The Australia-shaped guitar from CHONS Guitars – CHONS 016 2018

The Australia-shaped guitar from CHONS Guitars – CHONS 016

The Aussie Caster is unlike any other guitar. 

The body is shaped like Australia, stylised to make the coastline significantly less wiggly than the real deal. 

You have probably seen heaps of guitars in the shape of the USA – but not many (if any) in the shape of Australia.

Check out the YouTube video of the guitar by clicking  

Inspired by the old mid-1960s Gibson Kalamazoo guitars with their ultra thin bodies made from MDF, the body of the Aussie Caster has been loving crafted from finest grade MDF from Bunnings. 

The neck is maple and the fingerboard is rosewood. 

The shape of the three-ply (black white black) pickguard is based on a profile view of Ayers Rock - quite appropriate for a structure that is found at the centre of the Australian landmass. 

You may need to be careful that you don’t have your eye out with the northern tip of Cape York in the north of Queensland. And lest we forget Tasmania, she is there in all her triangular glory just south of a strip of the Bass Strait picked out in contrasting blue. 

We toyed with the idea of painting the Aussie Caster green and yellow but decided that few people, however patriotic, would want a green guitar. A green tambourine might have been a different proposition altogether. 

So she be blue. 

We also toyed with the idea of banging in a single humbucker to make her like a Les Paul Junior but decided that Australia is nothing if not a three single coil kinda nation. Girt by C – or Girt by C# at a pinch. 

One solitary volume knob and no tone knob. Who uses tone knobs, I ask you? Not Australians, that’s for sure. 

And a cunningly concealed five-way switch – about where you would expect Eucla to be. At the 2006 census, Eucla had a population of 86. There’s a lesson there for all of us. The five-way switch is wired to offer the same pickup configurations as a standard Stratocaster. 

The bridge is fixed as fixed could be – allowing for a string through construction – letting all the pent up ‘tone woodness’ of the MDF ring out. 

Seriously though, the Aussie Caster sustains until next Tuesday. Nice crisp sound. 

Scale length is 25.5 inches. 

This beauty has been set up with light gauge strings (09-42). 

Check out the YouTube video of the guitar by clicking  

Please ask any questions .

Thanks for looking and please check out our other guitars.