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  • Timothy Hunter April 19, 2025 at 8:21am

    I have made a few "CBG's" all i need . i check on the site everyday as part of my nightly roiutine. As previously stated quite a few forum posted dropped off the chart because of the failure of the previous forum system . It was difficult to post for casual posters and evenfrequent posters forgot the trick to get your posts to show and didnt bother to retype the post. I know i lost a few replies to posts that way. thi new forum has the dumbest post order ever found on a forum.  

    If i miss a few days and there just happens to be a subject that gets quite a few responces , well i now have to scroll to the bottom of the page and read up the page in exactly the way you do not read a book!  totally unintuitive. 

    for months at a time if Taffy didnt post some interesting things there would have been nothing new on this forum . 

    I will keep an eye on here from time to time but i think my daily viewing will have to stop.

  • Taffy Evans April 19, 2025 at 2:53am

    Hi, I frequent an Australian forum, and see the same thing. A very large membership but only a handful of the same people are contributing. I have seen 18000 views and 3 comments, and 50,000 views and no comments on some of my posts. It's the sign of the times I suppose. At least I know there are at least 50,000 guitar minded people aware of what I do.

    cheers Taff

  • kent robbins April 18, 2025 at 9:59am

     Thank You Kindly to the few who do keep this site alive.                                                                                                                                                                                                                These days, the web and the world at large is flooded with "info", all there to search for.                                                                                                                                                               However, when looking for info on one subject, like CBGs, "found" object instruments, and DYI instruments, a site like the "Nation" has it.                                                                  

    If a picture says a thousand words, I have been able to "see" millions of words in just a couple of weeks.                                                                                                                                Looks like anything I can think of to build has been built, making it easy to "borrow" a few good ideas.                                                                                                                                     Even though it's been said before, i'll say it again.  For me,The big attraction to CBGs and relatives is the creative freedom and willingness to take even the box                                       outside the box to make something that is also worthwhile, and makes music. And not spend a fortune to do so.

    As I'm not looking to be up to speed with all things modern, I have skipped most social media and found the forum format to be enough.                                                                              Example ; I only have a "flip phone" because my wife got a new one and gave me her old one. I still prefer to use 5" x 8" card stock and a pen to any CAD way.                                         Low tech works for me, and at 75 i'm reluctant to change any time soon.  From my perspective, CB nation is a great resource, as is.

    I am considering learning what it takes to post some sound bytes on u-tube.

    kentr

     

  • BrianQ. April 18, 2025 at 1:05am

    Actually there's always been a Facebook link next to the dialogue box here since that group started in 08', which made it easy to share content from this site?Facebook was the first extension outside of this platform, there is an Instagram & TikTok page as well as a CBGITTY page on those sites. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a Reddit page too!  Facebook did wonders for social networking, but not so much for forums because of its awkward page format. Lots of builder's used Facebook as a storefront, that way you don't have to pay to maintain a website, just sign up for free? Those other sites bring new members here on a weekly basis, but sadly pretty much all of them for some reason have chosen not to participate? Which is really the reason for inactivity here? These days it's standard to see something on every web platform out there, one of those bigger picture things from what I understand. It's definitely broadened our audience by the thousands in the last 20 years, so I would say that it worked? 

  • Taffy Evans April 17, 2025 at 5:44pm

    Hi, I did not realise the forum had a Facebook version. That's really spreading the Nation thin. Why? Seems strange to have a Forum site but post info elsewhere.

    Taff

  • BrianQ. April 17, 2025 at 11:23am

    Actually T, the Facebook group will close soon, if you thought there's low activity here, it's no activity over there?

  • T-Gripped April 17, 2025 at 9:57am

    I'm also in agreement with the comments below. I'll add that a lot of activity regarding CBGs has moved to Facebook and various groups there. I truly miss some members of the 'Nation' who no longer post, or who have passed on. 

  • Glenn Kaiser April 13, 2025 at 7:56pm

    I agree w. all who replied so far. I'll add that life brings changes, people move on or upon finding answers to specific questions don't post much. I love checking pics of builds out here and do so on average twice per day but with family, shows, recording and vol. jail/prison work find myself too busy to dig very deeply into forums as I did in my early days here... Also there comes a time for some of us that actually playing 'em and not merely building and dreaming up new ideas or digging for fresh info., is what takes up our time. For some it's mostly hobby of course. For me it's being a working musician and a passion for building, then playing, then often giving cbg's and found-object gits away. I also love to imagine a fresh concept build and it's not rare to see a particular approach here in CBN and incorporate it in something quite different on what I build, just using one small aspect of it for instance. Love to read, and check the pics out daily. But others here offered other solid info. in reply as well. Stay tuned (heh... in both senses :) -Glenn

  • kent robbins March 31, 2025 at 9:06pm

    Hi,

    Some of those groups looked to be a good place to find out specific info, but things do change, and a lot changed in 2020.

     

    I enjoy coming up with ideas for things almost more than doing them. Line drawings, (doodling) helps me get an idea of what might be possible.

    Not just banjos or guitars, nearly anything. Then those rough sketches become the 'blueprints" I've used to build things.

    I didn't see any place here to share some of those I've had for CBGs, but I've had some allready.

    Here's one. While i had not seen the pic of that blue parlor guitar set up for slide steel yet, i was given a genuine tossed out 'First Act" parlor guitar

    and set it up for steel. it had a very sweet sound for what it was. Short scale and tuned to A , dobro style, To combat string tension, I cut a plywood back that included

    a brace for the peghead. That made the guitar easy to hold on lap or a table as well.

    Then when I heard about using dog bowls for resonators, I went out the shop and retrieved a small bowl that was used for washing small parts,

    To use in the first act, it would need to be inverted. It's just a bowl, straight sides, about 3" deep.

    I used a 3 1/2 " piece of 3" PVC pipe, cut the bottom to clear the wood braces, and notched the top so the bowl would be resting on "points" and be

    suspended like a bell. The top,( the upside down bottom,) is right where it is needed to support a bridge. Then a 1/8" ply ring helps to cover the gaping hole.

    It was all just an experiment. now have $10 invested.

    We are both amazed how much sound this now has, and being small, light, and near free, it's fine to take around to places no respectable instrument would go.

    i see that someone has allready built a tri. That's cool, and I was wondering if that could be done.

     

    How about suspending a dog dish from a support ring with small  springs ? Like about 20 or so 1" long springs. Just an idea.

     

    I did a small repair job last week, reset a bridge and refit a small piece of pearl that fell out, and for part payment for work done, I now have a genuine

    homebuilt CigarBoxguitar. 4 string, thru neck, no back angle, box is 6x10x2, has piazo and looks fine, just can't be played until the action is fixed.

    I'll hope to make and add a brace for the neck, but otherwise leave it "as is'. It ws built by the uncle of the man whose guitars I fixed. A fun addition.

    Thanks for your replies, kentr

  • Taffy Evans March 31, 2025 at 6:43pm

    Hi, good question, Kent. I visited a couple of those sites, and on one I had posted in 2016, and there were only 3 posts since that time till now. In another group, no posts have been made since 2018. As Brian says, people's interests change. I'm not interested in searching all over the place for posts, if they do not land here, I don't see them. It may be a busier place if there were not so many different groups, and most posts related to building appeared in the same Forum, just saying.  For instance, a post about a solid body guitar would still be newsworthy to a CBG builder, but they miss out.

    Cheers taff

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