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As a novice getting the hang of playing any instrument, especially a CBG is very confusing. Playing the instrument in a Blues style is even more complicated if you do not understand its development. I have yet to find a good primer on blues. I am not an expert but the following appears to be valid from all I have read:

The major "D" for blues has a "D" for the I chord, and "F" for the iii,  a G for the IV, an "A" for the V, and a "C" for the vii. A minor D7 uses the notes of 1 = D, 5 = A, 3 = F, and 7 =  C. The Major D7 uses D - A -F# or Gb - C. the big difference is the F and F#. Tuning was developed to facilitate easy playing of these 7th chords and the major and minor chords.

Contrary to popular belief the earliest known blues is from Appalachia. It is mostly settled by "Gaelic" people of Welsh, Irish, and Scottish descent, and blacks. The experts believe the Gaelic people [which included the Druids] migrated in the far ancient past from India, as did the Gypsies. So first look at other scales related to this heritage. 

The Hindu scale is 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • b6 • b7. The Ethiopian scale is 1 • 2 • b3 • 4 • 5 • b6 • b7. An Oriental scale is 1 • b2 • 3 • 4 • b5 • 6 • b7. The Spanish Gypsy is 1 • b2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • b6 • b7. Adding to this music style mixture were Italian and Portuguese people who used the Maximilian scale. And in this area were also Germanic and Italian neighbors. 

As a result of all these cultures they gravitated toward a compromise scale called the Dorian. The Dorian scale is 1 • 2 • b3 • 4 • b5 • 5 • 6 • b7. Combine all these cultural scales and you have a good 7 note blues scale for riffs and arpeggios. 1 • 2 or b2 • 3 or b3 • 4 • 5 or b5 • 6 or b6 • b7.  So, to round out the blues scale you can add elements of the other related scales. Over time the The abbreviated Pentatonic  Blue scale of 1 • b3 • 4 • b5 • 5 • b7 was often used.

The African slaves brought to America and the Appalachia a unique "instrument" to teach children to play music. It is the forerunner of the Diddley Bow. On the side of the house a one string device was fixed and was played by "fretting" it with a piece of bone, ceramic, or metal. This "slide" fretting carried over into the Blues style. Tuning was often modified to facilitate the slide style. 

A style of chording followed on multi-string instruments to facilitate this slide style and blues tunings. However, real blues is never slide alone but requires some finger fretting. The slide set up allowed for the bb often encountered in Blues.

In Blues the root can be played as a major, minor or 7th, This also holds true for the IV and V. The vi is always played as bvi, the vii as bvii, and the iii as biii. The I for "D" can be D, Dm, or D7, the IV G, Gm, or G7, the V as A, Am, or A7, the vi as Bb or Bbmaj7, the vii as C and the iii as F. 

Finally, there is a lot of commonality in all the Appalachian music. Blues, blue eyed blues, bluegrass, and Bakersfield country all share a lot of the elements and instruments developed in the Appalachian area to accommodate these styles. To truly understand Blues requires some understanding of its Appalachian cousins and the Appalachian instruments it originated on.

Part 1

Part 2

So up until this point, we have the basic shape of the neck, and the fretboard is as good as done. This would be a good time to level, crown and polish the frets, if you wish. I wrote a 'how to' on that here:

This would be an ideal time to take another look at your cigar box, and cut the neck to fit neatly inside. In the below picture, I have marked out the cut on the neck to fit under the lid of the box, and allowed for room below the pickup:

Once I have made several small cuts down to my markings, I flip the neck on its side and pop the material off with a sharp chisel. Don't go right down to the line, though - it's easy to make a mistake and remove too much material. I use a rasp, file and sandpaper to neaten things up. Notice the angle on the line - this is to allow for the 'back angle' on the neck.

