AN ECCENTRIC musician has found the perfect way to recycle unwanted household items by making these incredible guitars from tables, wardrobes, slabs of concrete and even a garden lawn edger.
Talented guitarist Paul Robbins, from Cannock in Staffordshire, has made seven of the homemade guitars since he first came up with idea 20 years ago when he bought a partially completed instrument from an antique shop.
After finishing off the GBP10 antique guitar, Paul set about making one entirely from scratch – using a table leg for the neck and wood from the top of a table or a wardrobe to make the sound box.
Since then the 59-year-old enthusiast has used a wine box, a slab of concrete and even a garden lawn edger to make his odd guitars – which are all playable and have been used to wow audiences on stages for over two decades.
“I first started playing guitars when I was 12 and made my first one about 20 years ago,” said Paul, who has been married to Cheryl, 50, for 25 years.
“I play them with a bottle neck which isn’t something I’d recommend you do at home. It’s the style of the old blues guys.
“I was in an antique shop 20 years ago and saw a partially made guitar that was very roughly cut and I bought it for GBP10. I finished it off, it took months to be honest because the wood was so hard but I made a fully-fledged guitar out of it.
“Then I just made the table one and the plank one and I can’t seem to stop. It’s like an illness, they are everywhere. They’ve got their own wardrobe but there’s too many to get in.”
Musician Paul has been in eight different bands since he joined his first one way back in 1969 and is currently looking for a new group to work with after his most recent creation ‘Rhythm and Confused’ broke up.
The former project manager for an events lighting company says the weird guitars are a big talking point among punters when he uses them on stage.
“I’ve used all of them on stage, usually people say ‘what the hell is that?’,” added Paul, who now drives a van for a charity shop, a job that ensures his afternoons are free for guitar-making.
“It’s like recycling. I used the legs of a table to make the neck of the first one and made the sound box from the top of a table. And then you just cut some holes in it to let the sound out and away you go.
“I reckon I can make one in a day. It’s only gluing time that holds you up. The plastic shed I make them in at the end of my garden is so tiny that when I am finishing a guitar and adding the neck I have to open the door because it is too big.”
Paul revealed his most recent creation, a guitar made from a garden lawn edger, came into being after a co-worker bet him it couldn’t be done – something which he says doesn’t apply to guitar-making.
“A guy at work bet me I couldn’t make a guitar out of it so I did. It sounds a bit thin but it works. I actually took it apart and used it as a lawn strimmer again and then put it back into a guitar again.
“You can make a guitar from a two by three post. If you go back to the old blues players, they had no money so used anything.
“If you tighten up a steel string between two points then you have a guitar.”
Paul has 13 guitars in total, seven of which he has made himself, and says he doesn’t think he will ever stop coming up with weird and wonderful ideas of what to use for his next creation.
“I keep saying its the last one but I found a frying pan and that’s going to be my next one. I’ll work it out as I go along.”
