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My CBG

Posted by Peter Jackson on October 5, 2009 at 9:30am
I won my beautiful little 3-string CBG at a raffle to celebrate the 100th gig at the Crossraods Blues Club, Birmingham, UK. Tickets 66-70. I have never won a raffle before, nothing. I call it destiny, it had my name on it. It's number 153 made by Chickenbone John. I've now had it 2 weeks or so, I've learnt some tunes, maybe 6 or 7, and of course and jamming lots of others, any chance I get. It's a joy to play and just great fun. I'll get a pic on here as soon as I can, but I've only just discovered this site too.As a player and player only it's intersting that there seems to be a lot of makers, I mean possibly more makers than players?? I can understand the desire to make them, but for me the even greater desire is to play them!
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Build started!

Posted by Jonas Westerlund on October 3, 2009 at 6:00am
Yesterday me and JK had a day of work in the workshop so I started carving the neck to the 3 string and the material I use is oak.I'm pretty pleased how the rounding on the neck turned out and I will most probably only sand it using low grit paper because i really like the "silky" finish.The design will be very basic as it's my first build and i will mostly try to learn and get into the thinking.Next week we will continue building and i'll also try to bring a camera this time P-:
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LEAVING MISS BLUE is coming back!

Posted by Will Martin on October 1, 2009 at 7:20am
Hey ALL - I wanted to let you all know that Leaving Miss Blue is coming back! For those that don't know who we are, check out www.leavingmissblue.com for our old page; a new, improved one is coming within a couple of weeks. And, some history:We're from Chattanooga, TN, and play, basically, rock. Thanks to a "birthday" gift (given to me at my father-in-law's birthday party), being a Lowebow, we have started to redefine how rock music can be played. I got together with Tater, a guitarist and washboard player, found a drummer, and began. Since 2005, we've had the great pleasure of playing over 200 shows, including the 2007 CBG Fest in Huntsville, opening for Kansas, Col. Bruce, MOFRO, and a host of others. Unfortunately, due to my moving out of town in 2008, we had to stop. But, now I'm back, and we're trying again to conquer the traditional rock world with our version of "Soulbilly Primrock".There has been one lineup change, though: Tater will not be coming back, for personal reasons. Instead, we have recruited Alex Condra, who is an exceptional guitarist, and will be sure to add extreme versatility to our sound.We are planning to have a record finished within 2 months, and ready to distribute in 3. Touring to follow regionally, UNLESS someone wants us to play somewhere else. If you're interested in doing a show together, let me know, and we'll work something out.I would like to thank Shane for this page, and keeping up with this movement; it has meant a lot to us to be able to express ourselves in such a genuine form. Thanks, Shane. And to John for building an awesome instrument (I am still thinking of getting another one...just saving up for it!). As for the rest of you, keep it up!Feel free to send me a message if you like. Until then, keep rockin"!!Will, CBG-istLeaving Miss Blue
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Old stuff!

Posted by Jimbo Cawthron on September 28, 2009 at 9:30pm
All this rain got me to looking through some of my old stuff, and I found my very first guitar amp. I got it from my uncle when I was 15 years old. It's an old sears model 1430 silvertone amp. pushed a big 3 watts. From what I have read these units where made from 1950 to 1966. The front of the Sears model 1430 Silvertone guitar amp!

The back!

The Tag!

Then I got to thinking,, hmmmm If I could find suthin on the inet showing a fixxup for that amp, well that would be so sweet with a cbg. I found some info and schematics so I just might bring the ole girl back to life!
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New Two Stringer