Now it's time to get sanding. I start with 80 grit, and work all the way up to 320 for the whole neck and headstock. Once I'm satisfied with it, I give the neck a rub down with white spirit (mineral spirits) to remove the wood dust. This will also highlight any scratches or imperfections. If you see any...yep, more sanding:

At this point, it would normally be time to start applying finish. However, I like to use oak for my necks, so I find it necessary to use grain filler to smooth over the pores of the wood, and get a smooth finish. I wrote a blog post about the process here. This adds a few more hours onto the process, plus you need to sand again, starting from 220 grit up to 600. For the end result, its worth it!

The below picture shows a grain-filled neck, with the first coat of Tru-Oil.

Nowadays I use Tru-Oil on all my necks. It's difficult to work with, compared to Danish etc, as it dries so fast. Here are my Tru-Oil tips:

1. Store the bottle upside down - you do not want the lid to sieze up! 

2. There is a foil cover on top of the bottle. Do not take it off - just make a little hole to squeeze the oil out of. This stuff dries very fast when exposed to oxygen.

3. Work on an area at a time. I apply Tru-Oil to the neck and headstock separately.

4. Wipe the oil on with a lint free cloth, give it about a minute and gently wipe off the excess with a clean cloth

5. I wait 12 hours between coats. If you live somewhere warmer than Manchester (not difficult), you might be able to get away with less.

6. Every second coat, I (very) lightly rub the surface with dry 600 grit sandpaper. Give it a wipe down before applying the next coat.

7. I generally do about 8 coats of Tru Oil. Apparently you can get a mirror shine if you do about 40, then polish, but who has time for that?!

8. About a week after the last coat, I wet sand with 1200 grit and Tru-Oil, then quickly buff it out for a silky smooth feel.

This is what you come out with:

So there you have it - a finished neck. Here are some completed pictures of the guitars these necks were made for.

I hope this has been of some use.

-Richey Kay

Part 1

OK - so we're ready to start shaping the headstock. The first job is to mask off the wood, then draw the design. I've also measured and marked out where I want the tuners to be.

The headstock is now pretty much done. I cut out the rough shape with a coping saw, then use half round rasps, files and sandpaper to neaten things up. I use a Dremel with a barrel sander to work on the curves.

Now it's time to drill out the holes for the tuners. I prefer to do this after shaping the headstock, just in case I slip up and need to radically change the design! Again, this job would be much less of a headache with a pillar drill, but I make do with what I've got :)

The shaping of the neck begins. First of all I mark a line down the centre of the neck, and another down each side about 3mm below the fretboard. This indicates the material to be removed. The first job is shaping the 'shoulders' where the headstock meets the neck with a half round rasp:

Then on to the 'heel' where the two pieces of the neck meet. Again, using a half round rasp - take it slow, a rasp can remove a lot of material in a short time:

Then I move on to the spokeshave. Get the neck securely clamped, then take off equal amounts of material from either side, making sure to stay within your markings. Once I'm happy with the basic shape, I use the spokeshave to run straight down the centre of the neck to remove a little thickness. Just a little is all that's needed - mainly to blend in the headstock transition, and give the neck a gentle taper:

Then I round everything over with the rasp, followed by a cross cut file, making sure that the scratches made by the previous tool are all gone. I then take a long strip of 60 grit (a sanding belt is good too) and run it up and down the neck using a 'shoe shining' approach - this is effective for both removing file scratches and ensuring a nice rounded profile to the neck. Just make sure you sand with the grain afterwards with the same paper to remove any cross-grain scratches!

As a recap: I recently made this video, which shows my technique for shaping a CBG neck (sped up to double speed)

Once I'm happy with the basic shape of the neck, I turn my attention to the fretboard. I gently squeeze the mother of pearl inlay dots into the holes with a dab of superglue, then file them down a little, before using 120 grit sandpaper to get them flush with the board. I sand the fretboard down to 320 grit, then apply finish. I find it much easier to get a good finish on a fretboard before the frets are in than after. After a couple of coats of oil, an hour apart, I wet sand with oil and 600 grit wet & dry to get a nice smooth, polished surface on the fretboard. I then use a utility knife to scrape the dust and oil gunk out of the slots before adding the frets:

I then use a resin mallet to hammer in the frets. A few tips on this:

1. Hammer in the fret wire from the centre outwards

2. Cut the fret wire after you've hammered in into place

3. If you aren't able to hammer the fret wire in place (one side is raised, for example), first check your slot is deep enough. If it is, use a soft jaw clamp to hold the fret in place and move on to...

