- A cowboy walks into a bar, and two steps in he realizes it’s a gay bar.
“What the heck,” he says to himself, “I really want a drink.” When the gay waiter approaches, he says to the cowboy, “What’s the name of your willy?” The cowboy says, “Look, I’m not into any of that. All I want is a drink.
“The gay waiter says, “...I’m sorry but I can’t serve you until you tell me the name of your willy. Mine for instance is called NIKE, for the slogan, ‘Just Do It.’ that guy down at the end of the bar calls his SNICKERS, because ‘It really Satisfies.’ “The cowboy looks dumbfounded, so the bartender tells him he will give him a second to think it over.
So the cowboy asks the man sitting to his left who is sipping on a beer, “Hey bud, what’s the name of yours?” The man looks back and says with a smile, “TIMEX.” The thirsty cowboy asks, “Why Timex?” the fella proudly replies, “‘Cause it takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin!’”
A little shaken, the cowboy turns to the two fella’s on his right who just happens to be sharing a fruity Margarita and says, “So, what do you guys call yours?” The first man turns to him and proudly exclaims, “FORD, because Quality is Job One.” “Then he adds, “Have you driven a Ford lately?” The guy next to him then says, “I call mine CHEVY…..’Like a Rock!’ “And gives a wink!
Even more shaken, the Cowboy has to think for a moment before he comes up with a name for his manhood. Finally, he turns to the bartender and exclaims, “The name of my willy is SECRET. Now give me a beer.” The bartender begins to pour the cowboy a beer, but with a puzzled look asks, “Why Secret?”
The cowboy says, “Because it’s ‘STRONG ENOUGH FOR A MAN, BUT MADE FOR A WOMAN
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As I've got a couple of 6 string guitars on order, I thought I'd tool-up and get some neck pocket templates. I looked at StewMacs...but as well the high price and costly shipping, (and the router bits were even more extortionate) they copped for a lot of very poor reviews, so I decided to look elsewhere. I found something from the EU, with very reasonable shipping, and also got the correct router bit with a bearing from a UK supplier. The bit was really cheap compared with StewMac, so I don't expect it to last long, and I'll have to keep an eye on it for wear, but so far it seems to work OK.
So here's the acrylic template, and after reading about all the problems people had with the StewMac ones I decided to make a working copy in 6mm MDF, keeping the original as a master. A lot of people complained about the Stewmac templates being oversized, but a trial fit seems to show that this one is pretty tight. More worryingly, they said the templates melted under use and ruined the guitars people were working on..so apart from accidentally damaging the perspex one, that was my main reason for making a copy. Of course, what's apparent when you start using this set-up, even just cutting a copy template, is that the router bit gets hot...the heat is transferred to the cutter bearing...and into the template. I was very careful to make light passes to remove the bulk of the MDF, and to let the bit cool right down before actually getting it to run against the template. I reckon that's the key to it...working cool, not letting the bit heat up.
Hopefully this should speed up my builds a bit, and make them more accurate into the bargain. By the way, the three different cutouts are for Strat, Tele and bass necks.
I'm gradually catching up with my backlog of custom work..and here's one of today's jobs...prepping an alu box reso...here it is in the jig just after cutting the soundholes and milling the pickup cutout.
Out of the jig...ready for the next stage.
On the drill press, drilling the coverplate mounting holes.
And into the fiery furnace...for the flame distressing and heat-tempering stage....RESO HELL!!!
And here's the finished article ready for fitting out with the soundwell.
One of these days I will have to finish these projects! Seriously. Fiddle is on the cusp. Hopefully next week for that one. Nickel Seegar parlor guitar parts are mostly here. Should be an "easy" build. And now:
The Monkeypod Elven Lute!
(maybe TWO lutes)
Ok, so they'll probably be 3/4 string dulicimer strummers that LOOK like lutes. Watched "The Court Jester" with Danny Kaye this week and was intrigued by the lute he had with him. It was a three string and looked to be dulcimer-fretted. He didn't really play it but I got the itch to try and make one. I go to ren faires every year and it would be a cool thing to bring.
