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Hi, mates!

Up here you find my shovel guitar plan. It's in Italian, 'cause I think there are some Italians who would like to build one, but can't understand english language plans very well... Enjoy!

Ciao!

Qui sopra trovate il mio progetto di costruzione di una shovel guitar. E' in italiano, così tutti coloro che volessero costruirsela, ma non sono molto abili con l'inglese, hanno una risorsa in italiano... Spero possa essere utile. Buon divertimento!

Walt

Note:  A big grazie you to Walt for writing and posting these plans!  We've edited his original post to include the top photo and the pdf download button.  

Ciao!

Shane Speal

I know this has been driving everyone crazy, and I see there are lots who have not caught on yet, so here is how to do it?

This is #146 guitar, a 23" scale lap steel tuned to C6 that I just finished today.  The walnut is from a cabin that was built here in Eureka Springs around 1880 and the back is from a hardwood headboard that came out of a local roadside motel that was built in the 50's.  I wanted to try an Art Deco style, I like how it turned out and have a couple more similar to this on the bench, the next one will be 25" scale.

During this pandemic that's got us all locked in our houses, the music world has lost three great performers. As someone who was influenced by all three of these amazing musicians, I feel like its my duty to write this blog entry.

First of all, the world lost country music superstar Kenny Rogers on March 20th. Born in Houston, Rogers started his music career in the late 1950s. His first band was called The Scholars. He went on to play in the jazz band for musician Bobby Doyle. In the 1960's Rogers played bass for a folk group called The New Christy Minstrels. A few members of this group broke off and formed The First Edition in 1967. They gave us the popular tunes Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Is In) and Ruby (Don't Take Your Love to Town). The First Edition broke up in the mid-70s and Rogers started his solo career. He would go on to work with Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, Sheena Easton, and many more. Rogers' musical achievements are too numerous to list. He has won several Grammy Awards, Country Music Awards, and American Music Awards along with being inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Texas Music Hall of Fame. I posted a tribute to Kenny Rogers on my CBN page shortly after I heard the bad news.

Second, Bill Withers left a lot of fans behind on March 30th. Like Rogers, Withers was born in 1938, but he hailed from West Virginia. While serving in the US Navy, Withers discovered he had an interest in singing and playing guitar. After he got out of the service, Withers went to work for the Douglas Aircraft Corporation in California. The cover of his first album, Just As I Am, was a picture of Withers at work, carrying his actual lunchbox. Songs like Ain't No Sunshine, Use Me, Grandma's Hands, Lean on Me, Lovely Day, and Just the Two of Us will be known by many future generations. Withers songwriting was so simple and elegant. It will stand the test of time. During his musical career, Withers won 3 Grammy Awards and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. I remember the first time I heard a Bill Withers tune, I was mesmerized. I still feel that way when I hear his music. I opened my Cally Fest 2020 set with a cover of Ain't No Sunshine.

This past Tuesday, the great singer/songwriter John Prine passed away. Prine was born in Illinois shortly after the end of World War II. He had an interest in folk music and learned to play guitar when he was 14. Prine did a short stint in the US Army, then moved to Chicago where he worked as a mailman. He participated in the Chicago folk revival and was discovered by Kris Kristofferson. Prine's debut self-titled album was released in 1971 and it launched his music career. Over the next 47 years, he'd release 17 more studio albums. After overcoming cancer in his neck during the late 1990s, Prine's voice became deeper and more gravelly, but it didn't stop him from singing. In 2013, he beat lung cancer and despite a prominent shortness of breath... he refused to stop singing. Bob Dylan once said of Prine's music, "Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs... Nobody but Prine could write like that." I don't think anyone could've said it better. Prine's accolades include 2 Grammy Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Award. Since I've not yet covered a John Prine song, I'll add a video of Reina Del Cid covering Illegal Smile.

I hate to leave everyone with a heavy note headed into the holiday weekend, but I do think its important to remember these great individuals' contributions to music - the passion that drives us all. This weekend, take a moment to remember these three talented individuals - and all the others who have gone before us. Sit down, close your eyes, and think of them. Listen to a song or two and just remember. It may bring a tear to your eye, but you'll feel better afterwards. Trust me.

Something to knock the edge off. I know it’s been hard having to shelter in place & at the same time, trying to find joy in such a serious time. So here it is, knock yourself out... 

Hey everyone I am contemplating the idea of another virtual fest maybe in August or Sept in good ole Granby MO. Let me know what everyone thinks. I would like for Dave to contribute his art work again.