4. Once the fret wire is seated to your satisfaction (i.e. flat across the surface of the fretboard), allow a small bead of superglue to wick into the bottom of the fret slot on either side. This should keep things steady while you dress the ends:

When dressing the fret ends, I use a good quality flat file and simple run it lengthways up and down the sides of the neck, first at an angle, then flat. This gives a consistent bevel on the sides of the frets, and takes those sharp edges off. Keep checking with your fingers until they've all gone. I finish up the job with sandpaper, starting at 80 grit and going up to 600. The fret ends should now be super smooth, and the higher grade sandpaper will give a bit of polish to the fret ends.

A fret end dressing file is useful to take off the tiny sharp bits on the corner of the frets. I think I saw someone mention using an emery board to do this. I haven't tried it but it sounds a good idea!

On to part 3!

I don't claim to have invented this design, but here's how I make a robust neck through with a heel, leaving plenty of space under the lid for pickups/bracing etc. There are plenty of ways to go about this, and no right or wrong way. However this design helped me overcome a number of obstacles in my early builds. I will skip over quite a few basic aspects of CBG building so it might be an idea to have a grasp of scale lengths etc. first.

This article is not aimed at seasoned builders, but rather those who were just starting out. Or even more specifically, myself about 3 years ago when I started making these!

The only thing this diagram doesn't show is 'back angle', which I use on all of my builds to improve ergonomics. Just imagine the block at the front on the box is lower than the one at the back. It's that simple, and can make a big difference to how well a guitar plays. This, along with some other tips is covered in another how-to here.

So - you need a 1 metre length of hardwood, and a separate fretboard (6.5mm/1/4"). Cut the neck blank into 2 pieces. This will depend on the kind of box you are using. You want the upper piece to extend into the box by about 100mm, and the lower piece to extend roughly 40-50mm from the front of the box, creating an overlap of roughly 6"/150mm (see the picture above). You can use whatever headstock design you prefer, scarf etc.

The first job I do is cut and glue up the scarf joint. I cut the scarf using a jig and a big chop saw. Along with the Dremel and drill, these are the only power tools I use to make necks.

To glue up the scarf, I clamp the two pieces of the neck to the bench and then apply a clamp at the joint. If it slips, move the pieces back and try again. You want to get this right. Some people swear by sprinkling a little salt on the glue to stop it slipping. I haven't tried it myself. Once the glue has fully cured I slice off some material from the top side to bring the thickness of the headstock down to about 15mm.

While this is drying, time to take a look at the fretboard:

So at this point I've marked the frets using a metre ruler and Stew Mac's Fret Calculator, scored them with a knife and they're ready to slot. It is worth investing in a purpose made fret slotting saw and mitre box for this job. I've drawn a centre line and marked across the frets diagonally to place the marker dots. Carefully drill them out to the required depth. This would be much easier with a pillar drill but I don't have one.

Once the fret slots are cut, I taper the fretboard. This step is completely optional, but since trying it I have found it impossible to go back to square necks. If you want some tips on doing this, I wrote a 'how to' here. Once you're happy with the shape of the fretboard, you can add your side dots, if you wish.

In the below picture, I am gluing all of the remaining parts of the neck together; the fretboard, the lower portion of the neck that runs through the box, and the headstock 'wings' which will allow me to get a bit more creative with the design. These are made from fretboard scraps. 

I leave the neck in the clamps for 24 hours. I know many people would say this is unnecessary but I prefer to err on the side of caution. This is what it looks like after taking the clamps off. In this picture I have already used my mitre box to create a 'slope' where the two neck sections meet which will be the basis of the heel.

