October in Smojo's cigar box guitar world

Well that's just about the end of summer, soon we'll be cabin'd up for the winter. It always depresses me, the thought of having to wait six months before we emerge again. But it's a good time to get on with some projects. October is now a landmark for UK cbgers with the Birmingham fest coming up very soon. It's shaping up nicely already. I've seen a preview of Lesley's short documentary and if you're still hovering about whether to got to the fest, we get to see the full version plus Max Shores long docu about them that was aired on the U.S. tv channels last year.

I've somehow let myself get drawn into doing a demo at the fest. I'll be featuring the Akai Headrush mainly and a few other bits. Kinda scary as I'm not used to public appearances but I know I'll be buzzing with excitement when I get through it. There's some kind of weird masochistic element here. Something pushes me on to do some public stuff but my old shy self wants to run a mile! Can you figure that one? I'm blowed if I can. anyway I hope to see some of you good people at the fest. Come and say hello and forgive me if I don't immediately know who you are.

What's happening here then? The two new cbgs haven't progressed much due to hospital visiting my old mum who fell and broke her hip. I need to find some time to crack on with them. I'm also doing some practising for the Akai demo. These looping pedals really are fantastic toys. If I could choose to keep just one pedal - it would be this one. There are probably better loopers out there but I like this because it's quite simple and has a great tape delay facility. You can really push your creativity with this thing without needing a degree in music.

I have a lovely old red Kit-Kat tin and I'm hoping to make a guitar out of it once I finish the two on the bench. When I do it will definitely be another "keeper". I'm also trying to devise a simple two channel combiner that will fit in a baccy tin. No batteries or power. Just want to combine a CBG and a mic into one output so I can connect it to the Akai pedal. I have a small mixer that will do the job to perfection but it's a bit cumbersome to hawk around. If there are any electronics wizards reading this and you know how I can make one, please drop me a line.

and another toy and two new CBGs

Yup, another cool toy to add to my armoury. It's a Tapco Blend 6 mixer. I needed a small mixer to be able to combine several souces into the Headrush. So now I can connect a guitar and mic into the Headrush which will be allow me to add vocals or acoustic instruments when using the looping facility. The Blend 6 is made by mackie and very well built. It's been discontinued now so you'll have trouble finding one but watch out on Ebay for a used bargain - that's where I bought mine.

I've got two new guitars on the bench, half built. One's a Partagas, plain wood box and will get the ageing treatment similar to the Monte 3 that I made. The other is a Cuban box, first one I've seen like this and it's really pretty. Watch out for photos of them in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile here's a link to me using the looping facility on the Headrush and a CBG.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTy8Z5Gt38o