So I searched eBay for project bowl-back mandolins or lutes. Too expensive. Then I thought I might try searching for 'walnut bowls' because those are turned on a lathe and might make a good lute body. Well I found a gem! (And for just $22 including shipping).
This is a hinged bowl made from monkeypod wood. It's just SHAPED like a walnut. Perfect for a woodsy/elven instrument. It's 16" long x 8" tall so each half is probably around 3-4" deep. The top will definitely be an instrument and if the bottom isn't permanently affixed to the base in a weird way, it will become one too.
I just need to clone myself to make all of these things. There's a Wizard of Oz themed art collective show coming up and I thought I might make a few themed guitars for that too. Keeps me out of trouble I guess.
Hi there! Sorry if I mispelled something, I am learning english.
I am new to the world of the CBG's and well, yesterday I just finish my first cbg and I though it was OK, but then I start to try to learn the basics but it was impossible! I don't get the same sound of all the other cbg's!
I order the CBGITTY starter pack and I just made it, I didn't use the nut and bridge that the pack had because I though it was very high (I play bass and a little guitar so I though it would be very high!). I put the tailpiece in the box, not in the bridge, I don't know how to say that, but for that are the images. I tune in OPEN G and my digital tuner tunes ok, but I think those tuning pegs are just horrible, they don't stay in tune, I THINK, or maybe I am doing something wrong.
It's electro-acoustic with a piezoelectric pickup and electric as acoustic the sound is different from other cbg's around youtube and other places.
- Do you think I must put the bridge and nut from cbgitty?
- The action is low or high?
- My amp is a cbgitty's one, volume and tone, I play acoustic guitar no electric so I bought a nice OLIVA gitty's amp, THAT COULD BE A PROBLEM IN ACHIEVING THE DESIRE SOUND?
- Is pretty dificult to get the OPEN G tuning because a slightly turn in a tuning key and the G or D is GONE!! THE TUNERS COULD BE A PROBLEM?
- What must be the note that goes in the first fret of the neck? Iam getting a B flat in the G's and in the D string an F sustained (I DONT KNOW IS THAT WHAT IS CALLED IN ENGLISH a "bemol" and a "sostenido").
AIN"T IT THE TRUTH????
Although I am a Blues person, I had to share this one
Now building CBGs for some of the most wonderful performers. George Worthmore have been a blues performer all over the word and who's roots are in New York. His is currently in Nashville putting the finishing touches on his new CD. The release party will be on July 28. If you will be in the area...further details will be posted.
Also, Bob Deilman...an amazing Blues artist from Sarasota, Fl. His CD release party was just a fe weeks ago. Packed house and so much appreciation for all involved.
This here stuff is addicting! I told a buddy of mine about cbg's and showed him Mike Snowden's chicken coop video. He told another and now all three of us have built cbg's. One of their girlfriends said he was obsessed... my reply was there are worse addictions to have, at least it isn't a new girlfriend.
I'm a little disappointed that none of my connections on LinkedIn has endorsed my Cigar Box Guitar Skills. :-\
That is all.
c'est un site qui ne manque pas d'humour...
Gday,I need some help!My cousin Jo got a neat clip of me playing my CBG on her phone and put it on Facebook.I would like to put it on my page here,but being a bit Neanderthal with technology,I can't seem to figure out how.Any pointers(preferably simple and in Old School English(I have no kids or grandkids to help me interpret computerese)) would be appreciated.Thanks.
Everything about the one-stringed musical instrument called "canjo", or 'CANJOE'.