...and after tapering. Again, this is an optional step, and there is a 'how to' here.

So here's the neck so far. Time to get shaping - in part 2!

Back in December 2013, local musician, Bill Maakestad, played a Muddy Creek Guitar at concert. Afterwards, local radio newsman, Rich Eggers, said he would like to do an interview with me sometime close to some of my sales. Summer is a big time for sales with town festivals and fairs. A few weeks ago, Rich had me in the studio for an interview. That weekend was Macomb's Heritage Days Festival. Rich came out and talked with a customer. The interview airs Monday, July 14th, on Tri States Public Radio, Macomb's WIUM 91.3.

The background music is me playing, some from in the studio, some from Heritage Days.

Here's a link to the interview on their website. You can listen to the interview and see some pictures he took.

Hope you enjoy!

http://tspr.org/post/art-cigar-box-guitars

Here's a picture of me in the studio doing some playing:

hi there.  This is a continuation of my blog I see threes, which i will be referring to and expanding upon, the earlier blog should be considered required reading...

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8 July 2014

Welcome back :)

So where were we ?

We talked about this little interval, the 'diatonic third', and learned that it is just the note after the next in the scale.  They come in two kinds of flavours, minor thirds which are three frets worth on our guitar necks, and major thirds, which are four frets worth.

And we learned that these diatonic thirds are the foundation of harmony, we smash two of them together and we have a chord...

We learned to play a major scale up one of our strings while harmonising in these diatonic thirds on the adjacent string.  Which is really really cool, all the cool stax double stop licks are there..  well.. almost, thats coming soon ;)

We played around with modes a little.

Then, as we were wrapping the semester up, we arpeggiated a chord from the pattern we'd worked out.

Right.

Moving on, lets add a string to our guitar.

its time to 'see threes' a little further, shift the horizon a little.

Ive been talking about a gdg guitar all this time, but we haven't really made use of the bass string except as a drone.  Its going to stay that way...  We're adding a high b string.

nb This means that the strings we're really focusing on are Keni Lee's 'devil tuning' that a lot of you are so fond of in the 3 string world.  Although I personally don't get into that tuning, it is very much how i treat this 4 string tuning, the bass string is often left out, but still I feel a little naked without it.. they  (dgb) are also within standard tuning on a guitar ...  yep, these are all working 'G' licks there too ;)

When you get down to it , most open tunings are the same.  In the six string world people do open e, EBEG#BE and open d, which is the same thing detuned a couple.  They do open a, EAEAC#E and g, same but detuned, then theres dobro tuning for the bluegrass guys, GBDGBD and a couple of C6 variants in the Hawaiian guitar world.  This might seem like there is a lot of difference between these.  When you can 'see threes'  you'll see.  THERE ISNT.  same same same.   Over here in 'weird guitar corner' where guys make em with less strings than standard our tunings are usually a slice from within one of those tunings.  If we look at them in terms of scale degrees we can see that there is a lot of common ground.  Because they're all built around a major triad its all (i) (iii) and (v) notes.  Theres only so many combinations that come up when we line them up in ascending order of pitch.

In part 1, when we built Ian we were dealing with a (v) string and a (i) string.  There is a 5 fret difference there, which is known as a 'perfect fourth'.  Sounds like it might be a shade more than our diatonic third doesn't it?

The perfect fourth plus the perfect fifth make an octave.  We're calling our thirds 'diatonic' because they change in shape a lot, as we've seen.  The fourth and the fifth are different, they're quite static.  Only one of our chords/modes has an imperfect fifth and its that weird double minor bastard we talked about at the start, his fifth is lowered, those in the know call it diminished.  Theres also only one chord/mode which has an imperfect fourth, this is raised in order to balance out that diminished fifth in the other mode, otherwise we'd have cats making babies with dogs and all manner of chaos obviously...

