Has anyone ever made a guitar for their puppet? I have some basic ideas but I am hoping to hear what has been done. Are there any books on this subject? Thanks-Steve

I don't think there are any specific books on this really, although a book on prop making could be useful.
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A lot of folks find toy guitars and use those.  You could also make a guitar out of foamcore.  That is actually my normal choice for building something like this.  It is light weight and easy to work with. To create the curved sides of the guitar you would cut score lines on the inside of the strip that you are using to bend to the shape of the guitar.  This should give you cleaner curves.

For my puppet team I almost always bought toy guitars and made attachments to hold them to the puppet. I did make a fiddle by using a piece of 1" foam sandwiched between two pieces of thin wood. As long as you're not doing any "close up" puppetry or TV work, you can get by with a "representation" of the instrument. Made a keyboard by taking a thin box, painting it black and spelling out Yamaha in white letters along the back. Didn't need any keys, since that area was always in front of the puppet and hiddened from the audience. Only needed the puppet to move his body to the rythmn of the music.

How about making the cardboard body and pasting the picture on it.

I would make it out of pink or blue home insulation...like I built my microphone.  Easy to cut, shape and sand.



Dennis

I like Miss Elly idea, if you wanted to make it 3d you could give it a plain black behind part that has foam 'sandwiched' between the front and back, then just use a strip of the same black to round the edge of the foam.

Thank you everyone-These are all great ideas. I want this for a puppet to sing "Jesus loves cowboys" I was going to buy the guitar from one way street but they ran out and I am short of money. I'll post a picture as soon as it is done-Steve

I recently made one, it was an "electric" guitar.  I used clipart and traced and cut it out of the pink siding foam from Home Depot, painted it with latex paint for a primer coat and actually my kids painted the colors with tempera paints!  I just painted the sides and back black.  I don't have a picture of it and it's at church right now or I'd post a picture!  But it was really easy and sturdy enough for a puppet. I did not use real string, just drew them on with a sharpie, but you could if you wanted I'm sure.

We made similar large(human size) ones last year for a blacklight show and I did it the same way, only reinforced the necks with pieces of wood so they wouldn't break or crack.

I was thinking if you wanted a wood look of an acoustic guitar you might use the contact paper that looks like wood, or some stick-on flooring on the body of it.

If you are talking about the new foam guitar One Way Street sells, I bought one at Jo-Ann Fabrics for about $6.99.

Here's the one I made.  It was free; made from scraps.  Best kind!   To be absolutely honest, my kids painted it, I just cut it out. 


Poor photo, but you get the idea I hope. 

I'd like to see what you end up doing.