Chance

Male

Sedalia, MO

United States

Profile Information:

How did you learn about Cigar Box Nation?
Websearches for CBG's
How many instruments have you built so far?
50
What do you find most interesting about cigar box guitars? (If you do not enter something meaningful here (at least one sentence long), your membership may be rejected as a spam/bot fake account).
The rawness of it all. Take a pile of things(junk), put them together and make an instrument. I am totally obsessed with building and playing these crude machines.

Comment Wall:

  • Doug Thorsvik

    Your comments about building a guitar that’s suitable for play left or right handed are intriguing and interesting! Do you have any examples? I noticed you have not posted any pictures.

  • Doug Thorsvik

    I appreciate your detailed comments. Sorry I am so slow in replying. You have thought through the challenges of making CBG switchable between lefty and righty. My builds are simpler as I typically don’t put a piezo pickup in a guitar unless someone wants one and I don’t fool around with controls since they are available on the amp. With my current bolt-on neck style the orientation is decided at the assembly point. I simply put the position markers (in my case letters) on the other side of the neck and use the appropriate intonated bridge. The way I drill the holes in the box, you could easily take the guitar apart and reassemble it with the box in the desired orientation. You would need a new bridge though. I typically build lefties for me and righties for everyone else. I like testing new ideas first, so I end up with too many lefties on hand many of which I eventually part out later. That’s the fun of building.

    Have a happy new year!

  • Doug Thorsvik

    I occasionally play my old lefties, but favor my most recent ones. I just don’t run into that many lefties to give them to.

    I recognize all those influences on your building practices. I got started with a DVD by Bill Jehle and then found the yahoo group which transitioned to Cigar Box Nation. I have read widely and experimented over the years. John Nickel’s playing convinced me I need to try 3-strings which sent me through a new round of experimentation. I eventually went even simpler with 2-string chuggers. Mt latest bolt-on neck design is the result of a rabbit trail triggered by my 3 (at the time) year old grand daughter. I ended up redesigning the 3D printed Banjo Ukulele by Andreas Bastian which ultimately led to my current bolt-on neck. You just never know where and when inspiration will strike.

    it’s a new year, who knows what’s next. I’m always trying out new ideas.