hot from Boxstock 2011

I feel like I've got a head full of bees, so many thoughts buzzing around. Fresh back from our 3rd UK cigar box guitar annual festival and what a belter it was. Held at The Public in West Bromwich UK. This time I drove down the day before. I've been busy making electronic stuff to take and wanted to set up my little stall before the big day. Some of the other guys usually meet up too and there was an open mic planned in the evening at the Barge and Barrel pub. Wasn't gonna miss that. Lovely sunny day too - perfect.

I was amazed at the level of talent at the open mic. Chickenbone John, who organised all this, kicked off the evening with a couple of numbers then it was pretty much non-stop, high octane cigar box music till midnight. Some of the guys I already knew but also some fresh talent.

Saturday was the big event. An all-day CBG fest with workshops, stalls and some playing. First hour or so was just spent chatting with old and new friends, checking out each other's gear and browsing the stalls. C.B. John had organised a beginners' building workshop. He'd put together a number of cheap, easy build kits so that newcomers could see how a cigar box guitar is constructed, learn some basic skills and have a playable guitar at the end of it. Following that they would have a beginning players' workshop to jump-start their CBG journey. What a brilliant idea.

Meanwhile I was holding a show and tell session and starting it off with my electronic stuff - various mics, circuit bent toys and my pseudo theremins. Seemed to go down well. Lunch time came and went in a flash but during the break, downstairs in the lobby, various performers played for us. Back to the main events in the afternoon we were treated to players workshops with Hollowbelly and Chickenbone John and another open mic session.

The afternoon was wound up with our first AGM. Just enough time to leg it back to the hotel, freshen up, a quick meal then back to the Public for the evenings entertainment in the Theatre. What a treat we were gonna get. An international line-up, headlined by Ben Prestage from the USA. I'm gonna leave it there for today as I'm pretty whacked out. I'll be back with more info in the next day or two.

two weeks to Boxstock - the third UK cigar box guitar fest

It's only two weeks away folks. This is gonna be even better than the last two. Starting with an informal Friday night open mic session in a local pub, then the big day on Saturday. There'll be talks and workshops and lots of like minded folk to get to know. weird and wonderful instruments to see, some to buy. In the evening a gig. Ben Prestage is coming over from the States, Tinqui8 from France and our own Brit-man Hollowbelly will be playing. I'll be there with a few things for sale, might even do the open mic and there's a possibility of a talk on circuit bending and home made mics and amps. So if you want a cracking CBG weekend get your tickets ordered ASAP. Only £25 for all that, I call it a bargain. Follow the link below for more details.

september in cigar box guitar world

I guess it's september in everybody's world but I had to think of a title! What I'm getting at is that summer is nearly over already and in CBG world that means it's not long until Boxfest at Birmingham. If you haven't been to one before you really should try to make it. This is our third year in the UK. Lot's of great stuff going on, workshops, open mic, lot's of like minded folk to chat to and instruments to look at and a cracking gig lined up in th evening. You'll be buzzing for days after. If you want to know more and how to get tickets visit this link. http://www.homegrownmusiccollective.com/page3.htm So I've been busy with my electronic stuff again making a few things to take to the fest. Made three tobacco tin amps (one is on order from a guy who sent me the tin) and a cool amp in a small wooden cigar box. They're based on the LM386 chip in case you wondered. I'm also on with some electret mics. These are tiny components that require a battery to work. You can make contact mics from piezos which are great for some things but the electrets give a wider frequency response and are less prone to feedback (apparently) What would you use them for? Well because they are small you can drop them inside instruments that a piezo would be unsuitable for. e.g. an accordian, flute, bagpipes, or how about a guitar that you can't get to the insides of. I haven't tried them in a practical situation yet but I'm thinking of putting one in the old indian harmonium I just bought. Then I can connect it to fx pedals, amps, mixers etc to get some interesting sounds. All this means still no new cigar box guitars but as I still have a couple of spare ones for sale there's no big motivation to build more just yet and space is getting tight in my attic. I'll post some pics soon. I mentioned the India Harmonium. I've been fancying one for a while but they are pretty expensive. Well I spotted on in a junk/antique shop a few weeks ago. I had to have a look at it and the price was £75. Pretty much a bargain as it is a three reed one with 5 or 6 drones. If you don't know what these things are or sound like check them out on Youtube. They are really cool. You pump them with a bellows thingy at the back with one hand and play the keys with the other. But you can pull some stops out to produce a constant drone in key with your playing. Well after checking it out and hearing it work I decided to be cheeky and ask if they were open to offers. They let me have it for £65. There's some minor damage to the casing and one reed seems to squeal but for that price it's a great buy. Here's a photo of it. Hopefully I can make some music soon with it, and combine it with some CBG playing for something a little different to listen to.

