Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by jim on April 2, 2014 at 3:17pm

HI! I concur! 

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 2, 2014 at 4:22pm

Cuz,

You are knot alone. >:-E I see the divide you speak of. I have only built 3 gits, but am just finishing up my second album of original tunes. I look around my man cave, and see 7 CBGs or equivalent instruments, all built by someone else. All of them feature in my tunes. In my admittedly-rough estimation, I'd say there's something like 35% builders, 30% players, and 35% builder-players, with the latter being anywhere along the spectrum between mostly builder-sometime player, to mostly player-occasional builder. I fall in that latter camp. These percentages, if real, strike me as about right for a specialist / hobbyist population. I think the divide, if there is one, comes from the triple nature of this site: the ability to have written back and forth discussions, the majority of which seem to deal with builder's issues, plus the ability to post photos, most of which seem to be of completed builds that people are justifiably proud of, plus the ability to post audio and video, which seem to me to deal primarily with the playing / performance aspect of CBGs. If you look at Top Content, most of the top content is vids documenting the Players. The audio is definitely from the Players, but quickly gets lost, as the video uploads take precedence. The written discussions overwhelmingly fall on the Builder side. Then there are the "where do I buy boxes / parts / the Sprague cousins' music?" queries, followed by the ever-popular-but-relatively-infrequent "How do I play the slide part to Barry Manilow's Copacabana?" requests, which fill in the chinks between the rest of the info-tainment flow on this site. It'd be interesting to see if Dan Sleep and Ben Gitty could pull stats from the website to verify my impressions.

As far as finding who's playing where and what at which festival / bar / bedroom, there appear to me to be plenty of clickable leads on the site, but they are in the sidebars, not right in your face like the Photos, Vids, and Top Content. The Chat function is dominated by builders' back and forth, with weekly forays into mostly-male silliness, and occasional discoveries of unknown YouTube CBG demonstrations of playing talent and skill.

Perhaps what's bugging you, and occasionally nettles me, until I attempt to contribute something useful to a players discussion, is that the Player aspect, which Shane Speal, for example, weekly encourages everyone to "just get out there and play the damned thing, will ya?!!," does not, apparently, take precedence here...but Somebody is buying all those CBGs the builders make, and not all of them are hanging on walls as rustic decoration. They are getting played. It's just that this is relatively new to most folks, even 20 years after Shane started The Revolution, along with a handful of others, in his online woodshed. The rise of CBG festivals across the US, Europe and Australia, indicates that The Movement is growing. Many people are trying to figure out what a major third is, or which finger the slide fits on, and are at the complete beginner stage. But there are also the Justin Johnsons, Shane Speals, Hollowbellies, Chickenbone Johns, Uncle Johns, and the Knotlennys of the movement out there, raising their fists in salute to the Blues. I think it's just that Players are busy out there Playing, and not talking about it as much. ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Patrick Curley on April 2, 2014 at 6:33pm

I'm interested in what you mean by the movement becoming akin to a musical genre.

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on April 2, 2014 at 7:37pm

Well... I'd definitely consider myself as a player/builder - I check out the pics and vids every morning to look at builds and performances respectively. I'm all for the appeal of primal music, but I'm also happy to discuss the technical aspects. I think that the endless forum topics on scarf joints/intonation/etc. do help - the better an instrument plays, surely the more fun you'll have playing it? I think what I'm trying to say is that I think the balance on the site is about right.

That said I think those who only build should be given encouragement to play as well, as it can only improve the quality of the instruments they produce.

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Permalink Reply by Cause the Blue rat on April 3, 2014 at 12:01am

I'm a player first. Then second and third... I built the guitar I have because I wanted to challenge myself musically. I plan on doing that agin with my second build. Right now I have four builds planned. Each one different. A different purpose for each of them. Also really liking the Cuban Tres guitar sound. Might make one of those as well.

The idea of making it better goes right with the idea of folk art. Making the best you can with what you have.

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Permalink Reply by Slowpaw Steve T on April 3, 2014 at 12:05am

i enjoy playing and building the same, i'm 50-50 (-:

 

     

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Permalink Reply by Bad Finger (Eric) on April 3, 2014 at 1:05am

Someone is always trying to split any population into nice neat groups to support a gripe.  If there is a demarcation line, it is at best a very fuzzy gray area with, I believe, most of the population somewhere in the middle.

Any group starts from a few like-minded individuals trying to do the same thing.  Then someone gets the brainy idea to take this cool new thing to the masses and start a revolution.  Before you know it, you are joined by a few people better than you with their own cool ideas mixed with a mass "normal" people just trying it out for the first time and for their own reasons.  Then you get a massive amount of new influence asking all the old questions from 10 years ago again.  And then the OGs lose their patience, throw down their toys and leave.  'Cept to come back and complain.

I fall into Ron's builder/player category having built 17 instruments for myself and a few for selected others.  None the same and none since the second one were done in a haphazard rush.  I still play that second guitar fairly often.  I'm a player second mostly for lack of present skill, but I practice/play nearly every day.  I only started singing a year ago and man, was that bad.  Glad I didn't take that to the street.  Probably could have eaten my share of rotten fruit salad for dinner though.

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Permalink Reply by Uncle John on April 3, 2014 at 1:20am

Good comments.  Slowpaw's made me ponder.   I might be 50/50 or so too,  on enjoying building and playing. 

 There are certainly more builders than performers.   Almost all the builders play some or strum a little and marvel at how good their best builds sound - and feel awed when a good player plays one of their builds.     

Quite a few folks have left.  Some come back and some come and go.   I hear talk of politics and I am never quite sure what is meant.   People get tired of the same faces on the vid page and I am guilty of posting too often.   I TRY to go just once a week, but then I get excited about some new song or idea.   CBGs  and the music gives me a lot to be enthused about. 

CBN activity cycles high and low just as our interest and time.    I would like to see more people be supportive of others.   There are lots of good role models for that.   And I would like to see more kindly stated honesty in comments on builds.   I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings (usually), but I will sometimes say what I think would be improvements on builds.

It is about creativity, whether we are building, playing, performing or writing a song.   Any one of those is good.   And enough.   I feel blessed to be doing all those things.    And I feel blessed to have cbg friends all over the world.  

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Permalink Reply by Muddy Creek Guitars on April 4, 2014 at 12:53pm

We feel blessed by you too, Uncle John!

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Permalink Reply by Craig Mayhem on April 3, 2014 at 2:47am

An easy 'fix' I'd say. Perhaps a 'players' page on the site that isn't just for new players that features sellers, festivals, etc. And make a very specific players forum section. There technically is one now, but we still post about building in it.

I am a player and a builder so I enjoy all the content here, but I can see getting a little lost here if all you want to do is get a hold of a CBG and play it.

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Permalink Reply by Slowpaw Steve T on April 3, 2014 at 3:00am

i think all builders who don't play should play a bit, it would give them a better insight into their building, and all players who let others build should build a little, it would give them a good insight into their playing...but saying that Jim Marshall was a drummer who built amps,  Leo Fender couldn't play but was an excellent builder....do whatever you want and gain valuable insight and knowledge from it (-:

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Permalink Reply by nailtown slim on April 18, 2014 at 11:55pm

Spot on Steve, as a cbg player, I'd make a wonderful cartoon figure, I can't play to save my life, but I give it a go, I'm sort of musically inept really, but as my wife says, 'you enjoy it, so that should be enough for you'!

I love the building aspect though!

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