This diagram demonstrates what Im talking about, the green ellipse is two adjacent strings which are a fourth apart, where our Ian from last page will work.  We're now going to look at our G and B strings, who are a major third apart, this is the red ellipse.  We'll then be looking at tying the two together, the blue ellipse.  Look at where we'll get other opportunities to use this stuff...

anyway heh. point is there are other intervals besides our thirds, although our thirds are special, and they are what we're here to discuss.

The other intervals come up because they are there in our tuning.  We had a fourth.  Now we're going to look at the high two on our gdgb job..  g to b is a major third, four frets.  So to play a major third above a note on the g string..  we just play it at the same fret!  yep and obviously a minor third will be one fret behind..

So here's our mate Ian from last time, Ive moved him onto our four string guitar but otherwise he's just the same.  Lets revise for a second

.....

and heres our new one.  Lets call him Dave.  These are exactly the same notes

Have a crack..

All of the stuff we talked about last time, doing modes, arpeggiating a chord etc will all work here too obviously.

Practice practice

go crazy

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13 July 2014

well that was much the same eh??

hopefully you've been flat out practicing Dave anyway...

cos now we're going to stitch the two together and you'll wanna know him for that

ok so let me trim Dave so he lines up nicely with Ian

There we go, so thats Dave in his third mode.  Which makes sense because we were starting at (iii) on the higher string with Ian right?

What we've got here is all the triads in our scale.  Cool huh.  See if you can work out which are minor, which are major, and who is that sneaky diminished bastard...

have fun

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24 July 2014

Inversions

Once a month or so we get a new guy on the forum ask 'hey I made a G guitar.  How do I make a D chord?'  Quick as a flash some helpful soul will tell them to play all the strings up at fret 7.  Heres a list I made, they'll say, its super helpful.  fret 1 G#.  fret 2 A.  fret 3 A#..   etc.   

....

and hey, it gets you started right?

..

this is kinda where we are at right now.  We've found a single voicing for each of our chords.  But a change from (i) to (v) or (vi) involves a lot of lateral travel up and down the neck doesn't it?  Its certainly a step in the right direction, we have much more harmonic movement than our 'helpful soul' above handed us because of our shifting thirds but its all a lot of work eh.

lets go back to where we started, the piano keyboard,  for a few minutes.

Something that's always of interest to me is how players and students of different musical instruments view things differently.  Guitar players, having six strings to worry about, often do not understand the intricacies of chords, especially to begin with.  To them a chord is a pattern memorised from a little diagram which some other helpful chap mapped out onto paper, a shape with a name which they brute force their fingers into memorising.  Therefore a chord change is a very tangible point in the chart at which they instruct their hand to move to another one.  Pianists and organists tend to view things very differently.  Their world is scales, which begat chords.  In fact sometimes a pianist will perfectly play chords without having a clue what the guitarist and his hand calls that chord !  This is kind of a mind boggling concept at first (for the guitarist) but there you go.  Of course the pianist can tell you what the chord is, but he has to stop and think, he didn't at any time tell his left hand 'go to Am7'.  You see, he isn't reading the text up top like you do, he actually reads those lines and the funny little dots!  At the point where the big box with A came on the scene, only one or two of those funny little dots actually moved, some others may well have stayed the same.  (Don't be hard on yourself tho, those lines and dots are deigned to be played straight down onto his instrument, its much easier for him than for you)..  Organists do tend to have a perspective somewhere in between these extremes (of independent melodies and harmonies intersecting on one hand, and big interchangeable blocks of notes that always belong together in the other) because of the nature of their instrument, how they have a volume pedal to make swelling pads, and how the stops work to create additional harmonic content.

So lets take a look at how an organist sees threes (chords) 

As before, we will stick to the key of C, so the black keys are not part of the scale, they are just there to indicate which threes are major and which are minor.  (also, I quickly knocked this keyboard myself in illustrator with no regard for proper proportions ok ?)

lets start by making a (i) chord, just exactly as we have when we mash Ian and Dave together

lets say we have to go to a (iv) chord.  well, we can do this

Just slide the whole thing up 3 right ?