How I Wind Low and Medium-Z Pickups On the Cheap

CAUTION: I do not wish to pretend I know what I am doing. But this is what I am doing...

You can hear them on my videos.

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What NOT to do:

Let's get this out of the way. Do NOT do this.

 Make sure your desk is clean and free of metal shavings or STEEL WOOL. I learned of this hazard from a video done by Dylan of Dylantalkstone.com. As I watched that, it occurred to me that I had just finished taking pictures of winding a pickup, with steel wool in the background. THANKS Dylan. He pointed out what should have been obvious to me. This pickup is still alive now, but I can't help but think of Schrodinger's cat when I play this pickup's guitar...

The Project

I wanted to approach this experiment as I thought someone who had nearly nothing but a few tools and junk to work with. Being a somewhat poor boy myself, I had to compromise on a few things. I wanted to attempt to not only build my first pickup with a cobbled together winder, but do it as cheaply as I could. Better still would be to build the first one with things I had already at the house. I also wanted to do this as primitively, within reason, as I could.

Behold! The Winding Platform!

 First off, I built a platform that I could clamp to a larger surface, such as a table or bench. I had this scrap wood and a little MDF and did some gluein' and screwin' it together. I took a manual hand drill I had laying aand just nailed and screwed the drill to the platform with a metal strap and some old screws I had laying around. I used a half-dull ten-year old Stanley miter saw in the spirit of things. I then assembled it using more old screws and glue. never intended this thing to make more than one pickup. I'm a bit of an amature blues history buff and I kinda wanted to simulate what an old sharecropper/bluesman that had an unexpected pickup failure at a house party might do. Deal with what he had. That was the whole point of this exercise. To see if it was an exercise in futility for me, or if I could make it work. I guess corporate America calls it "feasability study". I call it fun. After probably two-dozen pickups, including single-pole diddley bow pups and odd-ball configurations. Almost all of them made noise. And I learned. Boy howdy! Did I learn.

 A word of caution here. I have seen several people online that use a rechargeable screwdriver or drill motor for winding. I have often wondered how many got halfway through and the drill motor died. Sounds like an aggravation I don't need. Murphy seems to find me too often.

I had an old empty teflon spool laying around and drafted into service for spooling up the wire. I cut a small piece of scrap wood into a square so it would fit in the hole tightly and drilled a small hole through the center and press fit it. That's where the spindle goes. I built a few different forks to hold the spindle and the wire spool before I settled for one.

Winding It All Up

 As you can see above, the nuts/poles are stuck to  the computer hard drive magnet which is stuck to the winder. I sometimes use earthquake putty to help hold it in place while winding..I usually lead off with about six inches of wire and tape it to the top of the pickup. I then wrap the core four or five times by hand. I check that everything is tight, straight and free of "FOD" Foreign Object Damage and start winding. I then wind until I run out of wire on the spool. I then tape about six inches of that end to the bottom of  the pickup until I am ready to start the soldering. The pictures at the end of this builder's log will show ways of attaching the leads. I have yet to settle on one method as they all have their own unique value and their own limitations and difficulties. If I find one "better" way, I'll post at a later date.

Pickup

My last pickup build was 800 winds of 34 gauge wire from a large 12v Wall wart. I got just under 100 ohms resistance from that. Took me about 20 minutes of winding with frequent quick breaks for a sip of coffee and make sure everything was tight and straight.

 I now usually take off-cuts from the neck of the guitar to make the top and bottom of the pickup, if I have any big enough. File and sand and sand and sand the wood slices down to 600 grit to make them ultra smooth. Even the slightest sliver in the wood WILL catch the wire and it can get messy real quickly. I didn't always notice when one got caught on something at or near a corner before I wound a dozen winds over it. I just gently got the wire off the snag and wound wire over it. They still work, so... If you break the wire halfway through the wall-wart, well, try not to. I typically get between 300-800 winds per transformer. Mine get from roughly 50-100 ohms, so you don't have much headroom for mistakes. Luckily, 34 gauge wire is a LOT harder to break than 42 or 43 AWG!  I generally use the wire that's between 31-35 AWG from the wall-warts. That's probably why these are fun to wind. Thicker wire = stronger. I have no experience using "proper" pickup wire, but hope to try that someday. I did get some .0035 from one wall-wart, but I dropped it ten seconds after I finished it. SOB! WHY ME!!! WAHH! NOTE: These things don't like to be dropped four feet onto concrete. No amount of whining, cursing, or crying will make it good. I know. I tried all, in that order.

