Catfish Keith

Righto here's the lowdown on the Catfish Keith gig last night - simply brilliant. Just a small gig which was nice and intimate, I got to sit right in front of the stage. He played three guitars and a foot stomp box. Guitars were a National tricone reso, a small parlour style 6 stringer and a beautiful luthier built 12 stringer based on an old Stella. This guy can really play and his vocals are powerful and expressive. He's a great fingerpicker and slide player. If you love old style blues with a gospel flavour you'll love this guy. He's a really cool fella and easy to talk to. His musical influences come from the likes of Rev Gary Davis, Mississippi Fred Mcdowell, Jesse Mae Hemphill, Blind Willie Johnson, Leadbelly to name a few. That might give you an idea of his style of music. Very much a delta sound. Some of his numbers were quite mesmerising especially when he played the 12 stringer. He's touring the UK right now so why not check out his website and if he's appearing near you, go see him - you won't be disappointed.

http://www.catfishkeith.com/

cigar box guitar tuning - a little theory

Probably the most popular string/tuning configuration for cbgs is three strings open tuned to a chord. Why and how can you get a chord with just three strings when 'proper' guitars have six? My musical theory knowledge is pretty limited but I think I can make some sense of this for you. If you hold down an E major chord on a six-string guitar and work out the notes played on each string, starting at the lowest string (the sixth) and working to the highest (first) strings we get these notes E B E G# B E

You'll spot the obvious here, three E notes two Bs and a G# - just three notes, not six. OK so the three Es do sound diferent to each other but it's just a question of them being in different octaves or pitches but nevertheless they are the same musically. Same applies to the two Bs. So in theory we only need three notes to make a major chord (in fact it's the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes from the scale of E Major - E G# B). The extra notes on a six string are simply adding more harmonics to the same notes giving a richer and fuller sounding chord than if we only used three.

So back to our three stringed cbg. You'll find one of the most popular tunings actually only use two of these notes. If we wanted the guitar tuned to open E we can use E B E (forget the G#) The Es are one octave apart. On a six stringer they could be found on the 6th string open (E), 5th string 2nd fret (B) and 4th string 2nd fret (E). It's basically a power chord. It makes a nice bluesy chord when played with a slide.

If you want the guitar tuned to a different key instead of E, just transpose the 1st and 5th notes from the major scale of the key you want. So for open G you could use G D G for open A use A E A and so on. Has that fried your brain now or made a little more sense of tunings ? There are others of course but this one will get you started on some nice bluesy, folky sounding stuff.

new Monte Christo and Cuaba CBGs

Some photos of my latest creations.

some cigar box guitar basics - tuning

I Just thought it was time to go back to a few basics. I've probably said these things before in older posts but it's worth mentioning again for any newbie CBGers. All my guitars so far, have been made specifically for slide playing so they don't have fretwires. They just have markings as a guide, so all these comments relate specifiaclly to slide guitars and playing them.

First let's look at tuning. The bridges on most of my guitars are 'floating'. In other words they aren't glued or fixed to the body. That allows them to have fine adjustments made to the 'intonation', which is the first thing we need to check. Play a note on an open string (I usually start with the 1st). Listen to it carefully then place your slide directly over the 12th fret position and play that string again. It should be exactly an octave above the open note. You'll find it easier to get this accurate if you use a narrow metal rod such as the shaft of a screwdriver. If it's not correct, then move the bridge back or forward slightly until it is. De-tensioning the strings a little will take pressure off it and make it easier to move. If you have to change the strings, it's easier if you do one at a time. That way the bridge will stay where it is and avoid you having to do this each time.

Now to tune up - I normally tune to an open chord such as E, A or D. You can't change the tunings very far by winding the machine heads up or down so if it's currently in low open E and you want it in A, you need lighter strings. You need to make sure the tension on them is right. So how do you know what to use, this is how I do it and it works well. Think about standard tunings EADGBE. Now think about the popular open D tuning on a six-string - DADF#AD. Now if I wanted the guitar in low open E and only have three strings I would tune it to (low)EBE. Look at the standard tuning on the bottom three strings - its E(low)AD. So it makes sense to me that if I use the 6th, 5th and 4th strings from a standard set (I usually use 12s for CBGs), the tensions are going to about be right to give me my low open E chord. Tune the 6th as standard to E and the 5th and 4th can comfortably be tensioned up two semi tones to give me the B and higher E.

So using this principle I would use the 5th 4th and 3rd strings (ADG) from a 12 guage set to give me an open A which would be AEA. I just need to tune up two semi tones on the 4th(D) and 3rd(G) to get me there. This tuning up on some strings is the main reason I make my guitars with a short scale. Using standard strings on a short scale guitar means they need slightly lower tension to put them in true concert pitch, so that gives me some scope for over tensioning them slightly to get my open chords.

Lastly, a word about the necks. If you were buying a standard guitar, one of your main priorities would be making sure the neck was dead straight. These CBGs don't have anything as sophisticated as struss rods and so you will see there is often a substantial bend in the necks. Also that the action is incredibly high. This is perfectly fine for slide playing, in fact it's an advantage so don't be concerned about it. I use hard woods such as oak, mahogany, beech etc so there is no danger of them snapping under normal use.

Hope you found this helpful. Next post will be slide playing basics.