cigar box guitar resolutions

I don't like making new year resolutions because they usually don't last long. It's not a bad idea in away though, it helps to focus on what you want to achieve. I've a number of things I want to get done and they're noy big tasks. It just takes time and commitment. Maybe it's the Winter blues or maybe because my job has been at risk for a few months but I've been lacking motivation for creativity. It's still there but it takes a lot of effort to get the juices flowing. Here's what I want to do and we'll see how I get on.

1. Put the finishing touches of straps and logos to a couple of guitars
2. Photograph them and put them on here and my website at www.smojomusic.co.uk
3. Make some effort to sell them so I can recoup some costs and :-
4. Make some more cigar box amps with the money
5. Sell some amps :)
6. Make some "proper" bottleneck slides. I have a tile cutter and a pile of empty wine bottles which I have been meaning to have a go at
7. Write some more instructions on making CBGs to put on here (sorry if you've been waiting for the next installment)
8. Make a hard case with built in portable amp -see my next blog for an explanation

That's it - should keep me going till next New Year at least,

Happy New cigar box guitar Year

Hi and Happy New Year. Haven't done much cbg work lately with Christmas etc. I'm pleased with the cigar box amplifier I made. I have a few small modifications to make otherwsie I'm happy enough with it to offer it for sale eventually. I've been experimenting with making other instruments but none have been particularly successful yet. Time to get back to cbg building I think. Watch out for more on here soon.

More cigar box guitar music

Just added three more clips of my cigar box guitar music to my Multiply site. You can find it here:-

http://smojo.multiply.com/music/item/1

Cigar Box Amplifier

For some time I've been meaning to have a go at making a small portable amplifier, built into a cigar box to complement my guitars. Well at last I got around to it. It looks and sounds pretty cool. Pretty good volume too.

It's based on a Maplin kit amp which I've put into a Romeo Y Juliet cigar box. It's powered by battery just has a volume control but you could use effects pedals with it if you want distortion, reverb etc.

Trying to record some cigar box guitar music

Well I've been trying to get something down onto MP3 so I can put some clips of these little instruments on my site. It's proving to be more difficult than I thought. I bought a Korg PXR4 mini studio some time ago but never got to grips with it but I'm having another go. I'm nearly there with it. Just real basic yet though. I managed to save a single track to my PC but it's in MP2 format. You can play that on media player but this site doesn't support that. Trying to convert to MP3 but can't find an application on my PC to do that yet. Found a Korg thing that converts MP2 to WAV though but the files are too big to post but maybe I can convert that to MP3. There must be an easier way phew!

Update - I did it. Here it is http://smojo.multiply.com/music/item/1

Blues - The Devil's music? - maybe not

Where did that come from anyway? Well first there's the story about Robert Johnson supposedly selling his soul to the devil. If you haven't heard the story, he met the devil at the crossroads and sold his soul in return for the gift of playing guitar really well. Interestingly, he was not a particularly gifted guitarist at first then he disappeared for some time and came back later as an ace player. Maybe he just practised a lot and got better rather than take the risky route of selling his soul!

Also the old bluesmen were always singing about "mojo hands" etc which was a left-over from their African voodoo past. I guess Christians would consider that the work of the devil.

An interesting fact though is that the blues scales often use the "flat 5th" which gives it that distinctive melancholy unresolved sound. It gained a reputation in the Middle Ages as "the Devil's interval" or "Diabolus in Musica"- a note that sits midway along the chromatic scale. The churchmen of the time thought that anything which sits exactly half way along anything must be the work of God but this note sounded so terrible to their ears so must be the work of the Devil! It was actually banned form being used in any religious music.

Personally I think blues is far from the "work of the Devil". It has a definite healing quality. Certainly for the people who create and play it. Like most music it is an expression of the feelings and emotions of the composer/player. Those old slaves had more than enough emotion and built up angst to get off their chests. It's often what got them through their difficult lives. Many of them converted to Christianity and became devout followers - blues often turned to Gospel and it's not hard to spot the bluesy roots of this fantastic brand of music sung in churches all over America.

Devils' music? - I don't think so - but it's a cool title anyway ;)

Making cigar box guitar part 1

How easy is it? Relatively easy providing you have some basic woodworking skills and tools. You can probably knock something playable together without too much fuss but if you get "bitten" by the CBG bug, you'll want to refine your instruments and make something a bit more pleasing to the eye and to play. I'm going to describe the basics of what's involved in making my guitars, then you can modify it to your own methods and styles. I will break it down into several posts so please keep coming back here for the next part.

Part 1 - initial considerations:-

Although they are fairly simple instruments you need to give it some thought if you want to make one. Do you have the skills and tools and materials needed? These are the bare necessities:-
Tools -

• Some sort of workbench and ideally a vice to hold timber/lumber.
• A small handsaw
• measure
• drill and various bits
• couple of screwdrivers
• tri-square
• sandpaper
• craft knife
• small hammer

You'll struggle if that's all you've got though. Nice to have but - don't dash out and buy them all at once, you can get by without them:-

• coping saw or jig saw for cutting shapes
• circular or bandsaw to rip down wood for necks
• router
• smoothing plane
• rasp for smoothing rough corners of wood
• bradawl
• soldering iron (if you want to fit electrics or burn on fret markings)
• wood chisel
• couple of small G clamps
  

Skills - obviously you need basic skills at using these tools but you don't need to be an expert cabinet maker!

Materials -

• cigar box - wood not cardboard. It could be plain wood or the type that has paper covering it. A good size is about 10 x 6 x 2 inches roughly
• a piece of hardwood - oak, mahogany, maple, beech etc. approx 2 x 1 inch and about 40 inches long
• two screws about 2 inch long and washers to go with them
• woodworking (PVA) glue
• set of 12 guage acoustic guitar strings (cheapest will do)
• threaded bolt for the "nut"
• machine heads for tuning - you could improvise with wooden pegs or screw eyes but in the end it's worth buying some proper ones. I use "three in a line" types that fit at the back of the headstock. A full set will make two three string guitars so they are very economical. You don't need Kluson or Grovers either! - just something that does the job
• three small eye screws - more about them later

Part 2 to follow - preparing the neck.

Myspace

Just opened a Myspace account. I'm hoping to put some CBG sound clips on eventually. Nothing much in it yet, still trying to suss it but here it is if you want to have a look.

http://www.myspace.com/smojo_cigar_box_guitars

Hello to my visitors

Hello everyone. I'm getting a steady flow of visitors here which is quite exciting for such a minority subject. I can see from my sitemeter that they are coming from many different parts of the world. Mainly USA ,the UK and Belgium. I know there's a lot of interest in CBGs in the USA, but Belgium was a pleasant surprise. There's been visits from Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Alaska, Canada, Japan, Poland, Hungary, Mexico too.

I don't know who you all are but would love some feedback. How much interest in CBGs is there in your country? Are any of you making them? How long have you been interested in CBGs? Do you play guitar? Please leave me some comments or e-mail me. I'd like to know a bit about you all. Regards from David

P.S. I'm planning a series of posts on how to build a CBG so check me out occassionally here at
http://www.smojo-cigar-box-guitars.blogspot.com/

Not a cigar box - a salad bowl guitar

Mooching around the web for unusual guitars I found this site. They are made from wooden saladbowls, have eight strings and sound like Indian sitars. They're great. You can only access certain areas of the site if you register but you can hear a soundclip without registering. Click on the music tab to hear it. I'm thinking of making one.