Fact: The Truth of the Canjoe Instrument History
The story posted below is a direct copy taken from the published issue of “Our State” magazine; the official magazine of the state of North Carolina. The direct link to this article is highlighted in blue and can be reached by clicking the hyperlink in the copyright statement included at the bottom of this article post. The story is about Herschel R. Brown, the genuine creator of the first and original one-stringed CANJOE musical instrument. This article validates the absolute factually documented truth; the veritable and accurate history of the origin of the one-stringed instrument, the “canjoe”, of which the instrument is also now reaching the popularity level that Herschel once dreamed of and that he even expressed about in his interview below:
Herschel R. Brown
Music for All: The Can Joe Man
By Carole Moore
Herschel Brown constructs buildings and delivers quality — and now he also builds one-string instruments and delivers happiness.
Editor’s Note: This story of Herschel Brown was one Our State‘s most popular stories. We, along with many other North Carolinians, were saddened to learn of his death on September 20, 2008. He was 87 years old. We feel privileged to have shared his story with our readers in 2004.
•••
Herschel Brown’s fingers, roughened by decades spent working with wood, press firmly on the narrow fingerboard lined with frets. Brown’s other hand picks a melody on the lone, steel string.
“Hang down your head, Tom Dooley,
hang down your head and cry …”
The mournful tune resonates throughout the cavernous workshop. Brown, a Jacksonville building contractor, grins as he reproduces the famous lament on an instrument so simple he says everyone can play it — and insists they should.
“Everybody ought to have a little music in their lives,” Brown says between songs. He pats the humble-looking instrument — a long, narrow, wooden fingerboard with 10 frets, an empty soft drink can attached to one end and a tuner key on the other — then launches into the opening bars of “Amazing Grace.”
The notes twang as they fade, absorbed by the sawdust and scraps of wood piled on the floor of Brown’s workshop. Stacks of fingerboards awaiting frets stand in a corner. When Brown’s finished with them, they’ll be integral parts of the instrument he’s playing. He calls it the “canjoe.”
Brown first spied the forerunner of the canjoe while on a trip to the North Carolina mountains about 15 years ago. Called the “uni-can,” it consisted of a plastic fingerboard, a plywood stick, and a dog food can. Brown recognized that the frets were comparable to those of mountain dulcimers. After studying the uni-can, Brown concluded he could do it better. He returned home and worked on the design until he came up with an inexpensive but sturdier version.
Brown loved the little instrument, played much like a one-string guitar, and decided to share it with the rest of the world. He contacted a catalog company and now sells canjoes through the mail. Brown prices it so low he makes no real profit, but the cost covers his expenses. And, in a move that would baffle most entrepreneurs, he also declines to patent his design.
“You can’t patent happiness,” Brown offers, openly inviting people to replicate the canjoe or craft their own version. Why? Because Brown says making music brings joy into the world, and there’s no easier way to make music than with a canjoe.
“It’s rewarding to see people, especially older people who’ve never been able to play music, pick up a canjoe and play a tune,” he says.
Crafted by hand
Music didn’t play much of a role in Brown’s early years. Born in Seagate, about four miles from Wrightsville Beach in New Hanover County, he instead learned the craft of woodworking at his father’s knee. Times were tough, and every free hand was needed.
“I helped my father when I was 12 years old. He had a blacksmith shop, rebuilt truck bodies, did mill work, and constructed a few homes — any kind of work he could do during the Depression,” Brown says.
A husky boy, the younger Brown was in demand among local businessmen in need of a strong back. He soon found himself milking cows twice a day for $1.50 a week. He wasn’t too taken with the dairy business and instead returned to what he loved best — turning wood into something useful or beautiful. He remembers studying carpentry in school with fellow classmates.
“(The late newsman) David Brinkley was in my woodworking class in school, and he turned out to be a good woodworker, or so he told me,” he says. Brown graduated from high school in 1938.
He eventually went into building contracting and construction, working with his brothers. When his brothers moved to Onslow County to take advantage of the building boom created by Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base, they turned to Brown for help in erecting a commercial building. Sensing a good market for his talents, he packed up and moved to Jacksonville in January 1952. He and his wife Marguerie have been there ever since.