It works, and its very "rock'n'roll"...

but kinda one dimensional right ?

and its a lot of work on a guitar neck.

kinda like that helpful guy's chart, fret 1 G#......

You can do wild thing, but no ones gonna pay for two hours of it.

Lets just look at them together for a second...

An organist can see the shared (i) note.  So he (usually) would move that to the bottom of the (iv) chord

Ah!  now this is much easier for him!  Because the two chords now have a common (pedal) tone, a pivot point.  He can keep one digit (thumb for right hand, pinky for left) anchored, and slide the other two up a degree.  This is significantly easier on the keyboard, he doesn't even need to look, where moving the whole lot up by three, well he might miss right?

So lets look at that (iv) chord voicing for a second..

the triads we have been making to date have been what is known as 'root position' chords.  The (i) note is at the bottom, so they are stacked threes.  What we have here is a fourth and a third.  But a fourth on the bottom is the same (well an octave lower..) as a third on the top..

(tangent 1) .. a fourth and a third, now where have a heard that before ??  scroll on up to where I was talking about this tuning, and where we'll get to reuse Ian and Dave ;)

(tangent 2).. while you're there..   didn't I say something about fourths and fifths ??  Oh yeah they're both nearly (6 times out of 7) always the same, much simpler than these thirds...

Where was I?  root position right.  Ok well this voicing here (made from (repetition is key ) a fourth and a third) is what we call a 'first inversion'  because it's (i) note is the second one in.

Now the thing thats especially cool about this trick on a keyboard is that it doesn't give two shits if the resultant chords are major, minor or whominished.

lets look at it from a (ii)m to a (v)

same.

nice huh.

Can you see why we learned Ian and Dave separately from each other yet ??

I call this move a (+iii)

a (i) becomes a (iv)

(ii) becomes (v)

etc.

note that once you go beyond (vii) with this "roman arithmetic" you can modulus it. (basically add or subtract vii (7 hahaha) to bring it into the range of (i) - (vii) ...)  

so if you get an (viii) or (ix) or (-ii) later when we're subtracting don't panic, just %=vii   ;)

So how can we implement this (+iii) move ?

easy, from any of last times root position triads advance along the pattern with Dave, but not with the bottom string (the middle string being part of Dave, not Ian)..

Hang on a minute lets take a look at that root position (ii) chord again

hmm, and the 1st inversion (iv)...?

Ah so !!

another way to look at it, slide last weeks triad up to a (ii) chord, then move the low note back down.  this is a (+ii) move eh??

Have a crack.

Theres more.

ps.  This is Keith Richard's most famous move right here. This is start me up.  Do it backwards and its honky tonk woman.  Alternate the two and its you can't always get.....  

( and tumbling dice...  brown sugar...  street fighting man...  etc etc etc etc)

the trick is to let that pedal tone sustain across the change.  Keith isn't the only proponent of course, just the guy who made it his own.  Stephen Stills also loves this, check out any of his open tuned stuff notably Judy Blue Eyes of course.

pps..  This is also how pedal steel copedants work..

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29 Sept 2014

ok i took a couple months off there, sorry, stuff came up

lets revise a little, cos we're at the big payoff for the semester.

We've got a four string guitar tuned GDGB (DADF#)  (EBEG#)  (AEAC#)  (etc,etc)

We've been playing a major scale with a harmony note, and that harmony note has been a diatonic third.

First semester we learned to do it on the D and G strings, and we called that pattern Ian

Then this semester we came back and learned to do the same thing with the next strings, G and B, and I called that pattern Dave (nb. Dave is in his third mode here, for convenient stacking onto Ian...)

Ok then we stacked the two and viola, we had a chord

OK  so far so good.

Then I put up a bunch of Keyboard diagrams and confused the living shit out of you.

oops.

:D

naw, hopefully some of that inversion stuff sounds promising eh?  Lets take a look at how to use it in the real world, and why we learned Ian and Dave as separate pieces.