Poles are usually stainless machine screws of various lengths. If you go this route, make sure they have enough ferrous material in them to be strongly attracted by a magnet. Some stainless has no magnetic attraction. I've built with 3/8 - 1 inch screws. I either slap a computer hard drive magnet on the bottom of the nuts or put neodymium button magnets on the bottom of poles. In one, I drilled holes in the neck under the pickup in alignment with the poles and glued the button magnets flush into the neck. Then the pickup was mounted to the top just above magnets. .015 in.? Looking forward to trying real guitar pickup magnets some day. Thousands of possibilities... 

Some of my first experiments. One is still in a guitar and still working.

I have not wax potted any of the pickups that I have built, and fortunately, I haven't regretted it. I have yet to have much in the way of microphonics in any of the pickups, (tiny amount in some...), except for one that I brushed nail polish on the coils about every couple of dozen or so turns. That one is quite microphonic. It's not even the most powerful. Go figure.

I also twist the lead wires before installation to reduce the chance of interference. With the very low-z, there is already a VERY clean signal produced by the pickup. Some, I have read don't like the sound, but I found that an added buffer, or other type of boost will add color and distortion. A preamp works nicely here... I can plug our BR-600 into it before sending the signal on to our amp and it sounds more like a more conventional pickup, but cleeeeaaan unless effects are added. Or, just add a ton of gain and crank it.

Building the bobbin would be a lot easier if I could get some thinner hardwood stock, but I am using what I have... (obligatory grumble) I usually cut the top and bottom from 1x2 hardwood, often part of the neck. I cut them to the size that I want + about .02 inch in for tolerance. I file or shave the edges to fit the hole in the box when installing. I also build a wooden core. I usually cut the wood with a little excess to file away to give you tolerances for the drilling of the three holes for the poles. If you have a drill press, I would use it here. Make this puppy smooth. I used a little bit of glue to hold the wood core to the top and bottom, taking care to clean up any that oozes out of the gaps. This should help keep the wires out of any tiny gaps that might be there between core and top and bottom. I drill the holes for the poles a bit undersized. I like the screws to be just a bit tight when the whole thing fits together.

The Coil Wire

 There are a lot of sources for enamel wire out there, electric motors, solenoids, relays, etc.. I mostly have experience in taking apart wall-warts because it was the easiest way to access it that I tried. I never came up with an easy way to take one apart other than learning that the plastic case of the wall-wart breaks easier if it is cold. Cold garage works well, but summer probably  won't offer much of that... You can put it in your freezer for an hour or so before bludgeoning it to death if you wish... There are several videos out there on how to take them apart. I don't have any pictures of this process and I don't have access to an old, unused transformer right now. I put the transformer on the anvil of my vise with the seam placed vertical and whack it along the seam. Be careful doing this. If you don't crack the housing,  when you hit it, a light hammer can come back at you, fast! Once you get the cover off, it's relatively easy to see what needs to be done, there is no easy way, I use a chisel to start the outside leafs of thin sheet steel to tap them out of the plastic frame. Once the thin plates start coming out, sometimes a pair of pliers will help.

In the picture below you can see the wood hub I made that goes through the transformer frame. Then place the thing into the wood yoke so it can spin freely while giving up it's wire to the teflon spool. If you have any questions about this or anything else, please ask. 

The Connection

 My skills at soldering are about average when it comes to automotive-sized wiring, but I have a problem with soldering electronics. First of all, there is this strange sucking noise that starts up as soon as I start to solder the enamel wire of the coil to the leads, and doesn't stop until I stop soldering... Partly because of this, I have tried quite a few tactics to master this elusive task. I can DO this, it's just an iffy proposition and I have to redo it more often than I'd like to admit. For this reason, I am going to highly recommend you do your own thing on this. You are probably more adept at it. I do know one thing. Using a disposable lighter to burn the enamel off the wire works until you get below about .007 of an inch thick, but anything less than that is likely to go up in flames. For the thicker wire, .007 to .011, (thicker wire nets very little volume of sound), I use a lighter, then very fine sandpaper 600+ grit or higher to rub off the ash. For thinner wire, I carefully use the sharpest blade I have to scrape the enamel off and/or use 600 grit and carefully rub it off.

 60`s something pump style bug sprayer, electric, purple heart inlay and bridge,

red oak nut and fabricated steel string holder.

Kevin M. Kraft's 2015 novel DOBORO THE BOTTLENECKER has recently been re-released in an effort to gain a new audience AND attract financial backing for the motion picture, which is currently being developed by Kraft's production company, Heaven's Wheel.