Their children — Raeford, the news director at WECT-TV in Wilmington, and Suzette, married to a Marine officer and living in Virginia — were raised in Onslow County. One of Brown’s three grandchildren lives next door to him in a house he built for her.
Delivering quality
Over the years, Brown dabbled in politics, with successful runs for the Onslow County Board of Commissioners and county school board. But that’s all in the past. Today Brown concentrates on running his construction company from his home office. After 52 years in the business, he has yet to show any signs of slowing down and still puts in a good day’s work. Brown prefers the quality and pride of old-fashioned craftsmanship but isn’t mired in yesterday. A computer graces his desktop, although he steadfastly refuses to obtain an email address. And the office itself is modern, though simple.
Old family photos dot the wall, and in the corner, plans for Brown’s latest construction project sit on a drafting board. Noted for his extraordinarily high standards, Brown accepts only one commission at a time. He doesn’t work for the money. Financially comfortable and with an excellent reputation for quality, Brown doesn’t have to continue putting up buildings.
“I do it for one reason — it’s nice to be needed. Also, it’s nice to feel at my age that I can compete with any of them,” says Brown, who is in his 80s.
He’s critical of the construction industry. Brown believes too many are in the business only for the money and neglect to devote enough time to the hands-on experiences that develop skill in the basics, such as cutting wood, driving nails, framing a building, and pouring the concrete.
“I try to give customers an honest building and pride myself on delivering to the customer everything I committed to deliver, plus a little extra,” Brown says.
Love of mountain music
Brown and his wife spend much of their free time traveling in their large motor home. It was on one of those trips that he began to nurture a love for mountain music. He fancied a beautiful mountain dulcimer he’d found during one of his travels. But, since he couldn’t play, he decided not to buy it. At Christmas, Marguerie presented it to him, forcing Brown to learn to play. Eventually, his penchant for wanting to know how things work led him to start crafting his own mountain dulcimers.
After a year of making dulcimers and scrapping them, Brown gave up and went to see Stanley Hicks. Hicks, a legendary musician and craftsman, lived near Boone and was considered an expert in the art of making — and playing — both dulcimers and fretless banjos. He produced world-renowned banjoes made entirely of wood, with heads constructed from groundhog hides.
Hicks showed Brown how he made his famous dulcimers using limited tools in a shop with a dirt floor. Brown and the legendary musician became friends and stayed in touch until Hicks’ death in 1989.
Brown continued his love affair with stringed instruments, crafting dulcimers in his workshop and polishing them until they shone. Meanwhile, his travels brought him in contact with the uni-can, and he began contemplating the possibility of playing an instrument with only one string.
Many cultures have developed single-stringed instruments. Vietnamese musicians play the don bau, controlling its sound by pinching the string with one hand and changing tautness with the other. The Pullivans of south India use a bow to play the veena, which also has a multi-stringed version. And, closer to home, African-American slaves once played diddly bow guitars, based on instruments of African origin and the probable forerunner of the slide guitar.
Brown liked the canjoe’s simplicity and the fact that it was easy to play. “I’m not musical. In fact, I’m the sorriest musician in the world. But I can play a can joe,” Brown says.
A canjoe in every home
Across the North Carolina state line, in Blountville, Tennessee, John VanArsdall echoes Brown’s enthusiasm for the canjoe. But then, what can one expect from someone who goes by the professional name of “CanJoe*John”? VanArsdall adopted Brown’s original design and built a more substantial instrument. He’s taken his canjoe act on the road and even released several CDs of his music.
Brown introduced him to the canjoe when VanArsdall and his wife Paula lived in Jacksonville. The Tennessee man says the canjoe can be used to play serious music with a light heart.
“It is not a toy, but a real instrument. I have played to cancer victims in hospitals, hospice houses, and private homes,” VanArsdall says. “I saw their pain-filled faces light up. What better medicine can any doctor give?”