Posted by Nathan King on September 28, 2009 at 12:58am
I've spent the past few days getting familiar with my tenth build... a two string electric.This is the first electric CBG I've done, thanks to the bitchin' electromagnetic pickup known as Stonehenge. I've known Ted Crocker has done some incredible work based on his photographs, but actually getting my hands on something infused by Ted is a good feeling!I first plugged it into my Micro Cube, to test it and make sure it works.This is the moment of truth... after this moment, you can release that breath you've been holding for a while now. The question is, will it be a relieved sigh or frustrated curse? Maybe a string of curses?Well, #10 worked right off the bat, luckily. And it sounded good!But......it would sound better......plugged into the Blues Deluxe!And it did.And it was very good.Then out came the various toys... wah, rotovibe, distortion pedal... This thing is freaking incredilbe! And the tube tone makes it sound so sweet & loud... from slap/popping to heavy metal palm-muting, it handles it all with ease.On a two-string, no less! And to think, I actually gave creation to this instrument.The more I play it the more I realize that this, what I now hold in my hands, is The Guitar I've been searching for.(Well, one of them, at least! My fellow G.A.S. sufferers will know what I'm talkin' about)However, it's taking me a while to get used to playing. I'd been jammin' on my first CBG for a while previously, and this new one's scale length is almost an inch longer.Damn!All my notes have moved!It's like that every time... a new instrument, especially an un-fretted one, will take some time to get familiar with.There's something so organic in that... the initial string-up is when the instrument is introduced to you & your ears, and every moment after that reveals a further morsel of it's personality.Some instruments take more time than others for their full personality to reveal itself... but they all take time.And with that, I'm putting away the keyboard and pickin' up my slide!-NTK
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Hecho En Cuba

Posted by Christopher Queen on September 23, 2009 at 6:16am
Friday afternoon is a busy time for Herbert Love - Tobacconist and Malt Whisky. The surrounding lawyers and architects are preparing for their weekends of imminent gout, and a queue of pinstripe suits and over-inflated egos stretches out onto the street. So I'm already feeling conspicuous in checked shirt and beaten up Converse."Hi. Erm... This is a bit of an odd request, but...""Let me guess: you're looking for some empty cigar boxes.""Ah, yeah. Do you...?""In the back. Just chuck a couple of quid in the charity box."It started, as these things so often do, with a girl. As a teenager, a pretty girl with a penchant for black clothes and Keanu Reeves took me to see Bram Stoker's Dracula. Several times. It's not bad, surfer dude accents notwithstanding, but it was the bird-eating Renfield that really fascinated me."Do you know he's a musician? You'd probably like some of his stuff."So I bought a copy of Swordfishtrombones - good name, good sleeve. Loved it. And it sparked something in my brain, an attraction to the lunatic fringes of music. Not for me the easy to and fro of verse and chorus, the spoon fed banter of the Radio One playlist. The harder to find, the harder to listen to, the more I liked it. Dissonance and feedback, Swell Maps and Les Rallizes Denudes.And I did my resarch, filled my shelves with books from Paul Morley and Simon Reynolds. I was in bands that sound like Sonic Youth. I knew, as Kurt Cobain and Tom Waits did, that it all comes from the blues.Lately, a lot of things have been pointing to it. The names of Leadbelly and Big Bill Broonzy keep coming up, though I've been resisting the cliche of a white man about to turn thirty listening to songs about trains, women and death I can't help but thinking it sounds like a lot of fun to play.I made a Spotify playlist, which I sent to some friends. 'Fancy playing some skiffle?'No joy.I put an advert on Gumtree.No joy.Then, clicking about on the internet, I found myself here. Equal parts inspired, impressed and intimidated by the works of art in the galleries, I clicked the button that says *FREE PLANS*.So that's how I found myself trying to stuff a chunk of 2"x1" into the back of a taxi. My fiancee wandered through to the living room at half two this morning;"Christopher, are you sawing?"I have hardly any tools, or woodworking experience. This is going to sound like a screaming animal.I can't wait.
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More starting Tunings GDG

Posted by Ara on September 17, 2009 at 8:00pm

All right here is another tuning that you see used a lot.