cigar box guitar update August

As you may have noticed my CBG output has been a bit sparse the last few months. Fear not, it's still alive and kicking but in need of a good meal. I'm still heavily into my electronic stuff and I only have so much time to devote to this hobby. I'm about to start a batch of tobacco tin amps after a request from someone to build one into his own tin. So I may as well make a couple more whilst tooled up for it.

The circuit bending stuff has been taking most of my spare time. But the Barnsley CBG workshop gave me a bit of a boost. I guess I had got into a bit of a rut with my CBG playing and was spending more time on 6 string playing. But C.B. John showed us some different tunings which sparked my interest again. It also made me re-think about what I want from a cigar box guitar. My thoughts are split and sometimes contradictory. On the one hand I love the ethos of throwing together a playable instrument from a few bits of reclaimed materials and a cigar box. On the other hand, as I progress with my own music, I am finding I want the CBG to be a little more versatile.

At first I poo-pooed the idea of frets and magnetic pickups, vol controls etc but I'm coming around to the idea of making CBGs a little more sophisticated. I used to think "why not just buy a cheap strat or something" but it's not as clear cut as that now. I really like playing with just 3 strings but want a bit more quality of sound and to be able to play simple chords and fingered licks as opposed to just slide. So I might re-visit some of my own CBGs and upgrade one or two if possible.

So the message is, don't get stuck in a rut with your thinking or playing. Don't be a slave to your own ideals (or anyone elses). Be prepared to move on, change your views, experiment. Life never stands still but if you're not careful you can get held back by your own beliefs when they are no longer fully appropriate. Remember the CBGers number 1 rule "there are no rules". And don't trap yourself in your own rules.

Keep on flying the flag for do it yourself music.

Polish club Barnsley gets cbg'd

Chickenbone John hosted a CBG event at Barnsley at the Polish Club this weekend. Open mic on the Friday night and a players workshop on the Saturday afternoon. And it was free. How good is that, it doesn't get much better? Not a massive turnout but that made it all the better for those of us that went. It was a small friendly crowd, about half locals and half CBGers. John took the stage for the first half playing some cracking blues on his guitars. The second half saw a few of our very own CBG artists, Yellowbelly Flatt, Ant on his cigar box banjo, Soulcatcher and Kev to name the ones I remember. A cool mix of styles. John ended the session with a few more numbers.

Saturday afternoon and John led us through a players workshop. There was a mix of abilities, some beginners and some more advanced but eager to learn players. John gave us a good few hours of his expert time and I'm sure we all took something away to benefit our playing. I particulary liked the G minor tuning he showed us. G,A#,D -try it. It has an almost out of tune ring about it (may just be the restrictions of a cigar box guitar) but a melancholic sound that when I noodled some chords and licks, it reminded me very much of a a Reverand Gary Davis number called Death Hath no Mercy. I saw him playing it on a Stefan Grosman video with a small audience in a sort of studio shack-style setting in the 1960s. It's one of the saddest performance I ever saw. Anyway I came away inspired by the workshop with some new ideas to play with and even sketched out a song this morning based on my chord progressions. I called it Death is a Stealer. Now where did I get that idea from?

