Blogs

Below is the pickup plate. It's made from the same wood as the neck (African mahogany).

The following picture shows yet another mistake I've run into. Luckily, it's an extremely clean break and it'll be fine to glue together. It looks really good though, after shaping and sanding. This is my first time using a "normal" pickup (as opposed to a piezo). I didn't put any thought into where it should go along the strings. I hope it doesn't make a huge difference.

I finally started working on the saddle and bridge, too. It's the same length as the pickup thing above. This is the first time I'm working with actual bone, also.

The bone fits in there perfectly. I shaped/sanded the saddle more, but haven't taken any pics yet. It looks good. My only worry is the height. I think it might be OK, but the action might be a bit low for slide. I'm waiting to see before using any glue.Here's a potential headstock cover. I'm not sure if I like this thing or not. I drilled the holes and fit it there pretty well, but I don't know if I'll leave it or not. I'll add different pictures later and try to get some opinions.

Thanks for following the progress. This weekend I'm going out of town so I won't be able to do much more. This build is taking so much longer than my others. I hope it's worth it.

hello everyone - 

 j bone here - for the last few weeks the 2NITES have been hittin the open mic scene in the chicagoland area pretty hard and we have been having a hella rad time - 

i have been playing the open mics with my 3 string "big box" & king charles plays snare with brushes

here is a run down of where we have played so far -

#1 - thursday - july 28th 2011 - Gallery Cabaret 2002 n. oakley ave in chicago, il - it was hella awsome - very friendly host, the list was already quite full when we got there, but he gave us a great 1st timers slot - we played 3 quick songs just snare and my 3string "big box" git 

went off killer - got a good response - sold 2 cds @ 5$ each - got bought a couple drinks - and got smoked out & invited back by the host garret -

after our set - dude bought me a beer and ask about my git - talked with him for a bit about cbgs, tunings and slide and what not - then he ask me to sit in on a tune of theirs - 12 bar blues thing in A - i said hells yeah! - so that was rad - 

#2 & #3 thursday - august 11th - Redline Tap 7006 n. glenwood - chicago, il - Gallery Cabaret 2002 n. oakley - chicago, il

we got to the Redline Tap around 10pm - sign up sheet went out at like 8pm - so by the time we got there the only open spots were 1st and last - we sighed up for the first spot and played - we got a really good response - 

we hung out at Redline Tap for a couple acts after we played then we headed to the Gallery Cabaret to see if we could get another set off over there - we got to the Gallery got on the list and kicked out a second set for the night - again got a great response - 

#4 - monday - august 29th - The Store  2002 n. halsted - chicago, il

only a hand full of performers at this one - watched a couple acts - then we played - this drunk dude with an acoustic wanted to sit in with us - i said "cool man - we do 12 bar in G"  - he said "alright i'll follow along - could i by you guys a drink" - i said "yes sir - thanks"

the sound man records everyones set at this place and gives you a cd of your set when you are done for free - thats pretty cool - 

#5 tuesday - august 30th - Phyllis' Musical Inn 1800 w. division - chicago, il 

this one was really cool - when we arrived there was a blues duo {guitar & upright bass} playing some covers - we played after a couple acts & i asked the stand up bass player if he would sit in with us -

i don't think he really wanted to until he saw my 3 string "big box" and my slide come out - then he was in - i said "12 bar in G  lets go" - we did 2 originals, on the road again, and a short free jam 

we got a really good response - it was rad jammin with a stand up bass - 

#6 - wednesday - august 31st - Memories 4358 n. cicero ave. - chicago, il - 

this was an open jam more than an open mic - full backline & drum kit - hosted by a house band - played our 3 song set, then we were asked to play one more, so we did a short improve blues - i played my 3 string "big box" - again got a really great response and had a blast -

#7 - thursday - sept.1st - Gallery Cabaret 

we set out to play at the Redline, but by the time we got there the list was full - so we headed over to the Gallery Cabaret - got on the list and we played close to last - at the Gallery they give you a beer for performing - so thats pretty cool - took the law dog out to play this evening

#8 - monday - sept. 5th - Tonic Room - 2447 n. halsted - chicago, il

we had planned to play 2 places -the Store & Tonic room - the store did not have open mic going because of the holiday - so we headed down the street to Tonic room -

this place was kinda like a hip hop bar - we signed up to play - watched a rapper do his thing - we played our set - got a good response - watched another rap act then we hit the road - 