Keni Lee Burgess uses this tuning on his CBG lessons here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/KeniLeeBurgess#play/user/53983C1119D9691C/1/eE9mkd5Cu04
and
Shane using this tuning on the lessons here:
http://cigarboxnation.ning.com/page/how2play-1


GDG Tuning

G (top)
D (middle)
G (bottom)

CHORDS: w/ slide
Open (no slide or fingers on the strings) G
2nd fret A
4th fret B
5th fret C
7th fret D
10th fret F


Some things to do with this: s = slide into

G-------------------------0-----------------
D--------------------------7----------------
G--10s12--12s10--10----7----10s12---9

This will give a sound kind of like what you here in the Paris, TX stuff by Ry Cooder.

Bluesy stuff- Put the slide over the 2nd fret. m = palm mute. so slap your strings with your palm. should give a chunk sound

G--2--2m--2--2m--|--2--2m--2--2m--|--2--2m--2--2m--|
D--2--2m--2--2m--|--2--2m--2--2m--|--2--2m--2--2m--|
G--2--2m--2--2m--|--2--2m--2--2m--|--2--2m--2--2m--|

G--9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9|--7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7|
D--9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9|--7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7|
G--9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9|--7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7|

G--2--2m--2--2m--|--2--2m--2--2m--|
D--2--2m--2--2m--|--2--2m--2--2m--|
G--2--2m--2--2m--|--2--2m--2--2m--|

ara

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Bluesboy Jag Wins Ark Blues Contest 2 Years in A Row, Heads to IBC

Posted by Bluesboy Jag on September 17, 2009 at 1:17am
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEBill JagitschP.O. Box 2327North Little Rock, Ar 72115(501) 837-3878jag@jagshouse.comBluesboy Jag wins the Arkansas River Blues Society Blues Challenge for the Second Year.North Little Rock, Arkansas September 14, 2009Arkansas cigar box guitar bluesman Bluesboy Jag has won the Arkansas River Blues Society Blues Challenge for the second straight year. The event took place at Cornerstone Pub and Grill in North Little Rock on September 12, 2009.Bluesboy Jag (Bill Jagitsch) won the solo/duo segment of the competition and goes on to compete with blues acts world wide at the 26th Annual International Blues Challenge (IBC) in Memphis Tennessee on January 20-23 2010. Jag played IBC 2009 at The Pig, a Barbecue and music venue on Beale street in Memphis.Jag is a music veteran of thirty years in Arkansas and Austin Texas and has been making and selling his hand made electric cigar box guitars for 5 years with several hundred sold. He also makes cigar box amps, ukuleles, cookie tin banjos and foot drums for one man band acts.Bluesboy Jag has been steadily increasing his visibility due to requests to play at blues festivals including the 2008 and 2009 Deep Blues Festival in Minneapolis Minnesota and the 2009 Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival, one of several solo acts performing on Cherry street during the festival.Jag will also be performing at the famous Palmer's bar in Minneapolis on Friday October 2nd. Jag is a popular performer at the White Water Tavern and other venues in Little Rock as well as venues in northwest Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Minnesota.Jag is featured in the Cigar Box Guitar documentary "Songs Inside the Box" as well as the CD from the 3rd Annual Cigar Box Guitar Festival in Huntsville Alabama where the documentary was filmed.Jag has produced, engineered and recorded over 40 cd's of his music over the past 27 years. Previous musical projects include Bloody Hammer, a Roky Erickson and 13th Floor Elevators Tribute band sanctioned by Roky himself, Homicidal Briefcase, a pop punk cover band and composing music for plays.For additional information:http://www.jagshouse.comhttp://www.myspace.com/bluesboyjaghttp://www.facebook.com/bluesboyjaghttp://www.twitter.com/bluesboyjagjag@jagshouse.com-30-
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A few sleepy little cigar box guitar lullabies...