Check out Catfish Keith on Youtube, John talked about him. I wasn't aware of him until the workshop but he plays some pretty neat slide guitar. I'm sure you'll like it.

drone box oscillator synth

At last I've got Youtube working again and I've uploaded some quick demos of the drone box I've been building. The video sounds don't do it justice. It sounds wicked when hooked up to some fx and a decent amp.

some of my music on soundcloud

Just found this site where you can upload your music to share with the world. I've put some of my cigar box guitar and circuit bent recordings on it.
http://soundcloud.com/smojomusic

free cigar box guitar open mic and workshop

Just announced - Chickenbone John is organising a free CBG event at Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Beginners and more experienced players/builders welcome. Looks like being a cool event. If you're able to get there it'll be worth the effort! I'm gonna do my best to make it, hope some of you will too. Here's a link to the forum too so you can take a peek at what he's planned.

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/group/thebritsarecoming/forum/topics/its-grim-up-northcbg-open-mic

June and a little cigar box guitar news

Just heard from my mate over in Manchester that he's planning a CBG gig at his local pub in November. One of our top uk CBG gigging men - Hollowbelly will be playing. He describes himself as punk blues and it'll be a great gig. Provisionally it's gonna be 26th Nov but I'll confirm nearer the time. If you're in that neck of the woods, be sure to come along for a brilliant evening. I'm gonna be there!

I'm having trouble with bloody Youtube again. Taking forever to load the page, then it's all screwed up and I can't get into it to upload anything new or answer any comments. So my apologies if you are waiting for a reply or looking for new material from me. Can't figure out what's wrong but they probably changed something in the name of progress and my ageing laptop can't handle it. Hoping to get a new one soon, then I can spend more time being creative with it rather than trying to fix it.

I'm still not making any new guitars as I'm fully immersed in holidaying, decorating, running around after old folks and when I do get some time to be creative, it's a bit of electron-trickery/circuit-bending rather than CBG building. Just completed my NAND gate oscillators in the old box and it's a pretty wicked machine. I'm hoping to get to grips with it's music making potential and somehow weave it's manic pulsey noisies into something listenable, ideally a bit of CBG palyed over it. Watch this space.

I do have a couple of CBGs for sale. If you want details just email me.

A side benefit of CBG playing for me is that it pushed me toward fingerstyle playing to the point that even when playing standard 6 stringers, I hardly ever use a plectrum now. In fact it feels quite awkward. The limit of three strings to play with on a CBG made it fairly easy to get into fingerstyle plucking. You just need a thumb and one or two fingers. Glad to say I still have all four fingers which I was trying to use when I first attempted fingerstyle in pre-CBG days. I realise now that two are plenty, in fact many of the old time blues players just used thumb and one finger. I think Blind Gary Davis did and he often played a 12 stringer! So if you've tried and failed fingerstyle on 6 strings before. Try getting to grips with it on a 3-string CBG, you'll find it falls into place quite easily.

Bye for now, enjoy summer, it's gone quicker than you think.

cigar box guitar update - May

Well a month has passed in a flash and I don't seem to have done much CBG stuff. Still messing about with the oscillator box which is nearly finished so I'll show you that soon. I watched Jools Hollands Later on tv the other night and was pleased to see Seasick Steve on there playing a CBG. I guess he'll be on again tomorrow (Friday night) so if you can get BBC2 watch out for that.

I'm on the hunt for a parlour sized 6 stringer. Playing CBGs has got me into fingerstyle playing and on something small that's comfy when you're sat on the sofa watching boring crap on tv, so hence a parlour guitar. I called at a small music store that looked like something from a Dickens book. Dark and dusty and full of intriguing instruments. On the wall I spotted a very old one string CBG and something weird that used a tortoisehell with a skin stretched over it for the guitar body. Whoa and I thought CBGs were weird!

The UK group HGMC is picking up members now. I think we're at about 70 so far. If you're in the UK be sure to check it out and think about joining. And definitley think about going to the Boxfest in Birmingham in October. We have our own Hollowbelly, France's Tinqui8, and Ben Prestage from the USA playing at the evening gig. That's gonna be worth going for on it's own but the daytime workshops, open mic and stalls make it an event not to be missed.

Anyhow, keep checking in here now and then, there's bound to be something of interest even if it's not strictly cigar box guitars.