#9 -  tuesday - sept. 6th FitzGeralds - 6615 W. Roosevelt rd. - berwyn, il - 

this place is a somewhat well known roadhouse - lots of blues and folk types - played my 3 string "big box" - we got a great response and sold a couple cds 

the guy who runs the open mics plays harmonica and invited us back saying he would like to sit in with us next time - all in all went really well and got a really great response

#10 - wednesday - sept. 7th - Miss Kittys Saloon 634 E Ogden Ave
Naperville, IL - 

this place was cool - more of an open jam than open mic - signed up in a good position - watched a few acts before we played - we got a great response and were asked to play 1 more - so we did - 

made a couple good contacts at this show as well - some opening act / support gigs possibly  - we will see where it goes - 

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Here are some more pictures of the fretboard progress. The board has some cool (in my opinion, at least) markings on it.

Here's my idea for the body. I'm going to use an old harmonica as the tailpiece. I'm going to use the reeds to hold the strings. Hopefully it'll work.

So, here's what I'm doing. The I glued the bottom reed to the underside of the top. The reeds have little screws that hold each other together, sandwiching the box top. The picture below shows the space that I drilled out for the string ends. I inserted a couple of nuts to fasten the top of the harp to.

So, below is how it all fits together. You can see the little screws holding the two reeds together (you can't see the bottom reed, but it's there). I'll probably glue the box together later, so the way this is set up allows the strings to be changed.

That's it for now. I worked a little bit on finishing the shaping of the neck today, too. Hopefully tomorrow I can finish the saddle/bridge setup and the coverplate for the pickup.
I can't wait to get this thing together.

For the last four months, I have been working on a new album, Plainspoken. It is thematic album of sorts, meant to be heard from beginning to end. I use cigar box guitars on a few songs, banjo and fiddle on some others, and my D-28 is all over it.

The main thing about this album thats different- Im trying to sell the download. I have given away six albums on this site in the last year and a half. Truth be told, I am way more interested in getting the music out there than making money.

BUT Im at a critical point here. I need things for my basement studio...my mics are shot (which i like, most of the time) and I have three kids. Trying to justify spending money on myself is pretty tough.

SO-- what I am asking is a DONATION (kind of like a KICKSTARTER) of $8 for the album...which includes

15 Tracks of some of my best songs,ever. Seriously,my blood is all over

     this album

a link to a "secret" 13 track album of never released material

                                                                     a poster- it prints up on multiple sheets of paper to

                                                                      create one large image.

                                                                     liner notes

                                                                     and more free music in the future.

If youre interested in hearing some of the songs....maybe buying it.  check it out at

www.oldssleeper.bandcamp.com

If you would like to read a pretty intimate interview about the album. read it here 

 http://rnzmagazine.com/2011/09/olds-sleeper-interview-by-rev-nix/

I sincerely thank you just for reading this.

olds

Seeing how it will fit together. That's the fretboard, the top of the box, and the neck. Eventually I got it to fit together just right. Notice the squareness of the heel. That changed soon after this picture

Next I cut the tuner holes and then started shaping the neck with the wood file.

I cut out those holes and then started with the file. This wood is so nice to work with (all my other builds were with really light wood and it was so hard to use the file because if I wasn't careful I'd tear off too much).

Once I had the neck more or less how I wanted it, I went back to the fretboard. I spent another morning sanding. After getting rid of nearly all of those saw lines I got an email from my brother-in-law telling me to try a handplaner. (Great suggestion, thanks Blake. It will save me SO much time, next time) I had bought one for 3 euros at the Rastro (a weekly open-air market here in Madrid) a few months ago, but the blade was dull and I couldn't figure it out. Luckily, I was in the States visiting that same brother-in-law when my sister gave me an old knife sharpener from my grandfather. Well, I sharpened the blade and spent a few minutes adjusting and, voila! Anyway, back to the guitar...

I didn't trust the squareness of the piece of ebony, so I decided to cut it to shape and then draw all the fret lines on it. It took longer, perhaps, but I think (hope) it'll be more accurate.

