DIY Miniature Acoustic Guitar (made with popsicle sticks!)

Hi guys, it's Cas! Today I'm going to show you how to make these super cute and realistic looking miniature acoustic guitars. They're made up of mainly popsicle sticks, so this is a project anyone can do. I'm showing how to make them in 1-12 scale standard dollhouse size, but you can use the exact same steps and adjust the size to your liking. Now this is a pretty in-depth video, so let's not waste time and jump right into it. The first thing we need to do is draw the template. I grab a sheet of graph paper and draw a 1.5 by 1.75 inch rectangle. I know I wrote 6 here, but I really mean 1.5 inches. Here I'm showing you the length of the guitar neck, which will extend 1.75 inches past the body. Draw two lines straight through the middle of the rectangle as guidelines. I draw the shape of the guitar body starting from the top of the vertical line and curving it out and down to one side. Curve it back in and out again, making sure the bottom half of the guitar body is wider than the top. Make adjustments until you like the shape. You don't need to draw anything else for the template, you're done there, but I'm going to show you how the neck will look and where the sound hole will be. As referenced, the center of the sound hole will be half an inch from the top of the body. Cut out the body. We'll use this template to cut out the front and back pieces for the guitar. Grab a jumbo popsicle stick and split it in half, then glue them together to create a wide panel. Trace around the template and cut off the excess wood. Make two of these, one for the front and one for the back. Sand them to smooth out any rough edges. Then draw the sound hole onto one of the pieces and cut it out. To sand the inside of the hole, I like to roll some sandpaper around a dowel and just use that. For the sides of the body, I'm using some wooden coffee stirrers. I boil a pot of water and soak them in there for a few hours. You just need one stick for the guitar, but I made extras just in case. You're going to love what we do with these. While that's boiling, let's get started on the neck. Using a regular popsicle stick, I first cut a curve onto one end, then I mark the width of the widest part of the guitar neck, which is about a quarter of an inch. Make a mark at the 2.25 inch length area. Draw two vertical lines that gradually get wider at the bottom. Guitar necks are always thinner at the top than the bottom. Now draw on the headstock. There are so many headstock shapes, so go with whatever you like. This one is pretty simple. Cut that final shape out. Lightly sand it. Position it on the body right above the sound hole. Mark where the body ends. Thin that part of the neck out just a little bit. It'll make the finished guitar look that much better when the two pieces fit together perfectly. Now throw that piece into the boiling water and grab out one of those coffee stirrers we put in before. It should bend and curve nicely without snapping. Put the two body pieces together. Wrap the coffee stirrer around the body pieces and use rubber bands to secure the coffee stirrer right into place. Add as many rubber bands as it takes to really tighten it. Once that's dry, the coffee stirrer will keep the curved shape. How cool is that? Glue it to the front body piece. Cut off any excess. Alright, let's grab that headstock out of the boiling water. We need to bend the head back just a little bit. I place it on the edge of my desk and gently push it back. This is what it looks like when it dries. At this point, I decided that I didn't want the curved bottom, so I cut it into a straight edge instead. Totally optional. Then I draw a bunch of lines down the neck for the guitar frets. I drew about 20-25 lines, gradually spacing them together closer and closer as I get to the bottom. With my X-Acto knife, I carve out each of those lines. We're going to put in real metal frets here, because we're crazy. But first, let's stain the fretboard. I use a mixture of dark brown and black paint to create a dark grayish brown. Mix in a bit of water so it becomes a stain. For the frets, I'm using some super thin wire. This is 28 gauge jewelry wire. With some metal shears, I snip off a bunch of little pieces. Then with super glue, glue each wire piece into those little slots. With a tiny hand drill, I make some shallow holes into the frets. I do it on frets 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, and so on. This is a good time to reference a picture of a real guitar on Google. Then I add some white paint into those holes. Trim off the excess wire and add some varnish for a glossy look. Yup, that's three headstocks. We're making three mini-guitars. The design on the first one will be very simple. I use a brown micro-tip pen to draw a circle around the sound hole. The second guitar will be a lot more interesting. I'm making a sunburst design for this one, so we'll need black, red, and yellow paint. With a makeup sponge, I'm gonna dab these colors on. I tear off a piece of sponge and dab yellow all over the front of the body. Then I mix that yellow with some red and add that orange hue everywhere except the center. Gradually use less yellow and more red so the colors get darker as you move outward. Then sponge on some black around the perimeter and the sides. Add some varnish to seal in the color. I made the third