Just wanted to post to say hello to all the cigar box guitarists and builders, from here in England!

I played drums for many years, originally inspired to play by "The Figure"-drummer for the legendary blues band "Dr Feelgood".

I got interested in diddley bows about 6 months ago after seeing youtube videos of Moses Williams and Lonnie Pitchford, and thought to myself I like that I must have a go. I started off with 2 tin cans, a plank and some untuned wire fixed down with nails and screws. I have tried out piezo pickups as well, and tried (unsuccessfully up to now) to wind my own pickups. I have had best success so far making coil pickups from the recycled wall warts (adapters). I intend to try building a flat pup pickup too. At the moment I am learning how to play 2 string, tuned to the same note. I think of it as an upgraded 1 string, with 1 bass string and 1 treble string. Naturally my drumming experience comes in handy in attempting to set up intersting grooves. I think of the bass string as a bass drum, the treble string as a snare, something like that....The blues style that appeals most to me is that Mississippi hill country sound, R Belfour, Rev K M Williams, R L Burnside (I first heard Burnsides music over 20 years ago, along with N Stricklands fife and drum, but didnt "get" the non western standard 12 bar pattern....) Kenny Brown, J Kimborough, Jack Owens (Jacks sound is deep..) What stands out for me is the quality of the overall groove they achieve, less is more...I have never been impressed by technical show off guitarists (in fact that put me off "guitars" for a long time)

Here is links to 2 youtube videos that give an idea of what I have been up to

https://youtu.be/vuW-_bnkPww

https://youtu.be/Vt54GRoSCRs

Cheers, Jonathan