Enjoy
Several weeks after stacking collected boards for the first time, I was now gathering my belongings to head to my friend Max for a testing session of the finished Umme Skate or Don’t guitar. I had only plucked the strings after wiring, but hadn’t actually played the guitar at that point. Max and I agreed that we would do the initial sound test together. Remember the anxiety of waiting for your christmas presents when you were young? This was worse.
We finally went to Max’ practise room the next day. Unwrapping the guitar from its gig bag still felt surreal. Playing it was even crazier. I remembered my initial goal:
I want to build an electric guitar from recycled skateboards. If it plugins into an amp and produces sound, I’ll be happy.
The result went way beyond that and it felt great. I contemplated the fruits of my work and was instantly reminded of the one detail that was missing.
A Worthy Headstock Decal
Initially, I set out to print and apply a waterslide decal.
At some point, I came up with a different and much more exciting idea. Every skater loves putting grip on a fresh board - so do I. Why not slap some grip on a guitar headstock!?
By the way… Go skate! Here is Neen “Master of Heelflips“ Williams showing you how to setup your first board.
Why Skate or Don’t?
Skateboarding is a mental game, even though it looks very physical. People have learned much through skateboarding. Ask any skater for his or her story of this rightfully glorified chunk of wood. Or just watch any or all episodes of the Nine Club. Skaters are up for that kind of chat, because skating teaches lessons for life!
Just to put into perspective my seriousness about learning and living through skating… I decided to sponsor the skating path of my friend Michael’s sweet daughter right when she was born. That was in 2019. Thanks again, Jan @ BLAG! You know, this is partially your fault, too.
Now, each of us owns one of two Boodle Stoodle decks. I am looking forward to the day when we set them up together. On the Umme Skate or Don’t testing weekend in 2020, I left wheels and bearings with her.
The Gaze of Gnar
Anyone can see it in her eyes: “Holy shit, Boodle! I wanna go bomb hills with these right now!“, the little one thinks.
Trucks, grip and hardware are the only things missing. Sounds to me like 2021 is the year of a full setup! Can kids learn to push at 2? In any case, I’ll teach her how to kickflip before 1st grade - but no pressure…
Anyway, while I am personally pretty stoked on everyone who lives by the “Skate or Die” mantra, I‘d consider myself a hypocrite if I proclaimed to be a die hard skater. Comparably addictive passions lie in every corner of life. Getting involved with music is definitely one. Skate or Don’t manifested for me even more, when (a year prior to this build) Michael pursuaded me to get inked by him. It was his 5th piece. After some thinking, I chose to get a stick figure doing a 5-0 towards this indecisive phrase.
I love the sketchiness. Maybe because it resonates well with my own skating. Also, imperfections are what make moments and things unique.
Skate or Don’t, everyone!
I did not have to think twice about a suitable name for this project.
The Grip Job
With my correctly sized graphics, Michael took me to the SLUB Makerspace. Here, we fed a laser cutter with the digital design. Then, we simply stood by as the machine traced the bounds into some standard skateboard grip.
I kept some additional copies as stickers and stuck one onto the headstock of my guitar.
Boooom! That’s it.
We continued shredding and various people tested out the guitar that weekend. What a good time to shout out Max, Moritz, Max & Beni’s band Meijar. Soooo goooood.
We did not take any raw sound samples that weekend. But as teased in earlier posts, Max and I recorded a song for Arvid’s 30th birthday. “Two Thirds - Grandpa” (Max: Vocals/Drums, Boodle: Vocals/Guitar/Bass) was later “hidden” on a mixtape, which we filled with music that had influenced the three of us as teenagers.
Note: The song features both the Umme Skate or Don’t guitar and my Fender Mexico Telecaster. Maybe you can pick out the difference.
For a more raw sample of the Umme Skate or Don’t guitar check out this video.
By the way, now that this build is done, Arvid seems hyped enough to continue his own Umme Skate or Don’t guitar.
These are the last lines, I am writing, before publishing this project into the WWW. I ended up putting so much more content into these posts, than I had initially thought out to. Honestly, I don’t even know who cares to read all or any of this. But that’s okay.
This entire project was fucking rad! I’m glad that I took time to reflect upon it and I’m looking forward to the next one! Whatever / Whenever / Wherever that may be.
THANK YOU for being awesome
Stephie
Heinz
Christoph
Arvid
Freddy
Micha
Max
Lucas
Franky
Aurora
Burgi
Carsten
Robert
Robin
Hannes R.
Hannes H.
Julius
Felix
Hagen
Johannes
Goeldo
Tischlerei Mitsching
BLAG Skateboards
Deutsches Tonholz
(not) THE END. Skate or Don’t!
- Boodle