(Image by Tyler E. Krraft. All rights reserved)

VIEW THE BOOK TRAILER HERE!

DOBORO, available on Amazon Kindle in both ebook and print versions, is a Christian novel, which is cutting edge in both genre and execution, as may be evident from the description:

After surviving a devastating assassination attempt, family man Dave Granger is spirited away to South Korea to undergo intense rehabilitation under the harsh tutelage of a martial arts master by the grace of a merciful God.

Seven years later, with a sterling faith born out of adversity and a wit as razor sharp as the sword concealed within his walking stick, Granger returns to the U.S. and ekes out a modest living as a blind cigar box slide guitarist and street singer in Kansas City. But while he tries to live in peaceful anonymity, he is once again set upon by the very ruthless forces that killed his family and took his sight. But unlike the first time, Doboro is by no means defenseless, having been trained in the ancient Korean art of the Sulsa warriors.

But will his uncommon faith, indomitable spirit and breathtaking combat skills, pitted against highly trained assassins, be enough to save his life, let alone that of the one person whose life is dearer to him than his own?

Immediately unique for a Christian novel, DOBORO features a central character for whom the cigar box guitar is as important to him as his sword but is what builds a bond between him and the second lead protagonist. 

"The cigar box guitar component is indispensable," says Kraft. "It's key to Doboro's character throughout."

Kraft, himself a cigar box guitarist and founder of what was the Annual Kansas City Cigar Box Guitar Festival, is currently developing his novel for the big screen through his family's production company, Heaven's Wheel, and he hopes that high book sales will make the project attractive to financial backers.

"The response to the second edition has been great, even better than the initial release in 2015," Kraft says. "Since music plays such an important role, the story should translate very well to the screen. And the soundtrack should be fantastic, introduce to some for the first time the cigar box guitar in all its primitive glory."

Kraft's first EP, Tales from the Bottleneck, featuring songs inspired by DtB will be released later this year at a time to be determined. Included in this collection will be "Kinder Eyes," Doboro's theme song, which was featured on 2009's Masters of the Cigar Box Guitar Volume Four.

"I'll be releasing a couple songs ahead to help promote the novel," he says. "I've been recording quite a bit over the last several months, and it's been really exciting to finally hear my songs rendered the way I had imagined."

The second edition of DOBORO THE BOTTLENECKER includes the first two books of a continuing series in a single volume. The third installment, Doboro: Long Way from Paradise (second edition) is tentatively set for release later this year.

Follow Kevin here on Cigar Box Nation or by name on Facebook. You can learn more about DOBORO THE BOTTLENECKER on the book series' Facebook page and at Kevin's website.

Check out Kevin's interview on Perspective by Peter.

I NEED HELP, i HAVE NEW SOFTWARE FOR AUDIO ONLY CALLED AUDACITY. YOU CAN RECORD EACH TRACK INDIVIDUALLY. I AM WORKING ON A BLUES SONG WITH VOCALS, HARP, AND 4 STRING LPG AND WOULD LIKE TO SHARE IT ON HERE BUT DON'T KNOW HOW TO POST IT. I AM USING SOUNDCLOUD FOR SHARING.

Found this hubcap in the weeds behind an 1880`s log cabin ive been helping with.

These style of hubcaps are a two piece construction and can be separated, 

this is how the body  was made. It`s a 23 inch scale with a purple heart fret board.

The second edition of my novel, DOBORO THE BOTTLENECKER is now available through Amazon Kindle! Get it now while it's at the lowest prices. Ebook and paperback!

Let's make this a bestseller!

Heaven's Wheel is developing this as a motion picture!!!!

IMG_0466.JPGIMG_0467.JPGThe show at Bankhead House Museum opened Jan 28th. To promote local artists work. I was having anxiety about putting my guitars in, but I did anyway, And I'm happy that I did. People where talking and asking me about them and I even sold a few. The show is still going on till April 7th. So many beautiful things 

I just got my first 3 string CBG and I love the musical versatility. Has a harp player it be perfect. My question is about fretting. The fretting is hard. I have several guitars and even my old acoustics aren't this hard. Is this nature of the beast and I need to fight through it or can it be adjusted out? I don't want to fool with it till I know what I'm doing. Any advice would be appreciated.