Lets grab a chord in its root position, that is to say straight across Ian and Dave.  It doesn't matter if its minor or major or diminished, this just works so long as we stick to our scale, i.e. don't lose sight of Dave and Ian's boundaries and let in any illegal fry cooks.

The solid numbers are the fret we're shortening each string to.  The faded numbers are only our new ability to 'see threes' ok, thats our super secret x-man power.  The orange circle indicates the root note of our chord.

Now an obvious change we can make is to move the whole stinkin lot along one right?  I was at a (i) chord, and this brings me to a (ii) chord, so lets call this a (+i) kinda change.

Now theres a pretty obvious (-i) change there too eh? I won't bother to map that out, but lets pull a (-i), which will put us at a (i) chord again.  The rest of these changes I'm going to show you now are all originating from here, but i don't want to recycle this image every second time ok...

Another easy change to make is a (+v) (.NB this will be to our 'relative minor' if made on a major chord i.e. from (i) -> (vi)     ) Oh boy, you'll like how easy this is.

Yep!  Thats it.  Cool eh.

Ok How about a (+iii) that'll take my (i) chord to a (iv) chord. 

(Yes this is the one you should've wound up on last time )

Wait theres more!, theres a couple from going backwards too!

This is a (+ii) it makes my (i) chord to a (iii) chord

And this is a (+iv) It makes my (i) into a (v) chord

These will all work from any root position across Ian and Dave there, try it..  I've demonstrated them against a (i)chord, but if you do these changes against a (iv)chord then that is just the scale degree against which these inversions will apply their math operator e.g. a (+v)move on the(iv) chord = (ix) i.e. (ii)   ----- subtract or modulus 7 remember ;) 

What we have here is a series (as we move up the neck) of neat little families of neighbouring chord shapes which we can easily shift between.  Somewhat like 'caged'.  Hopefully its a pinch more than that, we might be equipped to work one out for whatever new tunings we want to explore. Also, CAGED are all major forms and they don't work together in the one key without some lateral movement, these guys all come from the same parent scale, and will major, minor or diminished as appropriate.

Have fun, thats it till next season, when we flip that diatonic third over on his head for another uber-useful interval, the sixth.  We'll also have a look at extending the tertian harmony further, four (and more) note chords, 7s, 9s, 11s etc.

Homework for the break: (beyond practicing those awesome change secrets above )   Ok all this time we've been talking about diatonic thirds.  Right at the start I said they're the building block of chords.  Well....

That is true, we call it 'tertian harmony' ...    BUT..   there are other ways of building harmony.  Have a play with Quartal chords, i.e. seeing 4s.   John Mayer loves quartal harmony, he'll often build weird jazzy chords from fours.  Because nearly all fours are perfect its difficult to build a whole composition on it, it can quickly sound very ominous and churchy.  But for an unexpected turn its a cool trick to play with...   

enjoy your break

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I am really lucky to be playing with a great drummer (Matt Jones) and Bass player (Spencer Brown) in Bristol. We have been working hard in Matt's studio for the past couple of months coming up with new material for our debut album. Gigs coming up and i am really pleased with whats come out so far. Thought i would post up a free download of one our new tunes 'Angel In The Night'. A little taster of things to come. Hope you enjoy peeps. Keep on keepin' on.

P.S more lessons coming up really soon.....watch this space

FREE DOWNLOAD - ANGEL IN THE NIGHT

I got interested in this by reading Music Factory by Mike Orr and I have used his wiring diagrams to create stomp boxes and built amp kits from cbgitty.  I would like to build guitars but live in a small apartment.

what are your favorite books for getting started ? 

thanks,  Kirby

real easy to get them on the boxes.   Download the photo,

use spray adhesive on the box and attach....and finally cover it with a thin piece if plexi glass.  Real simple and the results are very satisfying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auY4Vx99MfE&feature=youtu.be

We are now experimenting with personalized CBG's   ....What do ya think???

