the weirdness of cigar box guitars

I had a weird experience. I was Googling CBG blogs and clicked on one of them to find "yours truly" embedded in someone elses blog. It was one of my Youtube vids and the guy was talking about it in very complimentary way. (Thanks whoever you are Chris). It set me off on a thought train about this whole CBG thing and how weird it is finding myself out there in cyberspace playing a guitar made from a cigar box for the world to see. I've never been one for wanting to attract attention but I got a weird sort of buzz from it. How did I get to that point and all the other stuff it's led me into. It's like one of those conversations you start off on one track and it goes here and there and ends up on another subject and you suddenly think "How did I get here What did we start out talking about"?

So back tracking to two years ago it all started for me when I was idly looking at old guitars on Ebay and I found a CBG for sale. Fell in love with it and had to have it. From there it was having a go at making my own which meant searching for boxes, machine heads, wood for necks etc. Then designing logos, writing up this blog, building a website, learning how to make short videos and putting them on Youtube. Now I'm making amplifiers from cigar boxes and a custom made case for the guitars. Making a bass drum from an old suitcase - it just gets weirder and more exciting all the time. I have people looking at my stuff from all over the world and e-mails from strangers who have become cbg buddies. Brilliant but bizarre when you stop and think about it and all this from a casual mooch on Ebay.

So how much weirder can this get. Well I had this bizarre thought today. How about a giant cigar box coffin? I can just see it now, a 6 foot long Monte Christo box with SMOJO written on the side and "Baby please don't go" playing on a CBG as it slowly disappears through the curtains and on to the incinerator. Talk about "smokin".

some lessons learnt

It was Saturday. I was making two necks for CBGs. This time I had bought the type of machine heads like you get on classical guitars - you need to make a slot in the headstock. I decided to rough drill them out on my big drill press then put a router bit in it to clean up the slot. I knew what I was doing was a bit dodgy to say the least but "I'll be careful" I thought. I had a really bad week at work stress wise and I reckon my brain wasn't running properly. The bit grabbed the wood and pulled my hand onto it in a split second. I felt a sharp pain in my finger end. There was that horrible realisation that I'd damaged my finger and it flashed through my mind "how bad is it"? So you have to look - it could have ben the whole tip of the finger. Well it wasn't as bad as I expected but it wasn't good.

So lessons learnt? Don't mess with machines when you are overtired. Follow safe practises - you know it going to go wrong don't you? Don't think you know better than that inner voice that's warning you. Lastly, don't buy those type of machine heads. It's taken three times as long to prepare the headstock and I'm not entirely happy with the results anyway.

Car boot sale booty

Had a fruitful afternoon at the local car boot sale. For our friends in the U.S. a car boot sale is a bit like your yard sales except sellers load up their car boots (trunks to you guys) and meet up in a field or large space that's been organised for the event. They pay a small fee to enter and usually set up a table of some kind and spread their junk or whatever on it and around the car. Buyers come and browse the stalls and buy your stuff if they like it. It's a very popular event here and is usually going on in most towns on Sundays throughout the UK. Now for a CBG builder they can be a good source of cheap materials for your projects. It's great fun rummageing through boxes for bits and bobs and haggling down the price. They are mostly held between Spring and Autumn but there was an early one today. So what did I find?

The suitcase. I saw an idea for using an old rigid case as a bass drum. I bought a battered old pedal on Ebay a while ago and needed a case. It's got a good "thump" to it. I'm going to make a wooden base to hold it upright and stop the pedal knocking it over. It's a yukky green colour and very scratched. Not sure yet but I might part spray it a better colour then paint a SMOJO cigar box guitar banner across the front.

Just when I was getting over the excitement of this little find, I found something even better. Check out this baby. It's an old (maybe 1940's) extension loudspeaker made for plugging into an old valve (tube) radio. Measures about 12x10 inches. Look at the fantastic retro design of it. Made from bent plywood it has a cool bakelite volume control knob with the makers name embossed on it. The speaker grill has a nice old patterned cloth behind it. So what's the big deal? Well how about fitting a 1/4 jack socket and wiring it to a small battery powered amp inside the cabinet. I can fit a new volume pot but use the original knob. What a cracking little retro amp it will make for playing my CBGs through and I imagine the sound quality will be pretty rich with the heavy ply construction. It will definitley bee a keeper for me when it's done.

Here's a screen rough graphic of a possible design for the case drum. What do you reckon?