Bella Ciao!

Posted by Swamp Dawg Primal Music on February 26, 2012 at 4:18pm

I've just gotten the getto gitter bug! I came across these fine contraptions while searching for info on my other new obsession: harmonicas.
I'm a 'mercan living in Northern Italy, play gitter in a punk/metal band. I just made my first Uncle Crow style 3 string with a pine 2.5X5 and beat up old Philly Blunts box I had left over from my bluntin days in NYC, and had in my shop holding nuts and bolts. It's rough lookin, but plays! Now I want to build a nice one, wood box, hardwood neck, etc, but no fancy-pantsy shit, and no frets.
Yup, I want to learn to play delta slide fingerpicked. I already figured out the same first 2 songs from my wasted youth learning 6 strings- FANG's "The Money Will Roll Right In" and The Stooges "Now I Wanna Be Your Dog", without even having the frets marked off!
I can't wait to whip this thang out before concerts in the anarchist squats here!
Now, if I could only find hardwood for the necks here...

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Replies

  • Carlton F May 4, 2012 at 4:57am

    well your on the right site ..obsession ,s got to have them.play a bit of harp my self.carl in ireland

  • Jan Westphal February 27, 2012 at 1:39am

    Welcome from across the Alps! Didn't know there are punk bands in Italy ... :-)

    For wood you might be lucky at small furniture workshops, I got a whole bunch of neck and fretboard blanks cut to measure for very little money, used maple for the necks and oak for the fingerboards - woods that are easily available in Europe.

    • Swamp Dawg Primal Music > Jan Westphal February 27, 2012 at 3:02pm

      There's more punk bands here than you can shake a stick at...

      With the cultural differences, it's tough to figure out where to get stuff sometimes, even Radio-Shak type shit, but I may got a couple of leads. Oddly, I live near the furniture capital of Italy, Lissone, but here it's all prefab crap now, pressed boards, not even real wood... Luckily, there's still some old-skool carpentry shops, if you know where to look. For my first git I used pine, which'll do for a beater, the cardboard cigar box I used is total crap, though, so I'll build myself a nice little pine box and keep this sucker at work to play at lunch.

      My band's page is:

      https://www.facebook.com/rugginehcmilano

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