Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by KOOL DOG HOOCH on June 29, 2019 at 1:10pm

Nice looking firewood! You do awesome work!

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Permalink Reply by Blind Doughboy on June 30, 2019 at 6:44am

Great work!

Oak is highly underrated as a tone wood, as are ash and birch. I sometimes like to get conspiracy minded and decide that the only reason such cheaper woods are given lesser status in the guitar world is because the profit margin is low.

Why spend $30 on oak, when you can spend $650 on Bolivian Rosewood?

Just curious, do you use a bending iron for your sides, or do you have a Fox-style bender?

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Permalink Reply by Wal Callaby on June 30, 2019 at 9:20am

For all those UK builders out there, I’ve found a great source of PAR 2mm oak at a good width for cbgs. Either ask me for details, or you could google 2mm hardwood, like I did...

My ash tonewood supplier I’m keeping quiet about.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on June 29, 2019 at 7:27pm

Thanks for that Will.

Hi yet again. It was a good start to this thread and a good subject too.
I’m thinking that saying “we build guitars” is a bit limiting in describing what a lot of members do build and what they build out of.
Other stringed instrument families have their different size members, starting from whatever they call the smallest up to the biggest in the line-up, normally a Bass or baritone. But more often than not they have the same shape and built from the same or similar materials. So one name fits all.
Even using the word [tongue in cheek] “firewood” does not tell the whole story, because after taking the photo below I realised that not all of the instruments pictured are firewood candidates. Not if you know what you are burning anyway.
I think I have covered a fair selection of the range stringed instruments here, and for want of better descriptions they apparently fall under the umbrella of, folk, manmade, found, dumpster, recycled, reused, reclaimed etc, etc. And……Cigar Box Guitars, well only two in this photo do.
Left to right in the photo.
Front row, Bass bread board, Lap steel violin case, Banjo fencing, x2, 3 string fencing, 6 string acoustic solid tonewood.
2nd row. Bass shovel, Diddly Bow tea box, Violin antique tin, Stick Dulcimer solid tonewood, Hooray! A 3 string CBG, Uke fence/ply, Violin Solid body Osage Orange.
Back Row. Large dogbowl Resonator style Fence and Plywood, Hooray! Cigar Box Guitar 6 string electric.
I’m not into labels anyway, just build the bloody things I say. Ha Ha.
Taff

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Permalink Reply by KOOL DOG HOOCH on June 29, 2019 at 8:21pm

Damn!! Dude, killer job! Wow, I don't know what to say because I'm awe struck. Great sign and the "Gitty's" too.LOL Seriously though awesome job on that lineup. Kind of set the bar a little high for us newbies to reach for. Hell of a job on everyone of them. Tell me, what do you do in your spare time?

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Permalink Reply by Wal Callaby on June 29, 2019 at 9:32pm

I can only echo Will’s “killer job!” comment. Nice effect lent to the front row by the (near vertical?) N Qld sun too. However- and don’t feel that this is in any way belittling your fine fine work- they’re all guitars in one form or another- with the possible exceptions of the dulcimer and the violin. The sign is a giveaway too- Evans Guitars. Except that you don’t just build them, you breathe life into them.

You haven’t copywrited those sound holes by any chance, have you? I wouldn’t dare try them on anything but poplar plywood as all I have to work with is a craft knife, but there are some nice ideas there. 

The attached lineup is a poor show by comparison (and has already appeared once in Pics, last week)- front row, l-r: lpg with toasterbucker, (almost entirely obscured by) plywood diddley-bo (my own soundhole), long-scale one-string bass (for recording), nylon-strung lpg, cedar topped box with my first ever neck-and-fretboard combination. Back row: wine box guitar (wbg) with single-pole pup, and my old Overseas acoustic. Three more gits- an acoustic, a wbg with wickedbucker and a solid oak topped long body, also with wickedbucker, are within arm’s length of where I was sat. Virtually none of those ten are for sale, which is why I’m tearing down a derelict garage to build a workshop. As I say, poor show by comparison, but every build shows me another thing I shouldn’t be doing!

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Permalink Reply by KOOL DOG HOOCH on June 29, 2019 at 10:07pm

"every build shows me another thing I shouldn’t be doing!" For sure! My first build is showing me, "leave this shit alone! You can screw up a bowling ball with a wet news paper!" But Nooo! I just keep plugging away at it. Who knows, maybe I'll make something playable. Don't know why you are downplaying your work, the One thing that counts in "all" of our(homemade guitar builders) it's a work of love! (In my case I may seek a divorce) It may not be perfect, but we made it with our own hands. You also have a great looking selection there! Is that a beer can on the floor for size comparison?LOL

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Permalink Reply by Wal Callaby on June 29, 2019 at 11:46pm

Not a beer can but a very well-chewed dog bone. Sadly our border terrier has such powerful jaws that anything suitable for a bone slide he just chews up and eats...

”My first build...”- most of my first ten have been broken down for parts; I was up to twenty before I had built anything I cared to give to family or friends (well, #19 got retrofitted and given to a good mate for his 60th birthday, but it’s otherwise the case). Even now I’m still making mistakes, but they’re mostly playable... Case in point- I’m on holiday this week, just me and my son, in the pretty little fishing town of Whitby (look it up). As I don’t watch tv, I’ve bought no fewer than four of my creations with me to fool around with and to record stuff on GarageBand. From l-r: my current go-to acoustic (until I build something better), the one-string bass again, the diddley-bow again, and my recording electric wbg. Spot the absolute kludge under the flat-wound humbucker- that was the third pup I’d tried in that, and the first two needed bigger holes. The sound holes on the bass seemed like a good idea on paper... I had already built thirty-odd before I made those fork-ups. I’m not a trained woodworker by any means- self taught, with hand tools- but I’m happier building and playing these than at any time in my life, and no longer have any fear of being bored when I retire (I’m 61).

Keep building, and learning. Before too long you’ll come up with something that will make CBN collectively go ‘wow’.

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Permalink Reply by Timothy Hunter on June 30, 2019 at 12:12am

ahh Whitby, the home of Cpt James Cook..  i think he had something to do with QLD...lol  

@ Taff, north QLD  for some reason i thought you were in Tassie.. no idea where i got that from. as the others have said beautiful work... made any 12 strings??

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Permalink Reply by Wal Callaby on June 30, 2019 at 12:46am

 Dave Lynas is the Taswegian among us, I believe. And never mind Cap’n Cook, there’s some damn’ fine craft beer to be had in Whitby!

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on June 30, 2019 at 12:10pm

Hi  Will, what do I do in my spare time? you ask.....its all in the photo.

Tim, do I build twelve strings, you asked. Well yes I do here's a photo of the last one.......

Thanks for the nice comments folks, and don't sell yourselves short, any instrument you build is worthy of praise. Especially when one can appreciate the time, effort, research and frustrations that go into early builds, and later builds for that matter. Taff

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Permalink Reply by Timothy Hunter on July 2, 2019 at 2:24am

that is beautiful Taff.  love the gecko inlay.  if i ever get enough money together i may need to commission a 12 string from you..

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