Comment

Comment by Bad Finger (Eric) on October 21, 2012 at 11:14am

Sen cannot be taugh or explained. One can only be pointed in the direction. But, as the Masters say, don't mistake the pointing finger for "it.".

If you are having fun and achieving your plan, you're probably finding your "it."

:)

Comment by frank tennyson on October 21, 2012 at 4:07am

So, it is best to have a good enough plan to not totally mess up but to alwas haqve something you want to experiment with. Never get satisfied. YOur plans can be precice and OCD as long as you are in the ZEN and trying to coax out that next layer of "that" sound you are after.

Is that close to being it?

Comment by Ron "Oily" Sprague on October 21, 2012 at 3:27am

Frank,

Sure, planning will help, if you want to get that 12th fret note to sound precisely an octave higher than the open note. Go slow, take care, measure twice, cut once, use quality tools and materials, all that.

It's funny, I came at this from a different direction. I been playing commercially-produced gits for over 35 years, increasing my guitarsenal in both quantity and quality as finances allowed (mostly - there's still that custom Taylor I wanna have built). But I've gotten over the playing / singing /songwriting creativity plateau by attempting to build and play these simple, relatively cheap contraptions. Early on, I started exploring open and weird tunings, but backed off for over 30 years because I wanted to learn the "right" way on a 6-string in standard tuning. And now, there's not a tuning I won't at least try a couple times - but only on a 3- or 4-banger. And my finger picking and slide playing have gotten measurably better. I can suss out chord shapes and intricate runs faster. All of which has improved my 6-string playing, too.

I get where Eric is coming from, though: awesome comes from multiple directions, and you gotta be open to what the Universe is trying to tell you. Work with it. It will reward you - just maybe not in ways you expect. There's also a lot to be said for Shane Speal's dictum of "Get outta the woodshed, and just play the damn thing!"

The two (or is it three?) go hand in hand. So to speak.

Comment by Bad Finger (Eric) on October 20, 2012 at 2:27pm

Let it BE! 

The minute you let go of your Zen it's the minute you make progress in building plain old peanut butter instruments like any average schmuck. If that it's your goal, them, by all means, carry on. 

Look not upon your took catalog with envy.  It is a deceitful and disrespectful distraction.

Who am I kidding? Who doesn't like tool porn? Just dont let it get in the way of awesome.

Comment by frank tennyson on October 20, 2012 at 9:51am

Oily, It is so obsessive I may bankrupt my family :-).  Most builders just build. We develop organically. We build with ideas and crude plans and often measurements, and "learn from mistakes". Could better overall understanding of what we really want the outcome to be provide a better preplan of what we need to do up front so we do not make as many mistakes to begin with?

Hard to illustrate. A friend told me he likes sharp clear notes. The build I was thinking of doing for him would have probably produced a more gruny resonator jazinator sound. Fortunately I recognized this. But When I built I did not necessariay build to produce sharp clear notes  -  I simply do not know how, so I avoided building to produce resonating reverberating notes. l at least had an idea of what I wanted the sound to be like when I finished and planned the structure of the build accordingly.

Should  we plan with a total package in mind - or just a bunch of neat things we want to incorporate that may or my not fit together into a neat polished final product? How many builders do this commercially and have set plans that have been tested and proven, and set in stone  -  and how many still build somewhat organicall?

You told  a big truth. I am a minority. I am a builder [learning to play - not there yet]. Most people on CBN are players who also do builds. There seems to be a difference in mindset between players who build and builders who play  - any comments?

Also, necessity changes as financial ability changes. If I have the funds I am going to buy that "stuff" I have been eyeballing be it tools, materials, supplies, books, videos, or classes. I will strive to produce a better product and to possess a better product. I will outgrow the plain hammered together stick and box and bailing wirre contraption. I will get real strings. real tuners. real fretboaaard, real bridge, real this real that, and finally a store bought instrument as my finances allows. Whats the parallel to this in the CBG builder's world?

Comment by Ron "Oily" Sprague on October 20, 2012 at 8:22am

Many builders just build. Some build sequentially, fixing mistakes one or two by one as they continue building. Most builders are secretly jealous of other builders that appear to "effortlessly" produce beautiful -looking and sounding gits. There is actually a lot of effort involved, much of it developed through "experience" (directed trial-and-error, and repetition), some of it through precision, some of it through happy artistic "mistakes." Many builders have forgotten that it really is and was the marriage of a stick and a box, driven by economic necessity, that resulted in the Cigar Box Guitar. Many builders have also forgotten that, given the first chance, any of the old bluesmen would happily ditch their homemade instruments for commercially-produced and controlled instruments.

There is a need for builders to express their creativity. Some do it by going so far beyond a stick and a box, that they can legitimately be called master luthiers. There are those of us who are better players than builders. As in every hobby and profession, there are exceptions, who do both well.

Where I'm going with this, I guess, is to say, don't stop trying to improve, sure: study, learn, build, play. Virtually none of us will ever be Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, or B.B. King. Virtually none of us will be Leo Fender, Bo Diddley, or Les Paul. Do what you do the best that you can do, and gracefully accept that while some (many?) people will do "it" better than you, nobody will do it exactly like you. Like St. Paul, learn to rejoice in your imperfections.

If you feel you need to plan, go ahead. Most businesses, military organizations, etc, do. The smarter ones recognize that once the plan is in place, sometimes you just have to go with what you got, leap off the bridge, embrace uncertainty, live reasonably happily in the lidst of chaos, accept the risk of failure in the pursuit of reward. The beauty of attempting to build and play CBGs is that it is highly unlikely that you'll actually die trying, or bankrupt your family, corporation, or country.

Except maybe in terms of your pride or self esteem. >:-E