Background and Concept

The cricket bat guitar is probably not so new in its conception. The task of joining cricket bat blade to guitar neck has most likely been tried and pondered over for several decades with, until now, who knows what kind of success. Did W.G. have a longing for rock and roll to be invented?

Anyway, having trawled the depths of the internet I have been unable to unearth any kind of evidence as to the existence of such efforts, although I imagine in time however I will be fully corrected in my assumptions.

From my own point of view, I had my own ideas on the subject around twenty years ago. As a guitar player and cricket bat owner, I started to consider the possibilities of uniting the two articles, fitting pickups and plugging the whole lot in. The culmination of this ridiculous idea was the realisation of my prototype instrument, to all intents and purposes, a telecaster riding a cricket bat!

So, why the tele? The simple answer is simplicity. The space available on a cricket bat blade for pickups, controls and electronics is minimal. Routing out too much timber would compromise the integrity of the bat and lose too much of what little body resonance it had. The telecaster, being simplicity itself proved to be the obvious answer, with just the two pickups and a control panel, the bat could be a recognisable guitar. (Being a bit of a tele chap too, helped somewhat in the choice.)

The real problems start to occur when trying to put the whole thing together. This is the point where you realise that the cricket bat is designed as some scant defence against a man 22 yards away intent on GBH with a hard leather projectile, and not an article prepared to give all that up for life as a stringed instrument.

Once the handle is removed, there is a noticeable lack of depth in which to cut a neck pocket. This requires a handmade hardwood heel piece to strengthen the junction between bat and neck. Other handmade pieces are necessary to compensate for the curved face of the bat, and to cover the surround of the neck pickup. The prototype however, worked and led to the registering of the design with the patents office, who were happy to accommodate me. For now there is the telecaster version, more of which you will see through the rest of this site. In the near future I hope to introduce a bass and Les Paul version

Colin Flint

Owner, designer and craftsman of Coverdrive CF