So I drew the fret lines and then I use masking tape and try to leave just the pencil line. See that jig saw? Yea, that's how I cut my frets. You guys with all those nice tools... Appreciate what you've got. Hug those table saws and bandsaws and planers. Hug them and tell them that you love them!Stay tuned, I'm trying something weird with the tailpiece and you might just like it.

This is my latest project, which involves several firsts.
I am very excited because I found a great shop which sells quality wood and the delivery was amazingly fast:

www.madinter.com (It's here in Madrid)

I got two necks out of this block:

Yea, that's my lone electric saw. Luckily the wood is 5.5cm wide. The saw's limit is 6cm.

This is how I join the neck to the box.

Unfortunately, I messed up my preliminary drawings. This is the result of my mistake. I'll have to glue in a biscuit or something so the neck goes all the way through. I've nicknamed this "That damned gap."

This is my first time with a fret board.

It's very exciting, but without a planer or an electric sander, it's caused me quite a bit of work. I'm talking hours of sanding. Perhaps I'll spend a few extra euros next time on the higher grade ebony.Yea, I'm having to sand all those saw cut lines out. It sure is getting smooth though.

Guys, this song is a blues on my home made CBG and canjo, and a normal blues guitar. The lyrics is by my friend (writing & singing).I play on the CBG and canjo, Andy plays on blues guitar.

We made this song to establish a memorial from the old Europe, Hungary for those poor black guys over there, at the Delta, becausethey were the roots. The story is simple: a woman, some money, the moon and me.Well, and perhaps a tree, at the end...

I'm just learning - are there any good sketches / plans for attaching a strat neck to a box - for a starter 6 string application?

Always have been interested in CBG,have tinkered with a couple that belonged to my friends,then I finally decided to build one.My first problem was I couldn't seem to find a box the size I wanted.The cure,as suggested by my friend was to build the whole guitar from scratch,box n all.Sooo thats what I'm doing.

 I started about three weeks ago,progress has been slow,but steady,not wanting to rush and make too many mistakes.Here r some pics of the build up to the point I am now in construction.

 And it occurred to me that I can still sand,stain/paint and assemble CBG's. I just cant cut out the necks right now.

 So if somebodies interested in maybe rough cutting out say, ten very simple necks maybe we could work something out where I can finish the necks and still stay in business a bit.

No expensive wood, maybe even fir without knots in it.

 Any ideas Guys?

This is to all my customers and friends I've made over the years building and selling CBG's
 I am (at least temporarily) going out of the CBG business due to health issues that will not allow me to do the wood cutting needed to build.I have  an illness that causes my arms and legs to spasm or jerk making it impossible to safely cut wood now days.
 I'll still be in the site here from time to time and hope to stay in contact with all the great folks I've met.

The neck and fretboard are made of mahogany. I made the neck with dual-action truss rod. Fretboard has 15' radius.    Nut is made of moosebone, The bridge/pickup is Ted Crocker flatbed combo customized by me. I removed the original brass bridge and replaced it with customized 2,5 inch nail. The box was bought from tobaccoshop and it cost me 5€ ...  ;)

I'm surprised how good it actually turned out - The action is nice and low, intonation is good, it sounds great plugged/unplugged. It's all good, damn! 

Here's a link to photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hanurijkl/sets/72157627435674431/

Feel free to comment.

Regards,

Antti, Finland. 

Last Thursday evening I was outside giving the compost a turn with the spade and feeding the worms.  I went and chucked the spade back in the dirt pile and wacked my ring finger on the tip of the shovel already planted nearby.  HOLY MOTHER OF PEARL that hurt.  The whole finger tip turned black and blue and by 4AM the next morning there was so much pressure under the nail that I couldn't sleep from the pain.  Dr. Drillbit came to my rescue after a quick trip to the medicine cabinet for some isopropyl alcohol and a quick trip to the basement for the bit.

I decided not to go see my proper Doc, but the fingertip is certainly broken.  I got myself a finger splint and was immediately dissatisfied that it didn't work as a slide.  :(

So since last week, I've hardly played a bit.  I tried last night and absent-mindedly went to finger a note with that ring finger.  Bad idea. It seemed better this morning so I played a bit more - part of my morning ritual - and I'm still a bit sore.

I think I'll take some advice Uncle John gave me and maybe I'll try an learn to play the harmonica for a couple weeks.

