Fender has been selling a $32 Telecaster-shaped chopping board for a while now, but what would it sound like if you added strings and pickups?
Well, there’s no need to wonder any longer as YouTuber Not a Luthier has had that exact thought, and put his skills to the test.
Crafted from 100% bamboo, Fender says the chopping board is “perfect for any Fender fan to get their chops together,” but Not a Luthier says “the craftsmanship is absolute trash.” He doesn’t start the project with high hopes.
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At 20mm deep, the chopping board makes a Thinline Tele look fat, but it does look to be pretty much to scale, size-wise. Still, Not a Luthier notes that it will require a shallower-than-usual neck route, as well as shorter screws.
To bring the idea to life, he prizes the neck from a guitar he made out of a drum cymbal – “it wasn’t a failure, wasn’t a success,” he says – and swaps out a traditional three-way switch for an on/off switch from a Fender Mustang.
Given how thin the body is, a custom-made acrylic base was made to sit beneath the six-saddle bridge. This also helped the bridge pickup set at a nice height. An old black pickguard he found lying around provided the finishing touch.
Despite fears it might “explode” from the string tension, the guitar holds up well, and the bamboo actually makes for a rather fetching aesthetic. Granted, Guitar World has come across better-sounding instruments, but it exceeds expectations all the same.
“It sounds like a Telecaster,” Not a Luthier says. “It’s not exactly cutting-edge, but you probably wouldn’t notice this if it was hanging on a wall.”
For more guitars made out of things that guitars really shouldn’t be made out of, see Burls Art’s aquarium axe, newspaper shredder, and back-breaking copper beast.
