Ted Crocker's electric guitar built to be used as a Hollywood movie prop [Pictures] - created 10-17-2006

Crocker, Ted - 10/17/2006.12:02:46
What can I make with all this sawdust?

I got a call from someone who had seen one of my cigar box guitars played in a club, then found my site. The caller said "I'm working on a new movie starring Danny Glover, Keb Mo, Ruth Brown and Gary Clark Jr. The story takes place in 1950 Alabama and Gary plays Sonny, who plays the first electric guitar seen by the people in the town of Harmony. Basically, the guitar is a neck from a store bought screwed to a plank with weird, exposed wires. Can you build it?"

When I realized it wasn't a trick question or I joke, I said "Of course". I sent him an email with some specific questions about the script and followed it up with pics of a mock-up. I got the job over the other builders he contacted.

Here's the mock-up:

They loved the design. I decided to use a one piece Maqhogany body. I also decided to keep it homemade looking and create my own pickups. Here's the initial mock-up.

I went with (3) double string pickups. I made a winder using a generic Dremel wired into a sort of dimmer switch. I was under a very tight deadline (14 days) so I ordered a neck. Here's Honey Dripper Guitar:

The script called for exposed wires, so I sunk the pups into a cavity and left it uncovered. I used cloth covered wires. I was concerned about noise, so I used a brass saddle, to which I soldered a wire that runs into the recess and to a lug made from a small brass brad. All the cavities are painted with conductive shielding paint, so the cavities themselves are part of the ground circuit. Another wire soldered to the lug runs through a hole in the recess to the back of the volume pot, and another from there to the jack shaft.

During the winding, I sprayed clear lacquer, thinking that potting with wax would 'cloud' the coils. The guitar is suprisingly quiet, and they described the tone as 'syrupy'. The soundtrack is complete, and they're filming as we speak.

I used a rifle case to ship it. I also included a vintage leather strap and vintage cable, as well as two of my Buffalo Horn guitar picks.

I forgot to mention, because it's 'Hollywood' they wanted an extra guitar, just in case.

Cool! Is that leopard wood that you used for the bridge, tail piece and control cover?

Yeah Travis, I forgot to mention that. The bridge, tailpiece, control cover and bobbin bottoms are Leopardwood. I used Purpleheart for the bobbin tops. The guitars were returned to me for mods. It seems John Sayles, the writer/director, wants to record the guitar live during filming. One scene calls for Sonny to jump off the stage in the Honeydripper Lounge (Glover's Juke Joint), wind through the crowd, out through the door and play in the street. The mod they wanted was an additional jack on the back so they can hide a wireless rig and use a dummy cable. That jack plate is Leopardwood, also. Of course I included that jack in the ground circuit.

BTW, the movie is called Honeydripper, and should be in theaters early 2007.

This guitar really has a presence, and certainly drips mojo. My shop partner is Taxi, an albino Cockateil. He proudly donates a feather for all my projects to include a little mojo of his own.

Believe it or not, I already got an order for another Honey Dripper. I'll be finished with all the cavities and roundover the edges today. I'll be done with the pickups in the next few days and have the guitar ready to ship the end of next week.

Nice work. Interesting story.

I can just see these being knocked off in Indonesia and sold on Ebay by the time the movie hits the theaters.

Too Cool! Are there any soundclips yet that you can post?

Very cool! I look forward to the movie. I don't think the fretboard inlays and binding really match the rough-hewn vibe of it, but then again, I can imagine the protagonist hacking the neck off of an Epiphone archtop and joining it to his own handiwork, similar to your own build process. I'm sure the deadline gave it some of that simple, rustic mojo. Please post sound clips if you can.

Thanks guys.

Steve, my stomach got knotted when I read what you posted, let's hope you're not right. I did retain all the reproduction & distribution rights, but who's to say that if the movie is a hit, knock-offs won't be all over the place. OH WELL, a real one can only come from me & Taxi.