    This is a cool one i built for a friend who is a well respected melodian musician here in Vancouver. His name is John Krieger. He wanted me to tweak it a bit and put a double octave string for the high strings and have a strum stick fretting on it. It turned out nice and sounded really beautiful. I used a nice Punch box i found in San Diego on a business trip and piece of Mahogany for the neck. The sound holes are decorated with some cool antique napkin holders i found at a flea market. I don't have any video of how it sounded unfortunatly but i was pleased with its volume and tone.

www.wsbluesbox.wordpress.com

    Here is another angle of it. The cool stand was made by my father who makes guitar stands, hardwood guitar picks, dulcimers, Psaltery's and other cool folk instruments.  

Ok this is not CBG related but an old college buddy and I took in the Sold Out show. Steve Martin is one of the most prolific and talented entertainers around and they put on a damned great show.  Steve has been playing banjo since he was sixteen and demonstrates a mastery of both Scrugg's style and clawhammer style.  He included his comic banter for a most entertaining show. 

The show was two hours of bluegrass and other related stylings written by Steve and his colloberating writing partners, that were recently released on Rare Bird Alert, a colloberative effort with the Steep Canyon Rangers of Brevard, North Carolina.  These guys were awsome! 

The quintet features:

• Woody Platt - guitar, lead vocals
• Graham Sharp - banjo, harmony vocals
• Mike Guggino - mandolin, harmony vocals
• Charles R. Humphrey III - bass, harmony vocals
• Nicky Sanders - fiddle, harmony vocals

The show highlights (for me at least) were Jubilation Day a song about the joys of breaking up with those special someone who make your life miserable, Me a Paul Revere a song about Paul Revere's ride from the horse's perspective, Yellowback Fly about a fisherman's obsession. The encore also included a smoking hot rendition of  Orange Blossom Special and  King Tut. I found myself wishing the Orange Blossom Special would never end.

 I ran across a good (and free) printable circle of fifths on www.tikiking.com

It prints out at roughly 3.5 inches (90mm), so it's a good size to toss in a case or gig bag.

Taken directly from the website:

The circle of fifths can be used for many things. To help with chord progressions, to determine the Key that a song is in, to determine the scale for that Key.

The "circle of fifths" is a term coined by German musician Johann David Heinichen in 1728, and is basically a chart showing all 12 pitches which are arranged in such a way that as you go clockwise, you go up a fifth. However, due to the nature of how scales work, when you go counter clockwise you go down a fourth. For example, the fifth note of the G major scale (G A B C D E F#) is D (going clockwise) but the G is the fourth note in the key of D (D E F# G A B C#)
So, if you pick a key, Say "C" for example, That is your I Chord. The adjacent chord counter-clockwise (left) is the IVchord. The chord clockwise (right) is the V chord. So, in the key of C major, C is the IChord, F is the IVchord, and G is the V chord.
It has been said that nearly half the western worlds songs are based on the I, IV ,V progression. So there you go...

Circle.Of.Fifths.pdf (Same as image, but in PDF)

And, more music will be added as we get it done.  If you just can't wait for that, I've got demo comps available for everyone.  Send me mail at slidebox44@yahoo.com if you want it!!

Willy

All - For those that remember Leaving Miss Blue (Shane, especially!), I am proud to say that after 1+ years I have found the perfect mix of musicians to help bring the Revolution to the masses!  We just signed a lease on a permanent rehearsal/recording space (we do it ALL ourselves!), along with a shop to make these damn instruments that I can't seem to shake.  Plan is to practice/pre-prod before recording (2 months at most), then record (1 month max), press to vinyl/CD (10 days), then play our 3rd first show here in Chattanooga.  We're fortunate enough to already have interest from all over the country, and plan on playing there, wherever it is at the first of the year.  Lastly, the website (www.leavingmissblue.com) goes live in 6 weeks (9-22-11), with free download of the first single for 48 hours!

Shane, you along with John Lowe and Richard J have made us happen.  Sorry for the delay, but we needed time to grow, and really formulate how to get our music out there!  Each and every CBG-ist will be with us as we bring it to a stage, where public attention is demanded!

Shane - I'd love to send you the CD to preview, and you pick the 1st single.  Think about it.

Everyone on this site: get ready for something truly unique (as if playing a CBG wasn't unique enough...)!!!

Cheers!

Willy (Cbg-ist, Leaving Miss Blue)