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  "7 Hills Stomp" began as a lofi punk blues cbg band set up in the style of "The White Stripes" and "Black Keys", lead vocals, guitar, drums.  The twist was that all the songs were played on 1 and 3 string electric cbg's.  Our 1st album (self titled "7 Hills Stomp") accomplished the in your face approach to punk blues we were looking for.

On our 2nd album "A Different Engine", we set out to record just what the title implies.  We were "driven" by other influences- the midwest garage rock sound of bands like Guided By Voices and Heartless Bastards,  the punk blues sounds of John Spencer Blues Explosion and Bob Log III, as well as old influeces like The Who, Pink Floyd, and the Ramones.

We brought all those together along with the Northern and Delta Mississippi Blues sounds associated with cigar box guitars and diddley bows to bring a sound like no other.

The tracks from the album were recorded in my 1211 Studios (wich is nothing more than the corner of my apartment bedroom) and in Elemental's(7 Hills Stomp drummer, vocalist and diddley bow player) Elemental Studios.  we recorded most of the album in the winter of 2010 into the spring of 2011, partly in preparation for our set at the Huntsville CBG fest.

I am offering this as a free download to my friends in the CB Nation as a thank you for all the chats, shared music and videos, and building, recording, playing tips.  I had quit playing guitar when I was 14.  4 years ago I happened upon the Yahoo cbg forum and began building cbg's.  Building turned into playing, playing into recording, recording influenced the 1st ever cbg podcast, which turned into performances, blues in the schools programs and so on.

Each track is individually downloadable on Soundcloud.  Just click the arrow

7 Hills Stomp "A Different Engine

http://soundcloud.com/joker-cbg-podcast/sets/a-different-engine/

features 3 string electric cbg's and a diddley bow on some tracks, vintage Teisco electric, Silvertone and Alverez acoustics, and a vintage Kay Banjo on others. 

Build day 2>>

4 neck blanks and 1 box blank finished. 1 box in process. Honey-do list got in the way of building. By tomorrow night need 2 other neck blanks done and head stock blanks finished.

I am going to try and chronicle my build over the next few weeks. Today is November 18. I have until Dec 14th to finish at least 6 CBGs. One of which will be a donation the rest will be sold (hopefully). I will also use this opportunity to build two of them using my own hand made boxes. Last night I glued up the side of the first box and tonight I glued the bottom on. I also, cut 4 neck blanks. Ran out of wood so looks like a trip to Dunn Lumber in the morning. I decided on a 24" scale 4 will have a tailpiece on the box and 2 will have the neck extend through the far side of the box. Head stock will be 6" with a 3 1/2" scarf joint. Will post pictures of the process tomorrow.

found it thru petapixel.com. May be interesting for some of us.

I know most people start with a good old cigar box but nooo, I had to go straight into building a wood box CBG. I built this Montague along with my first Kahlua.I modeled the sound holes based on an Ovation design. After my initial build I decided that it looked too plain so I added the MC Escher artwork to the neck piece. I also found the pewter palm in a thrift shop attached to a napkin holder. I consider this and my first Kahlua my "learning builds" and will keep both of them for sentimental reasons.

My latest photo is of a prototype of a drone instrument I have made. It has worked really nicely. It has a scale length of a metre, can be bowed, plucked or struck and has some nifty non-intentional features. I can press down on the soundboard and bend the note down or I can use the bone nut to lever the string into more tension and bend the note up. The instrument will end up with 3 strings but I think this should still work. I have also mounted springs in the sound chamber in order to create an exaggerated reverb. This worked a treat and has opened up a new field of experimentation for me. Hope you dig it!

Just when I thought it was finished....

But another useful lesson learnt. Click here for more pics  Never try and glue a bridge on to an existing finish. Wood glue requires contact with raw wood to glue properly.

Hi Guys

I am looking for a CBG Bass player for a project starting in the new year , will be based in Barnsley south yorkshire , free rehearsals on a thursday night , the plan is to do original material and a bit of rolling stones stuff.

PM me if interested

Tony

Todays To Do List

• Finish Bridge

• Drill Holes for Tuners in Headstock

• Mock up of CBU#2

Today's Plan

• Cut 1/2 circles in Headstock to allow for Tuners

• Changed plan of having a 1/4" Poplar soundboard to using 1/8" Birch Plywood instead. This came from wanting a thinner soundboard to get more vibration in the tone of the soundbox.

Todays To Do List:

• Cut and Glue Heel

• Cut and Glue Headstock Extension

• Cut Neck to 14th Fret Position

• Carve Neck

• Attach the Heel on the Neck

I started my second build last night.

I picked up the following materials

Poplar : 1/4"x8"x4'

Poplar : 1/4"x2"x4'

Poplar : 1/4"x3"x4'

Poplar : 1"x2x4"

I cut the desired lenghts that I wanted to make. Which was a box with

7-1/4"x10"x3"H

.

I took the 1"x2"x4' and cut to desired size. I made a 20deg angle cut for the headstock and glued together.

The end result ....

Ok well first thing is to get a box. I didnt know where to begin but then remembered about a cigar store near my parents area in Toronto. I went in one day and inquired about empty cigarboxs and he sold me 3 for $6. Not a bad deal. I picked 3 different sizes and eventually picked one for my 1st build. Since I play the Charango which is tuned GG,CC,Ee,AA,EE I naturally decided to build a Cigar Box Ukulele aka CBU. Once i got my desired box size i began to go assemble the materials from my own collection and then to the home depot to get remaining hardware and tools needed to complete this build. I ended up going back and fourth from the Home Depot cause I was learning as I went and figuring out what tools i would need as it came along in the build.