guitar super simple again with just a circle around the sound hole. Next, let's make the bridge of the guitar where the strings will come out of the body. I just take a coffee stirrer and draw a line at the half inch mark. Then cut off two of the corners. Stain it the same color as the guitar neck. Look, I also made a wooden ring out of the coffee stirrer. These things are so versatile. Okay, back to our project. Glue on the bridge about half an inch under the sound hole with some wood glue. While that's drying, let's glue on the necks as well. Also just using some wood glue here. Next, I use that mini hand drill again to drill six holes into the bridge. It's just a simple row of six holes that go right through the wood. We'll be threading our strings through these holes. I also cut out a super thin piece from the coffee stirrer to add to the bridge. It will lift the strings up higher and it will also help guide the strings into their proper positions. I do the same for the top of the guitar neck. Cut some grooves into these pieces so that the strings can slip into them perfectly. These cuts are a bit hard to see, but believe me, they're there. Okay, time for the strings. I just used some regular white sewing thread, but you could also use wire, fishing line, really anything. Cut out six lengths of thread. These are about five to six inches in length, but it really doesn't matter too much. Just make them longer than you think you need. You can always trim off the excess. Using a tweezer, I carefully slip each thread into a hole. Once all six are in, I turn the guitar over and tie a knot to secure all six strings together. This will keep them all in place. You see, tugging on them won't pull them out. Now you can glue the back piece of the body on. I like how the white thread really stands out against the dark neck, but you can also paint the thread metallic silver for a more realistic look. Here's how the silver strings will look. For some extra support on the guitar neck, I get a quarter inch dowel and line it up against the back of the neck. Mark the length of the body and cut that piece out with a miter saw. Once you have that little piece, slice off one side. This flat side is where we will glue it to the body. Just use wood glue for this. Draw a small downward slope on the top of the piece to create a gradual slope downward. Then carefully cut that piece out. It looks pretty good to me. Alright, let's add some interesting color to these boring bare wood guitars. I'm going to create a cherry wood stain by mixing some dark brown with red. Paint it onto the sides and the back of the guitar. Add layers until you achieve your desired color. While that dries, let's make the tuners and pegs for the head. Mark six holes in two columns of three. Drill those out with a tiny hand drill. You can see I added a cherry stain to the head here too. Then I get some 20 gauge wire and cut out six half inch pieces. Stick them right into the holes. To secure them in place, I add some super glue to the back. Alright, let's string this baby up. For symmetry, I first pull the two middle strings up to the neck. Wrap them around each of the top pegs. Add some super glue so the strings don't unravel. Trim off any excess string. Then grab the next closest string and wrap it around the lower pegs. Make sure all the strings come out from the center and outward towards the pegs. Do this until all six strings are done. And for a finishing touch to the pegs, I add a drop of silver paint to the top of each peg. You can do this at the end, but I decided to varnish the rest of the body since the cherry paint was dry. Alright, back to the headstock. To make the tuners, I'm going to use some toothpicks. The ones I have here have a small curved design on one end. I'll be using three toothpicks per guitar. Cut off a one eighth of an inch piece from the end with the design. Split that little piece in half to create two tuners. Use super glue to attach them to the sides of the headstock. Line them up against the pegs. Here I'm adding some extra super glue just for strength. Then I paint them silver with some metallic silver acrylic paint. Looking great so far. Let's finish this up. For the pickguard, draw a half inch by three fourth of an inch rectangle. Then draw a teardrop shape inside that rectangle. Add a curve on the top left part of the teardrop. This yellow section will be the pickguard. With some clear plastic packaging, I trace the shape of the pickguard. Cut that out. To keep this in place while I'm painting it, I'm going to stick it on the sticky side of masking tape. I'm going to paint this with nail polish, but you can also use acrylic paint. You can use any color you like, but I'm going to mix some black with burgundy. I first lay down a layer of black nail polish. Then I add some dots of black and red. And then swirl them together with a dotting tool. You can also use some clear top coat to seal it all in. Once that's dry, attach it to the body of the guitar with some super glue. Okay, last detail. I just add a line of white paint across the top of the head. Not necessary, but I really like that extra detail. That's it guys. The guitars are all finished. They're so tiny and adorable. I hope you guys liked this video. Give it a thumbs up if you did and make sure to subscribe for more. I have tune-in videos every single week. I'll see you next time. Bye!