We’re all about recycling – especially if a new guitar comes out at the end. Guitars YouTuber Tchiks takes the concept to new levels here by turning his old IKEA furniture into a single pickup electric guitar called the Vecnå.
The self-taught builder from Brussels, Belgium was inspired by Brian May Special Red here – the recycled guitar par excellence.
Tchiks Guitars started woodworking in 2017 and had already built their first guitar two years later. He builds for himself, not to sell, and he clearly has a gift if he can turn a crib, shelves and a chair into a work tool that could give the Swedish chain a sense of the way to incorporate guitars into its “wonderful line of everyday products.
These kind of guitar process videos can be mesmerizing to watch, and this is no exception. The original design begins with his daughter’s old crib used for the back of the body (and later the guitar’s three-piece laminate neck with a fretboard made from an IKEA bamboo ledge).
“The guitar started out as a joke,” says the builder. “I remember going upstairs and saying to my wife, ‘I’m going to make a guitar out of Zoe’s old bed.’ She looked up at the ceiling and asked me, ‘Why?’ So I immediately thought, ‘This is the way.’
The Lace pickup ended up being the only part purchased separately, even the frets from existing spares. So what started as a self-taught joke for this self-taught builder tended to become an inspiring showcase for recycling.
The IKEA guitar contains the following parts:
Neck : TIDY baby cot
Body: HENRIKSDAL chair, LACK shelf
Hit : MÅLERÅS image edge
Buttons: APTILIG cutting board
Jack output plate: LILANGEN door handle
Strap buttons: KALLAX insert button
24 frets – Micro Lace Alumitone – Push/push split coil (lights up LED when engaged)
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