7th anniversary of my first cigar box guitar

Just looked back and realised it's seven years since I started on this CBG path.  I spotted my first one on Ebay and loved the look of it, knew nothing about them but wanted it. My wife bought it for me for Christmas. As they say the rest is history. In that time I've had some fantastic fun with them, made some great friends - one in particular has become a best buddy. Been instrumental in getting the UK CBG fest established and had some cracking events with them (most credit due to Chickenbone John, who incidentally was the guy who made my first one). I've had some of my guitars photographed with a couple of minor celebrities, had a backstage tour and free tickets to the Buena Vista musical show, rekindled my interest in electronics, sold some stuff which has funded the purchase of more gear to add to my collection. It's been one of the best journeys I've made.

Now I know I've been very quiet on the CBG front this year. That's been down to a few reasons. Busy building my own 6 string reso, building a DIY synth box and just to keep me occupied in between, we have had to deal with the deaths of two close members of the family, and three other members being hospitalised involving us with a helluva lot of visting. 2012 has been one helluva year for us but ... I'm still here and though I haven't anything new to report on in CBG world, as it's coming to the end of the year, I just wanted to reflect back and also say a big thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read my ramblings, report back to me and give me your support. Now this is not meant as "own trumpet blowing"  but I have to say these are the real rewards for me, trivial as they may seem it's just great to know my efforts haven't been a waste of time and might have helped uplift and inspire others to find their passion too. It's that passion that helps to make life fun and help get you through the rough times.

I started writing this blog and posting on Youtube because I was just incredibly enthusiastic about the subject and wanted to tell others who might want to know more. One of the best parts of finding something that fires your passion, is being able to share it with like minded people. I've had some great feedback from people who have seen my stuff and written to say how how they enjoyed it and in some cases, inspired them to get involved themselves. One man told me how it had turned his son's life around, given him motivation. Another young man wrote asking lot's of questions, then having been inspired by building cigar box guitars, went on to do some luthier courses and started building his own plastic bodied 6 string electrics based on the old Airline guitars of the 60s - and what fabulous guitars he made! Recently a young lady contacted me to help her on a cigar box guitar project she is doing as part of her college course (more on that in my next blog).

So let's hope we can keep this fire going, enjoy our cigar box guitar adventures and have fun. Hope you all have a great Christmas and that Santa brings you some nice cigar box related toys.

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

April update

I feel slightly guilty that I aren't writing about cigar box guitars seeing as this blog is about them. The reason being, that I haven't made any for a little while since I really got into electronics but let me explain where I'm coming from and how it all fits into the ethos of what this stuff is all about. I think it's right to say that most people are into CBGs because they look cool and different but also because there's a certain perverseness about it. Making a great playable instrument from an old cigar box and a stick. It's sort of sticking two fingers up at the big manufacturers who charge thousands for their guitars and saying "I can make something sound pretty damn good out of a heap of junk". So after I'd made a few guitars I naturally wanted a cool little amp to go with it, hence the re-interest in electronics. I found it just as enjoyable making an amp as I did making the guitars. That led me onto making a few other related things out of junk - tobacco tin mics using old telephone receivers, a simple two channel mixer (more of a combiner - no batteries required). Then I somehow discovered "circuit bending" - modifying electronic toys and other devices to make more interesting sounds. On the surface it seems a long way from making c.b. guitars but it's the same ethos behind it. Taking something that was intended for an entrirely different purpose, modifying it and adding your own creative stamp to it, to produce a cool, fun packed instrument. So first efforts were attempts at toys and I'm pretty pleased with one of them. You can see it on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/smojomusic#p/u/9/j6KJD_SkTEk Then I discovered the wonderful book by Nic Collins "Handmade Electronic Music". He has made some amazingly weird stuff and you might want to look for him on Youtube also. What has got me fired up now are the circuit designs he decribes using logic chips to make oscillators. Again the CBG ethos holds good as he is using chips that were designed for computers and other digital devices and making them perform in a musical way,. By combining several oscillators together you can make some pretty cool synth and drone sounds. You can use them to make a simple tremolo box and panners and mixers for combining several devices together plus many other ideas. Nic shows you just how to do it in a fairly easy to understand way. So that's where I'm at at the moment. I will come back around to talking about CBGs but I have to explore this path a little further yet. I have a project part finished using the old electrical tester box I showed you a while ago. It's shaping up nicely and I hope to somehow combine the drone/synth type sounds from it with some CBG playing. No idea how that's going to come out but that's all part of the fun - musical adventures. If you decide to look for some of these noise boxes or circuit bent toys on Youtube, you might be forgiven for quickly getting bored and even irritated at the squeaks and squeals that come out of them. I figure the main reason is that most people who have posted vids of their creations, have little or no musical talent. They are mainly electronics geeks. So don't let that put you off having a go at making some if you are interested. If you have some musical knowledge/skills, it's fairly easy to apply the same principles of music making to these devices. Create a regular beat or rhythm with them and try to find sounds that harmonise with each other. If you look at the boring stuff you'll realise that that is what's missing. Most people are simply demonstrating what weird noises they can get out of them rather than trying to make something listenable. I'll try to demonstrate that for you. Visit my website here http://www.smojomusic.co.uk/ and scroll down the home page to the jukebox. Have a listen to "While Giants Sleep". The ticking clock and the snoring sounds were created on the circuit bent toy and looped on my Akai Headrush. I then added some melancholic cigar box guitar playing over it. Hope it might inpsire you to try something different yourelves.