this and that cigar box guitar stuff

Been busy with decorating the bedroom so the important stuff (CBGs) has had to take a back seat. The two new guitars are taking shape now, hopefully they'll be finished in a week or so.

There's a new forum-style website started up for handmade instruments. I can't give out the URL yet as it's not gone public at the moment. The creator is Ted Crocker who's claim to fame is the builder of the fabulous guitar in "The Honeydripper"film. It's shaping up to be an interesting site with sections on percussion, wind and other types of instrument building as well as CBGs. It was here that I saw some fabulous hand made slides made for bones. They are customised for the buyer with engraved designs and you can have your name etched into it too. I've ordered one and will show you it when I get it. I'll give you the URL to the craftsman who makes them, once I get the slide.

It's coming up to my 4th anniversary in cigar box guitar world. I saw one on Ebay, loved the look of it, my wife said she'd buy it for me for Christmas and I immediately fell in love with it and started making my own. I'm just as enthusiastic as ever about them and I'm pleased to say there is a growing number of builders and players in the UK now. This year marked out first UK cbg fest and I'm sure there'll be another next year. I've met some great folks, both in the flesh and online through this crazy stuff and I'd like to say a big thanks to all who have visited my site, here and on Youtube and the encouraging comments and emails that some of you have left.

I have a list of ideas and projects I'd like to complete in the future so plenty of material to write about here. Please keep dropping in to see what I'm doing occasionally. I'm intending getting further into my playing and some recording as well as continuing to build more handmade blues beasts.

metal slides for cigar box guitars

The guitars I make are purely for slide playing. The slide I use and like best is a heavy brass tube. I have tried pyrex which is a very thin glass. The glass is quite soft and scratches after a while. They break when you drop them too, hence I don't have one any more. They are too lightweight for my liking. Heavier slides are good for creating a decent vibrato too, they seem to "wobble" better on your finger. Real glass bottlenecks are cool being heavy but are hard to make. I've tried copper tubing making slides from hot water pipes but copper is too soft too and gives a dull sound compared to brass. I reckon a decent chromed tube would be good too.

I've been looking for scrap brass or chrome tubing to make some slides to go with my guitars. I called at a scrap metal merchant today and bought an old chromed towel rail. The type that is plumbed into your heating system. It's brass underneath. I reckon I can cut it up into small lengths, file the ends smooth and make about 40 slides out of it. I'm going to make one soon as a prototype so I'll report back on how good it is. I like the idea of recycling too. Most parts of the guitars are from recycled materials and it has a good vibe, good mojo, to make useful things out of scrap.

Update 19 Oct 2007 - I made a couple and they are great, nice smooth action and clean sound