I don't have any sound clips. I do have the MP3s they recorded in the studio, but I can't post them until the movie is released. In the hands of a real player she sounds great. Good News (for me, anyway), when the check cleared I decided that I needed to upgrade my rig from the Musicians Friend Rogue 35 watt amp I had. I went back to MF and went on a Behringer shopping spree - the 120 watt modeling head, 4 X 12 cab, midi foot controller, Marshall Guv'ner pedal, Ibanez Screaming Demon wah, UB1202 mixer, cables and midi & audio interfaces. I'm trying to decide between GarageBand & Audacity, any suggestions for a MacBook Pro? Anyway, I'm now set up to post clips of future instruments.

Brian,

After reading the script and talking to the people involved, I conjured up a story of Sonny dejectedly walking home from a gig with his broken acoustic. When he saw a plank laying by the road, he got the inspiration to build an electric. The script noted that Sonny was a 'Radioman' in WW2 who cobbled together his creation. Hence, the exposed wires.

Believe it or not, the deadline only added to the rough hewn look. Given more time, I might have been guilty of over-engineering it. Almost half of the deadline passed before I got materials delivered, so I wound up doing most of it in a week of 20 hour days.

The movie sounds very interesting. It takes place in 1950 in the middle of cotton plantations, crooked white sheriffs and juke joints. I'll be 'on set' when they shoot the juke joint scenes the first week in November.

Ted

Very interesting. Unfortunately with the nature of Hollywood movies your guitar might end up getting only about 3 seconds of airtime.

That's pretty cool! You could have made the pickups using two small coils with three magnets in each, and connected them together as a humbucker. Good luck with this!

Kevin, supposedly, the guitar will get a lot of screen time. The story is sorta based on how Sonny and his guitar 'save' the Honeydripper Lounge from foreclosure, and the impact an electric guitar has on the town. There's scenes of the guitar in the case, being kicked across the floor, being passed around to a crowd of Blues Purists, (who denounce anything electric), and the live set in the club. It'll be cool for me to get stills and audio.

Ted, you are a Mad Scientist...

Bravo.

That is really awesome!

Hey Mark,

I didn't get a picture in my mind (>You could have made the pickups using two small coils with three magnets in each, and connected them together as a humbucker) If I read it right, no, wait a sec, you said humbucker. Explain please.

I thought about running the 2 low strings pup out as stereo, but had a script. I would love to build a neck for a body like this with scatter wound pups. For what it's worth, I sorta made a split second decision on the pups, and with hindsight, wouldn't change a thing. I wound them by eye. None measure the same, but they hover around 2.4K each. The hotter ones I put under the treble string in almost the mid position, and the 2.2ish ones under E & A, closer to the bridge. I ran them in series and they measure like 7 and change. I pretty much just matched the windings by volume.

peace

Ted

What a great project and a cool finished guitar. I love it.

As a professional who makes most of his living working with not-yet-released movie licenses, myself, I was wondering if you know for a fact that you have full rights to exhibit a prop for a movie in production on a message board online? Just curious, because on most projects I do, if I haven't already signed a non-disclosure contract, there's an unspoken gentleman's agreement that I won't release any information or images to the public before the respective companies have released the product info publicly themselves. Even though I did the work, I don't own the rights to the work. The projects are another entity's concepts and they just paid me to bring them to life. Since you took these photos, you own them, so there's no problem there. You just may never work again. :)

Not trying to be the heavy. Just wanting to give you a friendly head's up in case you get a letter from an industry attorney. It happens. If I were to post pics or even mention what properties I'm sculpting in a public forum, I'd be blacklisted in a heartbeat. I know firsthand that it's exciting to tell us all about the movie premise and your work for it. Not a day goes by that I don't wish I could show everyone everything in my studio. I produce work from at least 2-3 movies, tv series, or video games per month. My income depends on my discretion. Just be careful and err on the side of caution until the project is in the can and publicly advertised by the production company. Your production people may not really care. Some even allow "secrets" to be leaked to the public in order to create a controlled buzz about their product.

Good luck! Can't wait to see the guitar in action.

Cool guitars and a great story. I look forward to seeing the movie and think to myself, "Hey, I posted to the guy who made that!"

full rights to exhibit a prop for a movie in production on a message board online?