Was just looking over 5 of my cbgs that I built for myself over the last couple of years and noticed the necks have all started to bow.  The necks are all thru the box oak with poplar fret boards and they are strung with light to medium gage strings. I use 1x3 oak and they are all 3 string.  Wondering if cutting a slot down the middle of the neck and inserting a piece of flat steel would stiffen the neck and prevent bowing. Anyone tried this?  Any thoughts?  

This is a lap steel I recently finished.  My first attempt at a dual tuning guitar.  It is made from an old maple quilt rack and some 1960 vintage maple bed frames from a local motel that was renovated.  The two tunings are open E and G.  Was a bit challenging to arrive at an attractive design but am pleased with my final decisions for this instrument.  it sounds great.

In 2018, I received my first CB Gitty kit as a Christmas present. A few of my family members banded together and bought me the 3-string Tin Pan Alley kit. After completing it, I posted a blog entry detailing the build and it was later featured in one of the Cigar Box Nation newsletters. I finished the guitar with a flame paint job and added a pickup/pot/jack to transform the acoustic kit into an electric instrument. It was my first guitar built from a kit and I found it fairly intuitive to assemble. I would say the hardest part was notching the neck because you must create two notches of different depths, one for the wooden box top and a second for the paint can lid.

The Tin Pan Alley has a resonant banjo-like tone and projects really well. The 25” scale is a bit long for my taste but it’s still quite easy to play. Overall, I was extremely satisfied with the finished product and it has been used in many of my videos. My Tin Pan Alley is a unique instrument that sounds good plugged-in or unplugged. One of my favorite videos featuring this guitar is a cover of Paul Simon’s Slid Slidin’ Away.

This past summer, my family surprised me again with an awesome birthday present, the CB Gitty 4-string Mountain Tenor kit. I chose to finish the neck, back, and sides with a golden oak stain and I painted the top harvest orange. It’s a striking combination that looks almost as good as it sounds. Like the Tin Pan Alley, this kit was designed to be acoustic, but I decided to electrify it with a Deltabucker pickup. The combination works really well and resulted in a very versatile instrument. I changed out the acoustic strings it came with for electric strings, but other than that, it was a fairly straightforward project.

Of the three Gitty kits I’ve completed to date, the Mountain Tenor is by far the loudest and most guitar-like. With a very playable 23” scale, it has become my “go to” instrument for cigar box guitar videos. It has appeared in many of the more popular videos on my Cigar Box Nation page. Among them is a cover of the 1985 Bellamy Brothers tune Old Hippie.

I should probably also mention the Mountain Tenor went with me to York, Pennsylvania this past August for the Pennsylvania Cigar Box Guitar Festival. This was the gathering that set the Guinness World Record was set for the largest cigar box guitar ensemble. That was an incredible experience and I even wrote a blog entry about it. What a crazy day that was!

I guess that brings us to my third CB Gitty kit, which I received as a gift during the 2019 Christmas season. It is the super cool Hobo Fiddle kit, made famous by Ben Baker on the Gitty Gang Show. I completed this one very recently and was very impressed with the sound and playability. I painted and stained the two previous kits, but decided to finish this one with Danish Oil. Like the other kits, this was designed to be an acoustic instrument, but I added a piezo disc so I could amplify it when needed. Hmmm… I’m starting to spot a pattern.

This nylon-stringed instrument is by far, the quietest of the 3. However, what the Hobo Fiddle lacks in volume, it makes up for in mojo. With a 17” scale, this little baby is really a blast to play. I like it a lot more than I thought I would. My recent video covering Mobile Line is one of my favorites to date and it was made possible by the Hobo Fiddle.

I’ve heard some people say that building a CBG kit is much less personal than building one from your own materials. As someone who has done both, I’m not sure I’d agree with that statement. These kits offer a lot of room for customization and finishing touches. Granted, the pre-made fretboards save a lot of time over doing it the traditional way, but the rest of the process is quite similar. A kit may seem less daunting to a beginner, but assembling one still requires the same skills. The real advantage of that kits is that all the materials come in a single box. You don’t need to hunt down tuners, strings, braces, etc. The disadvantage is the materials have all been pre-chosen for you. So if you like to select unique parts that have a particular aesthetic or a sentimental value, a kit might not be as gratifying to build. However, if you like to start with a basic design and modify it to suit your style, these kits are right up your alley.

You’re probably wondering which one is my favorite, but I don’t know if I could choose. They’re each great in their own way. What’s more, they’re all one-of-a-kind instruments. Each one is not only a product of CB Gitty’s vision, but also a reflection of my personality as a builder. At the end of the day, a cigar box guitar is a captivating instrument whether it came from a kit or not.