Posted by Kirk Withrow on September 15, 2009 at 10:00pm
I've been listening to an album I recorded a couple years back in the days after my sons birth. He never really seemed to care too much for it but, years later, I brought it back out and my young daughter seems to find comfort in it. Anyway, it was(is) a concept album essentially following a newborn from his last day in the womb, through his first day on the outside, and then until he is finally able to go home. It was recorded with handmade instruments, mostly CBGs including a CBG scaled down proportionally for a 22in tall human (its in Smiling in Your Sleep), and recordings of the various crib toys my son Silas had when I was recording the songs (I mean watching him very carefully). I always liked the album and some of the songs on it still have a special place with me. I put it together and put it on cdbaby.com as well as several other sites but it never saw much movement. Not that any of my albums really ever show too much movement; for me that certainly isn't the point but it is nice to know other folks understand what you are doing and that the message is getting out however short the distance. Nevertheless it has been among my most precious possessions since it was recorded. I have added Brahms Lullably and Smiling In You Sleep to my song section for your listening pleasure. If you like it and want more head on over to cdbaby.com and pick it up. If not you can actually listen to a great deal of the album for free right on the page.
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New to the Nation

Posted by Sean Aultman on September 8, 2009 at 9:57pm
My name is Sean and I'm a newbie here at Cigar Box Nation. I recently was turned on to CBGs and related instruments after seeing some videos of blues musicians busking with them in the UK. I've played guitar and other instruments for about 10 years now and began playing more roots/blues/americana music for the past 2 or 3 years. I began learning electric and bottleneck slide and then became enthralled with the CBG sound soon after. I'm very interested in that older, more primal roots music sound that I feel isn't found in the more mainstream blues-based music of recent decades. I fell head-first in love with the sound of CBGs and went and ordered a CBG from Bluesboy Jag and also a Hill Harp from Johnny Lowebow - had some extra cash and figured I might as well jump right in! My next goal is to build a CBG for myself once I've begun to get a handle on playing these instruments. I'm looking forward to getting cozy here at the CBN!- Sean
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Bluesboy Jag Selected to Compete at the 2009 Ark River Blues Challenge

Posted by Bluesboy Jag on September 7, 2009 at 6:59pm
ave been selected again this year to compete at the 2009 Ark River Blues Society Blues Challenge Sat Sept 12 at the Cornerstone, 314 Main, North Little Rock. The winner gets an expenses paid trip to the Int'l Blues Challenge in Memphis in January 2010 for a chance to compete internationally.I won last year's solo/duo competition, so come on out and wish me luck!
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Finally!

Posted by J. K. on September 4, 2009 at 8:01am
I've got a shop now! Got the key to a hobby room in my housing co-op. Two workbenches and a shelf, empty otherwise. I'll upload some pictures.
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It's not a cigar box but...

Posted by Kirk Withrow on September 1, 2009 at 1:28am
...it's pretty damn cool. I have had this instrument for a while just waiting to refurbish. I finally did it today. The instrument was originally made by a rockabilly player from Miami named Curly Jim Morrison. I do not know if it was ever used for any of his recordings. I will put up some sound/video soon.
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I Never Thought I'd Blog

Posted by Ben on August 31, 2009 at 12:05pm
I've made a couple of pretty straight forward instruments so far but have been kinda flying by the seat of my pants. Each time they turn out different and I encounter different problems because I haven't built the same type of instrument twice. In an effort to put some logic to what I do (and so I can remember) I've decided to keep track of my work here. So far I've made 2 3-stringers, a Tenor Guitar, and a 2-String Bass. My current project is upping the game in some respects but not so in others. I'm building a 6-string lap steel (with cigar box body). I bought some red oak that is 1/4"X4"X4'. I figured the old 2" wide wasn't going to cut it for a 6-string. Now came the prospect of cutting that 4" width down a little bit so that I wasn't playing on a hugely wide plank (although playing lap steel it doesn't actually matter). I live in an apartment so I'm a bit constricted in my tool department. I bought a refurbished jig saw because I wanted the compact design of a hand saw with the flexibility of cutting curves. The problem is that its ridiculously difficult to cut straight lines. I like to laminate 3 1/4" boards together for my necks to get a nice, strong result. The problem came in trying to cut any two alike. I decided to cut a reasonably good one and then clamp it to the next and use it as a template and so on. Needless to say, they got bigger each time. I glued them together last night and my plan is to use a hand plane to even out the sides and hopefully get them pretty close to straight. I guess we'll see how that goes today.
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