He got our interest, and we will all probably see the movie, so I would say posting here was a good thing for the movie. A little advanced publicity!

I can't wait to see the movie now! I checked IMDB to see what Danny Glover is working on and (I suppose it's obvious) the movie will be called "Honeydripper" and is set for 2007 release.

Too cool!

Make sure to explain that to the attorneys when they send out cease and desist letters, Jamie.

You should see some of the non-disclosure contracts we have to sign and realize that your entire income for years depends on just keeping quiet for another 6 months and letting the producers handle the publicity. As an example, when I did toys from the last two Matrix movies while the films were still in production, I had to sign a contract as thick as a brick. I even had to sign every reference photo out like a library book so they could track the culprit down easier if that image hit a message board somewhere.

Needless to say, I don't even tell my relatives what I'm working on this week.

It's not only a matter of legality or marketing, though. It's mostly a matter of professionalism. Those who kiss and tell soon run out of dates who'll ask them to another party. The last thing my clients want is for me to expose progress shots of their pet project to the public.

Make sure to explain that to the attorneys when they send out cease and desist letters, Jamie.

If you saw the stuff I make, you'd know I never have to worry about this!

Lawyers >:(

Back when I used to do cabinet refacing, my main competition was that national chain of mall-based department stores that does way-over-priced home improvements: cabinet refacing, replacement windows, and vinyl siding (check your mailbox, there's probably a nice looking 10 page color brochure in it).

After I had collected a dozen or so of their written quotes, I felt confident about putting a little add in our small home town newspaper stating that they were three times as expensive as I was (a provable fact), among other things.

Within hours of the first run hitting the streets, I received a very scarey phone call from their corporate lawyers, threatening to sue me into oblivian if I didn't pull the ad. After changing my underwear (because I crapped myself), I pulled the ad that afternoon.

Here's the real kicker. I eventually became an "authorized contractor" for them when things got slow. Yeah, I gave in to "the man." They paid well, though. Actually made a really good income that year.

Disclaimer: I have nothing against lawyers. Some of my best friends are lawyers.

WOOOWEEE!

I don't know if I've seen this topic in the years I've been lurking. Jeffrey, I should have talked to you beforehand. Not really, though, but next time. Maybe because it's an indie film, or that the producer & director are real people, but we covered this already, pre-legal team (although I did have my lawyer proofread). If I do sell any of these, I write a check to the company. When they get a request, I build it.

A phone call today reaffirmed that any press is good press. At the request of the powers that be, I provided a press release and links for them to help promote interest in the guitar & the movie (weeks ago). I gave them THIS link today.

This is my first foray into Jeff's world.

Anyway, I'm sorry I mentioned the flick here, because I only wanted to show you a guitar. If Deb or Clint will delete this thread, I'll just post the guitar with no background info. The direction this post took makes me uncomfortable (to say the least) and I'd rather not receive that attention. To be labeled as 'Kiss & Tell' is almost libelous... Also, "blacklisted in a heartbeat" is something I don't want to see associated with my name.

In the time I've spent here, I don't think I ever saw someone post "You just may never work again. :)"

Please strike this from the record.

Any questions about the instrument?

Deb? Delete? Please...

Ted

Ted, please understand that I meant no offense, nor was it my intention to bring you any anxiety. You mention that you've already had discussions with a legal team, so that's all I was asking in concern for you and your continued success. Sometimes all that is required of you is to make a simple phone call to your contact to confirm that you have their permission.

The companies and studios for which I work are highly competitive and rely on being able to get to the market with their ideas first, before someone beats them to it. The toy companies pay the movie studios a pretty penny - sometimes millions - just for the licenses to produce products from specific entertainment properties and those licenses come with a lot of restrictions, not the least of which are the promises not to expose the product to the public before the production company releases it.

