Larkin Poe – Georgia Off My Mind (Official Video) 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GExdFnISPiQ
The Scorpions “Wind Of Change” 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2EngOhNaAY
The Rolling Stones “Start Me Up” 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p9glJLU3ck
Joan Jett “Crimson & Clover” 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q11GXS7n4mQ
Steve Miller Band “The Joker” 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw0QXw-drXU
Pumpkin-based guitar=gourdtar?
Chair-based guitar=sitar….oh, wait…. that’s taken already….
Please reply with other puns!
Very nice idea Jeffery, how about:
Cuconga = drum made from a hollowed cucumber (Hm, the cucumber would have to be pretty big, of course…)
iTosh = a rattle made from an old apple variety (also works without battery; see picture below)
A guitar designed by Ava Gardner is an avatar.
Using a cow, you could make a “Moo-kelele”
If you rob the infield at Yankee Stadium, you could construct a base guitar.
Yeah, and a bass drum created by Hugo Boss is a “Boss Drum” David.
This is how I’ve always pictured The Beatles: Ringo is sitting at the Boss Drum, George is playing his Avatar, Paul plucks the Base Guitar and John is shaking his iTosh.
I really Dug that! ← See what I did there?
I once tried making guitars out of vacuum cleaners… I thought I’d cleanup, but people said they sucked.
I’ll show myself out…
Yep, make sure to tip the waiters, too!!!!!
He’s here all week, folks! Tip your waitresses and drive home safely; the life you save may be mine…..
Wow that was a real show, loved the guitarplaying and even more the guitar. It must be such a blessing to play an instrument, altough I’ve never really played an instrument I am going to try next year. I’ve had that dream for so many years, and next year I am going to take my first guitar lessons, after i am pensionated? (is that the right word in English) I know I’ll never be as good as the two of you, but I sure hope to be able to play a few (simple ) songs. Maybe apumpkin would be a nice Guitarrish instrument, it is between fruit and vegetables and comes in different sizes , and I think ifmade hollow it can resonate quite well. In africa people use pumpkins to drum on.
Hey Eric,
Good luck with your guitar lessons. You know, I believe that most everything is easier to learn when a person is young – like playing instruments and learning languages.
However, with that being said, it is never too late to learn things. If you really want to do it, you can do it.
Learn a few chords and like you said, you should be able to play some songs. Lots of rock songs were played with only 3 or 4 chords.
Quick story – when I saw ZZ Top in concert, they came out on stage and Billy Gibbons said – Here we are, the same old guys playing the same 3 chords.
Best Wishes,
Bobby
Thank you Robert, I “ll try to do my best
Wow, great sound from a shovel. Maybe he could try a snow shovel with a plastic end next! Very interesting as I had not seen this before.
I think I’d try a flute-like attempt with some wood or fruit as it would be easiest maybe – a train whistle!
Thick snow here today, but supposed to all melt away tomorrow. Bah!
You two always cheer me up on dark mornings while the neighbours are out clearing the snow from their drives! Lisa is looking especially pretty today 🙂
Lowell George of Little Feat was a terrific slide player. He used an 11/16 deep well socket from Craftsman. Back in the day, Sears sold Craftsman tools. A touring band was seldom far from one of their stores.
https://youtu.be/3z-GwdaKrn8
Very cool. I’d not heard of him before but I;ve just had a quick look at his channel. Lots of interesting looking videos, to check out.
Even with his three string shovel, he’s still using two more strings than the Edge. 🙂
I love this guy’s guitar work. Sitting here looking at my kitchen it seems natural that a frying pan could be made into a very cool guitar. But don’t make me build one to prove it, I have too many other things to finish!
That is the nicest sounding shovel I’ve ever heard! 😁 And he makes it look so easy. Loved hearing your pro insight and knowledge into exactly what he was doing and how he was playing it.
Awesome to hear about your music video coming along. I’m so curious what song it will be! Love the surprise.
I posted this in the forum a while ago, but LEGO would be a perfect way to create a most creative guitar. LEGO Guitar.
Thanks for another wonderful Advent Day video. Wow, after this weekend, we are into the final stretch leading up to Christmas, and I am seeing snow in the forecast all week. Fingers crossed for a white Christmas.
That was awesome. I’ve been watching Justin’s videos for a while now, and the shovel guitar is quite epic. There’s another video of him playing weird guitars I love the Barometer, hubcap and the ironing board!
Having moved to this part of the country, North Carolina, now I recognize the landscape, which I never did before. Justin lives in Tennessee which is our neighbor, and the back yard is just like so many here, yet so unlike any on the west coast.
In another post I talked about the Charango, which is traditionally made with the shell of an armadillo. Hopefully, every charango was made once the little guy had no more use for his shell. Makes me think that a turtle shell might work too. (Google check: yup, guitars and ukes). Not sure I would be comfortable playing one.
You’re 16! Another great day! Thank you!
Hi Tomas, when you describe the Charango made from Armadillo shells, and how turtle shell might work too, I can’t help but envision the Flintstones! 😁🐢 It looks like an interesting instrument and Charango’s are used in Andean music, love the music of the Andes!
Yes, the Flintstones! Here’s a video of someone playing the Charango quite nicely.
That sounds awesome, a very expressive instrument.
We’ve all likely seen The Instrument video by the Berliner Philharmoniker because I’ve posted it in the MLT Club site-wide activity discussion area viewable only by members.
Like the shovel guitar, a musical instrument which seems to require a unique form of percussive maintenance, I (and perhaps other MLT Club members here) argue that the banned Clackers toy from the early 1970s is a type of percussive musical instrument requiring skill and coordination in order to play along to any song.
There are no commonly known Clackers musicians, but Clacker toys are the future of shovel guitar bands.
You heard it first in the MonaLisa Twins Club: Banned Clacker toys are now considered at least to be percussive musical instruments. Note: If you change Clacker toy materials and sizes, I’m sure you can fluctuate pitch enough for the instrument to become a multiple note-generating percussive musical instrument.
Ah yes, the Clacker!
This was great!! I’d make a guitar out of a watermelon. Stay groovy!
I have a friend who built a guitar out of a toilet seat for a local band that we liked. It was dubbed the “Toiletcaster” and they actually used it for a song in a live show. It was epic! If I can find a picture I’ll add it later, but I’m not sure one survived.
If the “Toiletcaster” guitarist performed a particularly energetic solo, did he become ‘flushed’?….sorry….
Wow Roger, a toilet seat guitar, that sounds intriguing, hope you can dig up a picture of it.
How fun!