Thomas Blasque

Hi Thomas, wish I had plans to send you but I don't. Each one of my builds has been just sort of build as I go. The bass was just a small box I had given to me by a friend and a neck made from an old broom handle, the single string was given to me by a friend who plays bass and they told me to tune it to E. I fretted it and a couple of single string canjos I made using the Stewart MacDonald fret calculator for the measurements and I normally use the Low Open G Blues Blaster strings from C.B.Gitty http://www.cbgitty.com/cigar-box-guitar-parts/12-pack-acoustic-med-... I have strung a couple of canjos with stainless steel aircraft safety wire, available from Aircraft Spruce http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/appages/safetywire.php?clickk... in .020, .025, .032, .041 & .051

http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator It's easy to use and I just used electrical tie-wraps around the round necks. The advantage with that is if the notes are slightly off you can slide the tie-wraps on the neck.

As a retired aerospace machinist and FAA A&P mechanic I have seen enough plans, design sketches and blue prints to last several lifetimes. When i found this hobby I decided that all my builds would be done as they went along, no drawings or real "engineering" involved. I have built some of the simple canjos and such in a just few hours and have others that have been spread over a month or more while I wait for the box to tell me what it wants to become. Every build has it's own voice and personality. All I do is try to keep it simple and let it happen.

As an old friend involved in restoring old military trucks used to say. "You can make it as complicated as you want". I am at the point in my life that I wish to keep things simple. I will look at pictures of other folks build and get inspired and sometimes I just lay the cigar box and stick in the patio table and see what it tells me.Some may say let me be pretty, some may say just build it rough like they did back in the beginning, some will come from a suggestion from a friend with an off the wall idea. Don't try to get to set in your build ideas unless you wish to build them for sale and want to have a cookie cutter design and make a lot of the same thing. My past experience is once you take something you are doing for fun and try and make a business out of it it becomes work and I'm retired so work doesn't appeal to me.

Good luck with what you build. Duck

Comments

Wichita Sam August 1, 2014 at 10:33pm

glad to be your friend. let me know if I can do anything for you. the best, Wichita Sam
Thomas "Duck" Petry July 31, 2014 at 2:03am

Hi Thomas, wish I had plans to send you but I don't. Each one of my builds has been just sort of build as I go. The bass was just a small box I had given to me by a friend and a neck made from an old broom handle, the single string was given to me by a friend who plays bass and they told me to tune it to E. I fretted it and a couple of single string canjos I made using the Stewart MacDonald fret calculator for the measurements and I normally use the Low Open G Blues Blaster strings from C.B.Gitty http://www.cbgitty.com/cigar-box-guitar-parts/12-pack-acoustic-med-... I have strung a couple of canjos with stainless steel aircraft safety wire, available from Aircraft Spruce http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/appages/safetywire.php?clickk... in .020, .025, .032, .041 & .051

http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator It's easy to use and I just used electrical tie-wraps around the round necks. The advantage with that is if the notes are slightly off you can slide the tie-wraps on the neck.

As a retired aerospace machinist and FAA A&P mechanic I have seen enough plans, design sketches and blue prints to last several lifetimes. When i found this hobby I decided that all my builds would be done as they went along, no drawings or real "engineering" involved. I have built some of the simple canjos and such in a just few hours and have others that have been spread over a month or more while I wait for the box to tell me what it wants to become. Every build has it's own voice and personality. All I do is try to keep it simple and let it happen.

As an old friend involved in restoring old military trucks used to say. "You can make it as complicated as you want". I am at the point in my life that I wish to keep things simple. I will look at pictures of other folks build and get inspired and sometimes I just lay the cigar box and stick in the patio table and see what it tells me.Some may say let me be pretty, some may say just build it rough like they did back in the beginning, some will come from a suggestion from a friend with an off the wall idea. Don't try to get to set in your build ideas unless you wish to build them for sale and want to have a cookie cutter design and make a lot of the same thing. My past experience is once you take something you are doing for fun and try and make a business out of it it becomes work and I'm retired so work doesn't appeal to me.

Good luck with what you build. Duck
Thomas "Duck" Petry July 30, 2014 at 6:38pm

Hi Thomas, not really very good on tech support. I just build for fun and have stayed with fretless builds of 1, 2 & 3 string style. I'm an old retired guy that doesn't care to use the phone but if you have any questions send me a message and I'll try and give you my best shot. Remember the first rule of building these things, "there are no rules". Have fun, experiment and check the various groups and forums here. Lots of good information shared here from the simplest builds like those in the free plans up to as fancy as your mind can make one.

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Thomas Blasque

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