The payments for my services are fair, but are less than a drop in the bucket compared to the amounts of money on the line from investors. To make certain that I always have work in that industry, I have to be on my best behavior, as well as keep my skills in top form. For instance, if I just miss a deadline by a day or two, it costs the company their entire production slot in Hong Kong until they can re-schedule another slot for the product months later, which usually means they've missed the window that coincides with the millions spent on a marketing campaign of the entertainment property. My 2-day delay just cost them a fortune. If I had the reputation of being late, no one would even bother to pick up the phone to call me.

Message boards have even been the subject of company meetings or executive discussions I've attended. When I was an in-house sculptor for one particular company, the rules were quite specific: "If you leak one of our projects to a message board, pack up and get out." I'd likely have been sued, as well, because of the damage such a leak could cause to a company's income. It may all sound harsh to you, but that's the reality of the business. Such reality is the basis for professionalism.

I know for a fact that it's exciting to share your work and we're very glad you did. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of certain aspects of the entertainment industries that can come back to bite you on the butt if you're not careful. Your work will get a LOT of exposure and has the potential to open up all kinds of doors for you. I don't want to see those doors slam shut, because of a misunderstanding or inexperience. Good luck to you, Ted! Your project really is something to be proud of.

Ted,

Why don't you beg for a cameo shot since you'll be on the set? We'll come and root for you!

Nate

Ok - a guitar question, sort of. What's with the feather? I ask only because it was such a wonderful touch (and in post #4 it looks like it's wired into the circuit, some sort of crossroads mojo goin' on?)

ps - the back story is great, can't wait to see the flick.

This gives me a fun idea. I have a neck from an old univox that I am restoring to some semblance of playability. I could just attach it to a big chunk of wood and get everything where I want it then just start removing everything that isn't guitar.

By the way, I really love this guitar you built, it has so much potential.

Cheers

What's with the feather?

I thought it was one of those McIntyre Feather acoustic pickups!

JC, the feather is just good spirits from me & Taxi. A karmic or mojo thing. Somehow it got to where every project has a feather. Taxi is praying for non-success. I would too, ever see a bird with a comb-over?

Jeffrey, Thanks for the concern and the glimpse behind the scenes. Most folks have no idea. I was a Manhattan photographer and went through the spy routine for 17 years with food (a lot of ice cream), fragrance, tech and whetever else we could book. A lot of it under the shroud you describe. I signed away my soul for a dayrate. I'm a big boy. I did 'photo-comps' using masks in the darkroom way before PhotoShop... I lived with deadlines even on vacation. I cover myself...

Anyway, this a discussion of the guitar I built. Today I fabricated all the components for the pickups on the new Honey Dripper. Tomorrow I wind them on my weird contraption. I document it all. Would I get in trouble for posting a work in progress pic if you can go forward in time to the top of this post and see it complete?

Sorry admins for the Twilight Zone moment! : )

Nate, almost anyone can a score a role as an extra dressed like a soldier on base, then again at the club.

Thanks Clint..

peace,

Ted

Why don't you beg for a cameo shot since you'll be on the set?

YEAH!! That's a great idea. Then we could all watch the dvd and tell our friends that we know that guy and he built THAT guitar. That really would be pretty cool. If you showed up to the shoot in costume one day, how could they refuse?

You know, building that guitar and watching it on screen has got to be a high spot in anybody's lifetime. I really am excited for you, Ted.

I doubt much of the production staff hangs out on this forum, so I think you're fairly safe as long as no one else here starts spreading it around. That's where things kinda go crazy. If you're patient, you could really put up an awesome page on your site to coincide with the movie release that shows the guitar's progress and see if you could be linked to the film site. Fans of the film would love to see stuff like that. Maybe your documentation could even be included on the dvd as an extra feature. Who knows?

This is great. Lots of funk and mojo, but don't you think it looks just a bit too new and clean? ;-)

I was thinking the same thing, but I imagine the props crew will give it whatever patina they feel is appropriate for the movie.

They could always get Pete Townsend to pre-stress it!

The movie is set in 1950, and the guitar has just been made by the hero, clean and new. But you're right, props won't be able to restrain theirselves.

I offered to 'relic' the guitars, but they opted to let the art department work with the director to express his vision.