VanArsdall used to play his canjoe for Paula, to comfort her during the final days of her illness. He says the music brought her peace and happiness. And for that, he thanks Brown. “Herschel Brown is one of the finest gentlemen alive. He is an octogenarian with the heart of a child, who wants to share with everyone the joy he knows is spread by the canjoe,” VanArsdall says.
And spread the joy is exactly what he has done. In fact, his canjoe was even used in one Washington, D.C., public school to start a music program. “It was the only type of instrument in the whole school,” Brown says. The program, started by the educator daughter of a canjoe enthusiast, eventually led kids to discover the joys of creating music. And Brown believes that nothing could be finer.
“What better way to forget your worries than to listen to good music?” he asks. But is canjoe music really good?
Brown flashes a smile, then absently rubs his shock of silver-white hair. “Some people laugh about it, but I don’t give a hoot. Everyone should be able to play some musical instrument and, other than a comb and paper, a canjoe’s the simplest thing I’ve ever heard of,” he says.
“I wish everybody in the country I sell these to would copy it and make them themselves,” Brown says.
Why? “Because everybody should have a canjoe,” Brown says.
And if he has his way, one day everybody will.
This story first appeared in the May 2004 issue of Our State. Carole Moore writes from her home in Jacksonville.
This entry was posted in Arts & Culture, People.
As I've got a lot of guitar making work on, and need to get some custom builds finished, also with loads of guitar shows to prepare for, I'd been thinking about improving my efficiency with slotting fretboards. I'd already recently built my second manual cutting jig, which uses an master template and an indexing system, but it's still quite a drag slotting fretboards, so after much consideration and pondering. I decided that I needed to get a table saw. Buying workshop power tools is always a problem I feel, as unless you have a huge budget, it's very difficult to get the right tool at the right price. You can get all sorts of bandsaws, table saws and thicknessers etc at attractive prices, but inevitably they are flimsily built and underpowered..and I've learned it's always better to buy something with more capacity than you think you'll need.
I'd looked all over eBay for weeks, but the used stuff that was on there was not going cheap, and generally speaking was cheaply-made junk. I've never had table saw before, but did some research, and decided I REALLY needed a small but robust machine....that's not easy to find. The main criterion for robustness was a cast iron table...and that's what takes the saw out of the budget category. Most cheap saws have inaccurate extruded or cast aluminium tables, or even worse, pressed steel tables..with flimsy pressed steel or even plastic enclosures. I found one that fitted the bill..it wasn't exactly within my budget, but I'd had a good day at the Northwest Guitar Show, so decided to plough some of my profit back into the workshop. It's an Axminster "Hobby" saw..but don't let the description fool you, it's a robust little beast...weighing in at a monster 55kg (120 lbs!!!) ...that's the cast iron for you. It is amazingly quiet, as it has an induction motor..and I suspect the motor contributes a lot to the weight...and the cost.
I had to buy a fret slotting blade (not cheap) and I also splashed out on a template so I can slot 25 1/2" and 25" scale fretboards. I've made a "sled" which slides over the table, and got a bit sophisticated with it so I can raise the indexing pin, so that as well as just slotting standard1/4" thick fretboards, this also allows me to slot direct into the top of a one piece neck blank.
I was happy slotting fretboards manually, one by one, and it's quite easy to make a jig...but when you get to making 10 guitars per week sometimes...it can become quite a task. So, hopefully, this is going to speed up getting through those back-orders..and by the way, if you need a slotted fretboard, you can now buy one from me!! Head over to my website and look in the Chickenbone John online shop
So I just won this "Rare 1925 Collectible Uncle Jakes Nickle Seegar Lined Wood Cigar Box". I got a screaming deal on it!
It's 13"x8"x3.5". Really a perfect size for a guitar. But should I turn it into a guitar or hold on to it to resell? I don't collect cigar boxes, but I love a deal.
The other issue is the top / label. I'd have to cut into it for sound holes. I'm not opposed to this. I think it would make a super cool instrument, especially if I can source some old wood for a neck.
What are your thoughts?
Taking suggestions on this one too - not antique but somewhat rare:
