Blogs

Here's a tip I thought I would share. I actually discovered this by accident on my first build. It's just an old piece of gutter guard I found laying around. I thought it might make cool looking sound hole covers. So, I cut it to size, lined it up with the sound holes & used little screws & nuts to attach them to the inside of the lid. Mission accomplished. To my surprise there was an unintended result. They resonate like crazy, but in a good way. It actually gives an accoustic CBG a kind of electric tone with super sustain. I took my first CBG to work shortly after I built it. It is completely accoustic. I started playing it & one of the guys said, "Where's the amp? Is it in the guitar?" He was surprised to find out it was just my little sound hole resonators. Anyway, as you can see I've incorporated this into several builds & it always sounds awesome. They also come in a bunch of different colors & one piece can do at least 10 guitars, if not way more. I hope someone finds this helpful.

I want to apologize to all my friends here at the nation. I am really behind watching all the great videos and commenting. My work place blocked you tube and things have been really hectic I was in training all last week for new dispatch software. I promise I am trying to get caught up. I really enjoy all the posts on here 

SO wrer at the dog training club and theres 4 pheasant out there.

2 guitars traded for birds for Bentley ,what a dog ,quarters thrugh the field.

Finds and flushes,steady to wing and shot. Marks the dowened birdwith intensity.

Icall his name and like a shot he is off and the retrieve is a beautiful thing to see. 

Later at home in my shop an idea forms and I think how someone is going to get lucky.

Day cound't be  better.

Hi all,

This is my first blog (ever) and 3rd CBG type build, so I thought I would share the ride with those who might be interested.

Technically it is a 3 string hollow body guitar as no cigar box's will be harmed during the build.

Scale will be a  fretted 24.75"

neck will have a truss rod adjustable at the heal end

Body and neck stock is Victorian mountain ash and spotted gum

and is based on a design I saw on the web

I'm lucky because I have 3d cad skills and a small cnc router to help make components

and unlucky because I cant play guitar for S#?t, but I like to build stringed instruments so what are you going to do?

A couple of pics of the design elements

I am fairly progressed with the build, body and neck are cut

will post more pics in the coming days to bring the build up to date

G.

Meet my newest creation: #9 - "Die fesche Wienerin" - a double cake box four string guitar.

I had these two plywood cake boxes from Vienna lying around and couldn't resist turning them into an instrument... One was slightly smaller than the other (but exactly the same height) and individually they were too small for a full-scale guitar. But then I had the idea to combine them and make one guitar body out of two cake boxes... The boxes were a real pain to work with, because they're made from cheap and very flimsy plywood and they were not at all square. But eventually I managed to join them. I had to seriously X-brace the top, so it would be strong enough to withstand the pressure of four strings and to reinforce the joint of the two lids. The neck is made of mahogany. Since I don't own any power tools (with the exception of a drill) it's truly hand made: shaped with nothing but a handsaw, a rasp, a file, a little block plain, and loads of sandpaper.

The neck is finished with four or five coats of boiled linseed oil and buffed with beeswax. The body is finished with a few thin coats of spray lacquer. The side dots are made from Q-tips.

24.5" scale length, 15 frets, ball end nylon strings (the middle four from a standard six string pack).

I named her "Die fesche Wienerin" (something like "the snappy/jaunty/attractive Viennese").

Good morning all, I have started working on my next 3 string guitar and I have decided on a fretless neck, the last fretless neck I constructed I scorched the fret markers with a hot wire but found the scorch marks spread into the grain making the finished article look a bit untidy. Has any other members got any ideas they would like to share on method and materials used.  Cheers Phil

Planning my next cbg project any cool design ideas out there, do springs make a difference inside the box, art work, embellishments etc etc. Cheers and keep chugging.

Hello all, my name is Freddie Cisneros, I'm a musician originally from Texas now living in Prescott, Arizona.

I have been repairing guitars and other music instruments for many years. I'm a service center for Martin Guitar, Fender, and other companies out here in the West.

Don "Boz" Bostwick and I shared a Fox-Hole in Viet Nam. We had a lot of adventures back then, he was an inspiration to me.  

Moderator, I hope this is the proper place to poest this, please advise. Thanks Freddie  

I started my musical exploration on bass back in my late teens. A buddy of mine was learning guitar and needed someone to play bass for him. "It's so easy," he said, "there's only 4 strings and all you do is play one note." Well, needless to say, I quickly found out bass playing is significantly more complicated than that. After playing bass for a bit, I tried out a guitar. Guitar led to synthesizer, and synth led to drums. Somewhere along the way I picked up a mandolin, a harmonica, a dulcimer, and a few other miscellaneous things just for fun. I played in several bands ranging from folk to metal. I had seen CBGs but just never really got into them.

