Jonathan Mettes

Wake - song

A song I wrote about being stuck a rut.

Slide guitar workshop at LCA 2013

At the 2013 Linux Conference Australia, I gave mini-conf workshop on building simple musical instruments out of everyday parts. I gave each of the participants a plank of wood and a bunch of cheap parts, and by the end of the workshop, I had them all rocking out on their own homebrew slide guitars!

Here’s a video of the build process and a bit of a demo:

Here’s a list of the parts if you’d like to make one yourself:

• Guitar pickup
• T-section bracket
• eye-screw
• Electric guitar string
• 1/4” input plug
• metal pipe

Tools needed:

• drill with thin drill bit
• router with flatbet milling bit (or chisel)
• hacksaw
• file
• pencil

Some tips:

• Make sure the string is an electric guitar string. It needs to be made of metal in order for the pickup to work
• Use a thinner gauge string rather than a thicker one. Thicker gauges cause more tension on the eye-screw.
• Be careful when tuning or handling the string. The string may slip or snap and get you in the eyes!
• You’ll want to wrap the string in a clock-wise motion, because the screw will tighten in that direction