Building Guitarist's Foot Rest
Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 12:37 pm
Ok.....have a solo acoustic gig coming up in a week. Rarely, rarely, rarely ever do those, so I pulled out the Martin and played on it one afternoon. Felt like a struggle after playing electric on a short-scale neck forever....
So, I drug out the Maton that I bought a couple of years ago after playing one on a cruise ship (that's a whole other story). They are built down in Grant's territory and are just now starting to show up in the states. Anyway, it felt amazing to play - so it's gonna' be the one.
Took it to the garage for about three days in a row to play it through my a single speaker on a pole to get a feel for what I'd be doing. I have a great Roc-n-Soc full height stool with a footrest and a back. It's amazing, but I found that I was playing with my foot propped up on the shelf under my work table and when I moved it back to the footrest, it wasn't as good.
So, I started looking online for those foot rests that you see the classical guys use. Most of what I found looked cheap and weren't nearly as high as I wanted. After a little more looking, I found a guy who had built one.....well, you know what comes next.
There weren't any plans, so I just kinda mapped it out in my head, then did a few drawings after measuring my gigantic foot....I knew the real struggle would be getting the proper pivot on the scissor legs on each side - I was right....
I was going to go grab some Red Oak from HD to build this, then remembered that my late Brother-in-law had given me a few Cherry boards many years ago.....at least I think they are Cherry, that's what he said, and they look like Cherry. So, I drug one out and started measuring out the parts and cutting.
Here's the cut pieces.....
That was the easy part.....a whole bunch of time and head-scratching went on between the first picture and this one where the holes are drilled, the pivot points are set, edges are rounded over, and the sanding it done.
I did a little test on some scrap of TruOil like I used on my new Tele neck and some Wipe-On Poly. Letting 'em dry to see which one I like. They look about the same wet. Might go with some of the TruOil, then some poly....don't know at this point.
I'll post more pics when it's time to put it together...
So, I drug out the Maton that I bought a couple of years ago after playing one on a cruise ship (that's a whole other story). They are built down in Grant's territory and are just now starting to show up in the states. Anyway, it felt amazing to play - so it's gonna' be the one.
Took it to the garage for about three days in a row to play it through my a single speaker on a pole to get a feel for what I'd be doing. I have a great Roc-n-Soc full height stool with a footrest and a back. It's amazing, but I found that I was playing with my foot propped up on the shelf under my work table and when I moved it back to the footrest, it wasn't as good.
So, I started looking online for those foot rests that you see the classical guys use. Most of what I found looked cheap and weren't nearly as high as I wanted. After a little more looking, I found a guy who had built one.....well, you know what comes next.
There weren't any plans, so I just kinda mapped it out in my head, then did a few drawings after measuring my gigantic foot....I knew the real struggle would be getting the proper pivot on the scissor legs on each side - I was right....
I was going to go grab some Red Oak from HD to build this, then remembered that my late Brother-in-law had given me a few Cherry boards many years ago.....at least I think they are Cherry, that's what he said, and they look like Cherry. So, I drug one out and started measuring out the parts and cutting.
Here's the cut pieces.....
I'll post more pics when it's time to put it together...