Alright! Today is the day. License Plate Sessions is now available all over the place. Itunes, Bandcamp, CD Baby and all that other jazz. Thanks to everyone for your support. Thanks Jay Patton for building the guitar and producing the album. It was a blast to make. I hope you guys at cigarboxnation enjoy it!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/license-plate-sessions-ep/id889936804

http://sincerelyiris.bandcamp.com/album/license-plate-sessions

The true commitment of a CBG maker is apparent. Take one bottle of boxed wine, drink the wine, keep the bottle and the box. Then take a second bottle, drink the contents and keep the bottle. Use the box to make a guitar and cut the necks off the bottles for soundholes. Anyone care to put a name on the result? Cabernet Box Guitar? Shirazocaster?

The background is my first CBG with piezo pickup. That's it in my avatar. I have two piezos mounted in the box with a switch so I can select between the two. I read about mounting the discs but couldn't really figure out what people were telling works best. So I mounted both of them on the neck (I had clearance between the neck and the top of the box. One was ceramic side up and the other was ceramic side down. They definitely sounded different but not good enough. Mounting was done with a blob of silicone sealant about 1/8" thick. Easy and quick. The better output was from mounting ceramic side toward the wood. I then moved one of the pickups to the underside of the top near the bridge area. That gave me good output.

Piezo setup had grounding issues that I just ignored but that passed a lot of noise to the amp and limited the volume somewhat. I then read about preamps and decided to get the little unit from CB Gitty delivered to my home for a little over $14. For that price, I had to try it.

I am glad that I ordered preamp from CB Gitty. If you are considering a build or wanting to get a bit more out of your guitar than you can with piezo disc plugged directly into your amp, you must get this gizmo. It comes with the undersaddle bar pickup. I thought about wiring my existing disc into the mini jack provided, but then, being lazy, I decided to just install the bar style pickup in the lid of my CBG. All I did (I mentioned being lazy, right?) was cut a shallow groove in the underside of the guitar top about 2" up (Toward the neck) from the bridge. I put some super glue in the groove and put the bar in the groove. (I also need to mention that I like super glue). Then I just had to cut the hole for the main box and it was done pretty quick.

The results were dramatic. I can crank this to painful levels if I want to and NO NOISE. That's right - no hum. Everything is shielded and the clean signal is boosted by the preamp. The EQ is a very handy addition to have. I can get a variety of sound depending on whether I am finger picking, using the slide or just beating the heck out of it.

I wanted to post my experience with the preamp since I would have started with this on my first build if I had know how easy it would be to get great output from my CBG. Now I will have to put one in the CBG that I built for my friend Larry.

Many thanks to all who post here with questions and solutions. Both have helped me in my builds.

Hi guys

Last year I moved here in England from Italy. I had been playing r'n'r for years there. Now it's like a couple of years I don't touch a guitar and I feel it's time to start again

Does anybody know where I can try some CBGs in London?

Many thanks

http://sincerelyirismusic.tumblr.com/post/89963105380/you-may-remember-this-song-from-my-old-album

It’s hard to believe we’re almost into July! We’ve enjoying a great season so far and it’s been an adventure meeting all kinds of new people. There are many of you thinking of gifts for the holidays and birthdays. Each item is one of a kind so I would like you to consider if you see something you like this week, it may not be available next week. Yes the stuffed animals can be re-made, but many of the other items, like the cigar box guitars, ukeleles and amplifiers are truly one of a kind. Another consideration is I am not mass producing these items so you are also getting something even more unique than you may have realized. Please consider a purchase today if you see an item that appeals to you so as not to miss out. Too many times I have seen someone come by the booth and ask if I still had that guitar with the cocobolo fingerboard or the inlayed guitar pick only to find out it was sold moments or week before they arrived. If I can help you create a custom instrument let me know. I have many different boxes on hand and options available.

Come see us this week at Old Market Farmers Market. June 28 from 8:00 am til 12:30 pm.