Despite this, I started modifying my guitars and basses. First it was just replacing pickups, then capacitors, then tuners/bridges, some light routing, and so on. Eventually I made a couple guitars from parts and really got addicted to building things. Learning to solder and modify the electronic circuits in guitars led me to build my own effects pedals and then I started building some simple electronic instruments. I also started modifying amps.

My interest in synthesizers and effects led me to the music DIY community. There are a ton of folks out there making electronic instruments in their garage. Through this similar but different subculture, I somehow stumbled onto the CBG community. I absolutely loved the concept. It brought together two things I love, instruments and building stuff. Not sure where to begin with this new hobby, I started searching the Internet for CBG events. I found this CBN and consequently learned about the St Louis Cigar Box Guitar Festival, which was only a few weeks away at the time.

I attended this festival in 2018 and learned a lot. I even got to talk to CBG guru Justin Johnson. They had a DIY booth and was planning to make my own CBG at the festival. However, I started playing some of the ones in the parking lot and fell in love with a 3 string fretless creation from Smokey Joe in Jerseyville, IL. Needless to say, it came home with me. Since then I've been pickin' and grinnin' as they say. As much as I like the traditional twangy stuff... I am kind of unconventional, so I've done some stuff like processing it through multiple effects, integrating with drum machines, and I even posted a video of me combining CBG and modular synthesizer.

Don't get me wrong, I still like to sit back with a CBG and harmonica for some down home front porch entertainment. Now that I've got some of the basics, my next step is to build my own. Somehow, I have a feeling this may be happening soon. :-)

o I get a call from a friend at my dog training club. Seems I left one of my cbgs there {I had m 81yo artist friend paint it with a setter on point and a quail on it} . I was offered a pheasant hunt in exchange for the guitar.

Now mama didn' raise no fool. I accepted. So sometimes the cbg gods smile you in different ways. I think I mite just leave another one there,by mistake of course.

what a time it is to be 69 and still in the shop.Building ceegar box getuars. as my friend says .itell him yeah its almost like being a part of something you are going to bring joy , into the world. Some where or place after my generation is gone there will still be someone still playing that old cbg. 

At long last I've put out a CD!! Launched during my mini Euro tour of the Low Countries with Hollowbelly, at the Ouwehoer Cafe in Rotterdam.

https://www.chickenbonejohn.com/products/chickenbonejohn-cd

Just finished CBB#9. The maple came from arms off a discarded recliner, and the walnut from a discarded awards wall plaque. The fretboard was made from ziricote from eBay.

Hey guys Check this out, It's a 1920's Red Top Grease Can Banjo

Look at the details on this really cool instrument, this is homemade twang!

There is even grafite pencil marks to mark out the frets on the neck, the builder even had to modify the markings afterwards.

This is so cool, this is a great piece of history! If you would like to learn more about antique homemade instruments made from tin can and cigar boxes...visit the website https://reddogguitars.com

Did you like how I did that Red alert about a Red can banjo and then I said to visit the Red dog website?

Does that make me a wordsmith????...Ok I promise I won't share my comedy career with you guys...I'll slink away now.....Ha Ha! 

Check out these details on this awesome find!

So last week, my wife bought a new chopping board which made the current wooden one redundant. so, Hell, I thought, there must be a way to turn this into something, and today, here it is:

4 string, fretted, the bridge is a motorcycle wheel spoke which locates over the rod piezo pickup. On the back I have used a small cigar box to hide the wiring and locate the jack output. The sound is fairly dead, like an electric guitar, but plugged in, it is WOW!

I had a fantastic time at Capt'n Catfish's CBG festival in Pleutersbach this weekend (see here)

It was amazing to see how lively the scene in Germany is, and how many people enjoy CBGs and the music played therewith.

Woodstock? Wacken?

... Pleutersbach!

Thumbs up to Capt'n Catfish!

re-built on old frame of the bench

I'm currently  building kannel/kantele. It is an ancient instrument in the region I live. I used 2x4 spruce. Longest side is around 50 cm and other side is approx 40 cm.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannel_(instrument)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kantele

My wife asked me Saturday what I was printing from the computer.

Me:

"F-holes!"

Her:

"Quit being crude and talking like that in front of the children."