I wanted to make a Tenor Ukulele as the Soprano is too small for me. The tenor is around the same size as my Charango so again i decided it would be a natural fit and easy transition from two lute instruments.

My desired dimensions are

26" Length

17" Scale Length

18 Frets

1-3/4" Soundhole

I purchased a piece of Pine 1x3x4' and cut to the desired length. I baught that size because I wanted to get a tapered look to my neck...I carved the neck with a blade and chisel. The fretboard is made of poplar and I scarfed the headstock. The nut and saddle are made of bone and the bridge is custom made of poplar. the tuners are from C.B.Gitty and are open gear economy tuners. I stained the neck and finished it with semi-gloss clear with 3 coats. I drew in a Taurus symbol on the headstock. and signed the inside with my signature. I didnt build a through neck because I didnt want a tailpiece so i screwed on the neck with a neck plate on the inside of the box.

It sounds great  and im very impressed with my first build. The neck is oversized but I dont mind that I cant wait to install a piezo into it b/c the extra space on the fretboard will end up hoping too sound really good.

Loco

I had a Brick House box lying around, and one thing led to another...

From Ira Glass . . .
    “What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

    ——————–

    Ira Glass is the host and producer of This American Life. Click here for the full original video (runtime 5:20).

Another steep learning curve...after sifting through the footage that Stan Newton had taken throughout the day I managed to assemble something that approached a film record of the day, figuring out how to add credits and titles.  Then the task of actually putting it onto a DVD...converting it to the right format, adding menus, titles, music...blimey still I just about managed it.  Of course then the next task is figuring how to actually burn it to disk..and then software tells me the whole file is too big and too long to fit on a disc..unless I use dual-layer DVDs..which nobody stocks locally, and they are expensive, and don't work on older DVD players...aaargh! So anyway, manage to figure out how to fiddle the encoding so it all fits, tinker with the menus and brutally mash it into some semblance of a video. Next up figuring out how to use the templates for the disk labels..which don't work on my computer, so more online downloads and I've pretty much cracked it.... phew!!

Well...it's all over for an other year...Boxstock that is. Just over two weeks on and I've got my office and workshop almost back to normal and I'm starting proper work again. I've got a long backlog of guitars to get on with, so sincere apologies to all my customers who are still waiting. The responsibility and culmination of a lot of work had taken it's toll on me both physically and mentally..so I'm just about surfacing again! This sort of thing just doesn't stop, as soon as it was over, I had to do the box office returns for the venue, do the AGM minutes and start sifting thru' the photos and video footage that I'd got hold of. And on top of that, already we are planning next year's festival..that's right, a full 12 months ahead, that's the way it has to be.

It's been an extraordinarily busy few months, gigs, guitar shows, making guitars and of course the festival.  I don't think I'd realised how much it had all taken out of me until after the festival weekend. Hopefully next year will be a bit easier in that respect, with Ben (Roosterman) helping out on next year's event, assisted by Ant, and I'm hoping that in the first place it will allow me to get on with making some guitars, but also to get on with some more HGMC stuff.

Ah well..a lot of new things learned from the festival, some things to build on, some to change, some new ideas..watch out for news as it develops.

I've run into a slight setback with this guitar, which I've decided to name La pesada (double meaning: annoying and heavy). The problem lies in the frets. You boys with the planers... I hope you appreciate what you've got. I think my personal planing system - a few hours of sanding back and forth along the fretboard until all the cut marks disappeared - left a bit of a valley in the middle of the board. That's my theory at least.

That wasn't my only problem, however. I also didn't cut some of the fret lines deep enough. Some of them needed some more strokes of the saw across them. Others needed better gluing at the edges to hold them down. Vamos, a plethora of problems with the frets. But it's a learning experience and after a quick search I found some great help in the Intermediate Builders Group (here is the link). I think I'll be able to combine some of the tips there and get this thing under control.

Besides the frets, I think I've got everything ready for final sanding and beautifying (is that a word?).

Here are some pictures of it pieced together. The black straps are just to hold it together temporarily.

I hope to get it done soon. Some friends, who actually know how to play, were visiting last weekend and I would have loved to have seen them play.

I thought I'd post some pictures of the work process. The idea was to make a really cheap electric guitar. Expectations were pretty low since this was my first buld. I didn't have a clear view on what the finished product will look like. Only that it will have 3 strings and no fretboard. Everything else was decided on the fly.

I got the wood from a local hardware store for 5€. It's from an oak table top.

Glued these together to make a neck-thru body.

Since I don't have all the proper tools I had to use a knife to shape the neck.

It's getting there...

Lots and lots of sandpaper and it turned out quite nice.

I had to thin out 1 inch from the headstock so I just put a knife on top of it, closed my eyes and hit it with a hammer. Luckily it chipped towards the right direction. Otherwise it would have had a very short scale.

The nut i made turned out to be too small so I ended up replacing it with a bolt.

Don't have a router so I used a cordless drill to make the cavities. The drill bits were extremely bad even though they were the cheapest. Who would have guessed..

Cavities done.

It's not a good idea to drill the string holes by free hand. They are almost in a straight line.. If you look at it from an angle in poor lighting.

*Voi perkele* D'oh.. I knew this would happen.

Few finnish curse words later I decided to try to fix it. Glued the piece back in. No one will notice.. Yeah, sure...

Head stock after first coat of tru-oil.

Few more coats and it starts to shine. I have to say this is really great stuff. Really easy to spread (I used my fingers) and dries in couple of hours. Well it's not fully dry in couple of hours but you can handle it without leaving fingerprints and you can add a new coat. It hardens when it dries so it gives you a lacquer type surface.

Good enough.. 

This is the most satisfying part. Installing the hardware..

Finished!! The sound is quite good. Or bad.. Depends on what you like. More pictures of the finished product in my page.