A nice illustration from a Spanish edition of Popular Mechanics… Always looking for inspiration…

Take the guitar model of your choice and turn it into an awesome over the shoulder bag with this easy to follow tutorial. Tutorial Written by: Mewyam Visit the author's website here: Bored and Crafty The author provides this tutorial for personal use. Please do not use it to create goods for sale. The PSP case: That would be a Fender Stratocaster . screws are handsewn with gold threads. knobs are buttons. there are so many things that i would change about this bag. i will make a gibson Les Paul for me and it will be better. Tutorial 1. Print a guitar image onto an A4 paper. Trace your image; 2 for the body, 2 for lining, 2 for your scratchplate. 2. Out of silver-y fabric, cut and sew rectangle and tear-shaped pieces. The rectangle would be your whammy bar while the tear-shaped piece would serve as your input jack. 3. Take your scratchplate pieces, right sides together, and sew all the way around. Leave a 2-inch gap for turning inside out. 4. After this, clip all the way around so that the curves would be better-defined. Turn inside out and sew on top of the front body of your bag. Use the image you printed for the position of the scratchplate. 5. Now sew the whammy bar and the input jack. Take three strips of bias tape (or any fabric that matches the color of your scratchplate). Their length should be the same as your whammy bar. These strips would be your single-coil pickups. Position them according to the image and sew. Mark the parts of the scratchplate where the screws are. Embroider these with silver thread. Handsew circles on the strips you just added. Remember,these circles should be aligned. 6. Mark the volume and tone controls. Sew on buttons for these. 7. Now position your front and back pieces, right sides together. Sew from the highest points of the curved tops on both sides. Do the same to the lining, leaving a gap at the bottom. (If you want, you can add a pocket or two before doing this.) 8. Turn the outer body inside out and place it inside the lining. Sew the opening of your bag. 9. Pull out your outer body through the gap at the bottom of the lining. 10. Your bag is starting to take shape. :) Topstitch the top part. 11. Attach one end of the strap with the rectangular ring for the adjuster. Sew the other end. Do not forget to sew the gap in your lining shut. 12. And you're done!

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The Alhambra 4P Classical Guitar is the first Alhambra classical guitar to have rosewood back and sides and an ebony fretboard, and it has become one of our best-selling guitars. Known throughout the world for its sweet and full-bodied sound, this guitar is comparable to instruments well out of its price range. With high-quality precision tuners, and a melamine nut and saddle, the instrument is a perfect combination of sound projection and durability. The ebony fingerboard is resilient to the wear and tear of everyday playing, and the four layers of light varnish provide excellent projection without compromising durability of the top. (Click here to hear the pronunciation of "Alhambra".) Features: Top: Solid Red Cedar Back/Sides: Lam. Rosewood Neck: Mahogany Fingerboard: Ebony Scale Length: 650mm Nut Width: 52mm Alhambra Deluxe Soft Case Included Made in Spain   "Julia Florida" by Agustin Barrios (Guitarist: Brad Earnhardt) ©XGuitars Inc. Recommended Strings: This guitar comes with D'Addario EXP44 Extra Hard Tension strings installed.  These are not bad strings, but don't allow the guitar to live up to its full potential.  I recommend the following strings for this guitar: Carbon: My favorite strings of all I've tried are Savarez Alliance set 540J. These strings provide great volume and resonance.  Being Carbon, they are a bit thinner in diameter than nylon strings. The tone is brighter and not as mellow as nylon strings. If you want a softer sound, nylon may suit you better. Nylon: For nylon strings, I really like Savarez Corum New Cristal set 500CJ strings.  They provide a nice round tone, good volume, and a comfortable feel. If you would like to have strings installed other than the ones that come with your guitar, you can add the Strings Installation Service to your order.  -Geoff Ferdón, owner of XGuitars Philippe Bertaud presents the Alhambra 4P: (Since this video was made, Alhambra has introduced aesthetic changes to this model as shown in the photos on this page.) Philippe Bertaud presents the Alhambra 4P: (Since this video was made, Alhambra has introduced aesthetic changes to this model as shown in the photos on this page.)

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Today's blog post deals with setting up a Stratocaster tremolo unit only. Everything else related to setting up the saddles, etc., can be found in the "How to set up an electric guitar" post here: http://diystrat.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-set-up-electric-guitar.html. If you’re going to adjust both the tremolo and the saddles, then do the tremolo setup (this post) first. Let’s have a look at the Fender Stratocaster tremolo (also known as the whammy bar or the vibrato, and often misspelled as "tremelo"), as originally patented by Leo himself (as with all images, click on the picture for a bigger version): It’s really quite a simple mechanism, engineering-wise. Looking at it from the side (FIG.2) we can see that it pivots on the screws that hold it to the top of the guitar body (the screws are marked "16" in the patent drawings). The tension from the guitar strings pulls the unit forward, but this tension is counter-balanced by the springs hidden below the unit (found under the cover at the back of the guitar), hence “floating” the tremolo unit. This is where you, the player, come in. To lower the pitch of the note(s) being played, push the tremolo arm towards the guitar body, thus adding to the string tension. Alternatively, pull the tremolo arm away from the guitar body to add to the spring tension and increase the pitch. For such a simple mechanism, it really shouldn’t be difficult to set up. Unfortunately, there are many reasons why these are famous last words. One of the problems is that not everyone uses a tremolo in the same way. Some people like to both decrease AND increase the pitch, whereas others prefer to just lower it. Some want the tremolo to move really easily, while others prefer it to be quite stiff, so that it doesn’t move unintentionally (either from leaning on it accidentally, or even from the increased string tension caused by bending strings). Another problem is that not everyone uses the same string gauge, so a tremolo unit that might be perfectly set up for light-gauge strings will probably not be set up well for medium or heavy gauge strings. Lastly, the starting position of the tremolo unit is a bit of a personal choice. Some people (usually the ones that only want to lower the pitch, or even not use the tremolo at all) prefer to have the tremolo unit sitting flush against the body of the guitar, while others prefer a gap, leaving enough room to pull pack on the tremolo arm, increasing the pitch of the note(s) being played. Taking all of the above into account, this post will take you through a typical setup for an average player who likes to both raise and lower the pitch and uses fairly standard strings. You can, of course, feel free to adjust this setup to your liking. One thing to mention here is that there are two common Strat tremolo types. One uses six small screws to attach the tremolo to the top of the guitar body, while the other style uses two bigger screws. Vintage-style, or "synchronized" tremolo (six pivot screws): American Series, or two-pivot bridge (two pivot screws): The setup for both of these styles is almost the same, with the exception of step 5 (below), which will be clearly defined when the time comes. Here are the steps we will go through to set up the tremolo: 1. Remove tremolo arm 2. Remove back cover 3. Remove strings 4. Remove springs 5. Adjust pivot screws 6. Re-attach springs 7. Restring guitar 8. Screw in the tremolo arm 9. Adjust claw 10. Replace back cover. Remove tremolo arm Simply unscrew the arm in an anti-clockwise (counter clockwise) direction until it comes out. Be careful not to let it fall onto the surface of your guitar and scratch it. Remove the back cover Place your guitar face down on a nice soft surface, unscrew the screws holding the back cover on, and remove the cover. Remove strings Remove all six strings. You should now be looking at something like this: Remove springs Note: If you have a two-screw tremolo, once you remove the springs from the back of the guitar, there is NOTHING holding your tremolo unit in place. Be careful not to let it fall out or otherwise damage either the tremolo unit or the guitar. Place your guitar face down and carefully remove the springs. You may have anywhere from two to five springs in there, depending on how it was previously set up. There are various different methods for removing these, but with the strings removed from the front of the guitar, you will probably be able to remove the springs by hand. Just grab them near the claw end, push the spring towards the claw, and lift out. If you’re finding this a bit hard, feel free to loosen the screws holding the claw in place a little. That should give you enough slack to get them off, and will make them easier to get back on later. Alternative methods involve screwdrivers, pliers or special hooks. If you decide to use any of these tools instead of your hand, do be careful not to slip and scratch your guitar. Adjust pivot screws (two screw model) Note: If you like (I recommend this), you can take this opportunity to remove both pivot screws and add a little Vaseline to the threads before reinstalling them. Add a little Vaseline to the points where the tremolo unit pivots on these screws too while you have this opportunity. The Vaseline adds a little bit of lubrication, helping things to move more smoothly, and also helps to minimise strange pinging noises when you move the tremolo. Have a look from the side of your guitar to see how the tremolo unit is sitting against your guitar top. It will hopefully be sitting flush, but if not, adjust each of the pivot screws until it does. Remember that there is currently nothing holding your tremolo in place at this point, so you may have to push it forward with your hand. Alternatively, leave ONE SPRING in the centre position to hold the tremolo unit in place. Unlike the six screw tremolo, the two-screw model is pretty much idiot proof and you can often just screw both pivot screws all the way in without raising the tremolo unit off the surface of the guitar. Adjust pivot screws (six screw model) Have a look from the side of your guitar to see how the tremolo unit is sitting against your guitar top. It will hopefully be sitting flush, but if not, slacken each of the pivot screws until it does. Now slacken all the screws one turn more. Finally, tighten down the outer two screws only until they are just touching the top of the tremolo unit. The unit will now balance on these two screws, while the other four will be used solely to keep the unit in place. Attach springs Time to re-attach the springs at the back of the guitar. Use the same method as when you removed them, but add a little bit of Vaseline to the two ends of each spring first to lubricate the contact points just a bit. In general, three springs located in the centre and the two outer locations is the most common configuration for standard string gauges. Just a few notes about springs (since I have your attention), as follows: 1. Not all springs are the same, so if you find that you only have two springs and want to increase to three by just buying a single new one, you could end up with mismatched ones. Better to buy three new ones. 2. If you are using three springs and are tempted to place the outer two springs at an angle so that they are not parallel to the centre spring, but rather taper towards it or away from it, this will end up giving you unevenly-matched springs, as the centre one will be shorter than the other two. Generally, I would say not to do this, but plenty of people are happy with this configuration and don't seem to have any problems. You're certainly not going to break your guitar by trying it, so feel free to give it a go. 3. More springs will give you a stiffer feel. If that’s what you want, then by all means feel free to try it out. Similarly, fewer springs will give you a bouncier feel. 4. Heavy strings might require more springs and lighter strings might only need two. Restring the guitar Restring your guitar in the normal way. I’ll be putting a blog post up about that in a few days if you’re unsure of the best way to do that. EDIT: Here it is - http://diystrat.blogspot.com/2011/08/stringing-guitar.html Screw in the tremolo arm We’re going to need the tremolo arm for the next step, so it’s a good idea to screw it back in now. Adjust the claw until the tremolo unit is at the correct distance from the guitar body This is quite possibly the most important step of the whole tremolo setup. The claw is the fine tuner that will leave your tremolo unit sitting in just the right place for optimal balance. Before adjusting it, make sure you tune your guitar to pitch. Use the tremolo a bit while you’re at it to make sure everything is loosened up, and keep doing this until the guitar stays in tune even after tremolo use. Now look at the side of the tremolo unit and measure how far off the surface of the guitar it is sitting at. Fender recommends that it sits at about 3.2 mm (1/8"). If it is sitting too high, then tighten the two screws holding the claw in place. Alternatively, if it is sitting too low, then loosen the screws a little. Each time you adjust the screws, you will need to re-check the guitar tuning and use the tremolo a bit, then re-measure the height. Once it consistently sits at 3.2 mm and the guitar is in tune, you’re done. Be prepared to take some time doing (and repeating) this step. Replace back cover Like it says, put the back cover back on and replace the screws. Well that’s the tremolo unit set up and balanced nicely. For other setup tips, feel free to go to the setup post mentioned at the beginning of this one. Otherwise, feel free to ask any questions in the comments below.

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Hello world, I'm launching into the task of creating a couple of tutorials. This first one is for the guitar bag that I made for my sister for xmas: I got the idea from a gift roundup at Threadbanger, and made mine following Bored and crafty's tutorial located here, making a couple of changes along the way to suit myself. Her tutorial is great. Nonetheless, I am desperate to make up my own one, so here it comes. First, please make sure to follow Bored and crafty's request not to sell any bags you make following these guides. Materials and tools Strong, non stretch main fabric. Eg. denim, canvas... You'll need at least two pieces with minimum dimensions of about 30x40cm Same amount of lining fabric Contrasting fabric for sratchplate pouch. You'll need at least two pieces with minimum dimensions of about 20x25cm Small amount of silver (or any contrasting colour) fabric for the whammy bar and single-coil pickups (and input jack if you desire) Buttons for volume, etc, knobs Shoulder strap from old bag OR extra main fabric to make into your own strap. Guitar bag template from below or image of electric guitar to copy Old newspaper/patternmaking paper if you plan to draw your own pattern, or printer, paper and stickytape if you plan to use mine Guitar bag template Click the image to download the zip package containing the image above as both a jpg and a psd file, plus photoshop custom shapes of the main outline, the scratchplate, and the whole image. Method 1. Print/draw your pattern. If you're using the files provided by me, print the pattern tiled over four pages, then tape them together and cut it out. If you're drawing it yourself, I'm sure you can figure out what you're meant to do. 2. Cut 2 guitar shapes from your main fabric and two from your lining, leaving your desired seam allowance. Then cut 2 scratchplate shapes from your contrasting fabric, leaving your desired seam allowance. Finally, from your silver fabric cut 6 rectangles with dimensions 7x2cm + seam allowance (single-coil pickups), and one with 7x4 + seam allowance (whammy bar). If you want to include an input jack, also cut 2 tear-shaped silver pieces about the same size as the whammy bar. 3. Place your two scratchplate pieces right sides together, and sew most of the way around with a straight stitch, leaving a gap of 8 to 10 cm for turning. Backstitch at the beginning and end to keep it secure. Snip around the seam allowance to make turning easier, then turn your scratchplate right side out and iron it flat, folding down the seam allowance at the opening. Sew a straight topstitch around the entire perimeter and fasten off. 4. Repeat the process of sewing most of the way, turning, ironing and topstitching to all of your silver pieces. Then position them as pictured below and sew them in place. Also sew on the buttons for the volume, etc, controls. 5. Take the front of your bag and position the scratchplate on top of it as pictured below. Pin in place and straight stitch from one top corner, around the bottom of the plate, and up to the other top corner. Turn and sew along the seam again to make sure the scratchplate pouch is nice and secure. Fasten off. 6. If you're making your own strap, measure the length you want it to be, cut a strip of your main fabric that length and about 15 cm wide. Iron it in half lengthwise, right side in, sew the long seam and one of the ends, then turn it right side out and iron it flat and topstitch. If you're using an old strap from another bag, just go and get it. :) 7. If it matters, make sure you position your strap facing the right way up in this step. Pin one end of your strap to the wrong side of the top of the back piece of your main fabric and sew back and fourth lots to secure it, then repeat with the other end at the bottom , as pictured below. Make sure you don't get it all twisted up. This is the main difference between my guitar bag and Bored and crafty's, as her strap attaches at the sides. Attaching them at the sides means the bag keeps better form when you're wearing it, but I opted to move the strap so that it gave the illusion of the guitar's neck. 8. Place the two guitar pieces of the main fabric right sides together and pin (the scratchplate pouch will be on the inside) Make sure you fold the strap so it lies inside the bag when you pin it together, otherwise it'll end up between the bag and the lining rather than outside so you can use it! Then sew from the highest point of the top, around the bottom, and up to the high point on the other side with a straight stitch. You may want to turn and go back over this seam to make it extra secure. Then place your two guitar piece of the lining fabric and place them right sides together and do the same thing, but leave a space at the bottom as pictured. 9. Now it's time to sew the lining into the bag. To do this, leave the lining inside out but turn the main fabric piece (the one with the scratchplate) right side out. Then put the main fabric bag inside the lining so that the right side of the main bag faces the right side of the lining, as pictured below. Make sure you fold the strap down so that it's not sticking out anywhere - it should be trapped between the right sides of the bag and lining. Once it's inserted, pin the edges together and sew with a straight stitch. Be careful when you get near the top of the scratchplate - you don't want to accidentally sew it shut! 10. Turn your bag the right way out by pulling the main bag through the hole you left in the bottom of the lining and then flipping the lining back inside the bag. Now it looks like the real thing, huh? Run a straight topstitch around the opening of the bag, making sure to pull the strap into the correct position so that the topstitch secures it in place. 11. Pull the bottom of the lining up so that you can close the opening with a straight stitch, then push it back inside. And you're complete! Congratulations, you are the proud owner of a new electric guitar-style shoulder bag. Rock on.

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