where now with cigar box guitars - building a Jazzmaster

This is quite difficult to write but I have pretty much hung up my saddle with cigar box guitars. I have found that my creative urges have moved on to other things. You'll know from reading my posts that I am also heavily into electronic circuit bending and that I have also been making a six string resonator guitar. Well those activities have distracted me from cigar box guitar world.

I don't know about you but this is how it goes with me. I am a very creative person - I need to be making something and my interests are quite wide and varied. When I get "into" something I really get into it for a while. My enthusiasm burns bright and I go for it. But I find that it will dominate my thinking and creative energies to the point where other hobbies or interests get put on the back burner. Plus I like to keep trying new things. Well cigar box guitar just haven't had much of a look in for a while now and coupled with the fact that I haven't sold any for a long time, there is no need to keep making them. My music room is already crammed full of stuff.

I even gave the UK Boxfest a miss this year. My cbg buddy wasn't able to go so I passed on it too. Now I haven't given up on them completely but there are just so many other things to occupy myself with for the time being. So I'm sorry if I am letting the side down and by not writing about them anymore and if you've come here for the first time looking for stuff on cigar box guitars, don't click away too quickly, there are lost of posts in the archives here to whet your appetite.

I'm going to continue adding stuff here when I can but it probably won't be cbg material but .... you might just find it interesting anyway. I'm sure none of you are one-trick ponies and like to dabble with other musical related subjects. I can guarantee it will be mostly musically inclined and in the style of guitar box guitar building  - pretty much home made and left-field. So thanks for your support over the last few years, I've enjoyed doing this and "it's not over till the fat lady sings"

So what am I doing at the moment. Well I'm building a Fender Jazzmaster style guitar. After making the solid body resonator, I wanted to use my newly learned luthier skills and have a go at another "proper" guitar. I had a new cheap telecaster style guitar that I didn't want anymore but it has a lovely neck, so I've taken that off to use as a donor for the new JM. The body started out as a plank of English Ash. I've glued two pieces together to make a body sized plank and routed out the shape, most of the pockets and attached the neck. Here's a photo of it so far. Jazzmasters are cool guitars, so although not as far out as cbgs, they are still slightly left-field in guitar world. I'll continue to log my progress if you want to come back and see how it's going occasionally.

Oh and I'm building a small amp using a donor practise amp built into the cabinet of an old Bakelite valve (tube) wireless. On my to do list when I get time, I want to build a Gristleizer pedal. If you've never heard of them check them out on Youtube. They are cool too. So plenty to come back for. See ya soon.

new camcorder and Youtube

Hi folks, I'm still here but not been doing much on the cigar box guitar front lately. I seem to have been more involved with my electronic activities. I really feel I need to get on with playing, experimenting and recording some music so the building side of things has taken a bit of a back seat. You know how it is with these things. The creative drive seems to get focussed in one particular direction for me and my other stuff goes on the backburner.

For some time I've been toying with getting a camcorder but didn't want to spend too much money on one and didn't want to get distracted with a new hobby. The main reasons for getting one is that the stuff I put on Youtube is quite low res because it's done on my little digital camera. It only allows me to do about 5 minutes or recording too so that's the reason I've not put any new stuff on for a while even though I've kept promising it. Well I found a cheap but adequate camcorder in a second-hand shop and so I'm intending to do a few vids soon. I want to show people my reso 6 stringer I built and a few of my circuit bent projects so don't give up on me just yet. I'll post on here when I've put something new on.

And here are a couple of new vids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19ThCkwj6VE my electric resonator guitar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RfWqeO9HvY and my "333" three string solid body cbg style guitar

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.

guitar builds 10 - 13

Apologies for leaving you hanging for a while. We had a death in the family and that has taken over my life for the last 6 weeks. So here's a mini report of the last 4 sessions.

Session 10 - routed the cavities for the pots to go in the upper and lower bouts of the body.
Session 11 - routed channels from pot cavities to cone chamber for wiring, drilled hole for jack socket and drilled soundholes in back of body. made small blocks and glued them in the cone recess to support it at the correct height.
Session 12 - Fine sanded neck and body then rubbed thinned down nitro-cellulose lacquer into body (two coats to seal it) and about 6 coats on the bak of neck and headstock. Fine wire wool brought the neck up as smooth as a baby's bum - nah smoother.

Session 13 - one of the scariest - spray painting the body and headstock front. About 10 coast at 15 minutes intervals to build up a decent thickness. I was worried about my crappy spraying techinique causing nasty runs on the guitar and sure enough I managed it. Martin assured me it wasn't a problem as we'll rub it down flat before finally polishing it to a high gloss. seems hard to believe it possible but I've seen his finished results and have confidence it will all be fine.

guitar build session 9

Missed another week but last wednesday I was back in the workshop with Martin my luthier/tutor. More neck work. A slight radius was sanded on the fretboard surface. Next, the frets. Starting at the body end of the neck I cut pieces of fretwire allowing a couple of mm overhang. The pre-slotted slots were gently cleaned of sawdust with a fine saw blade. The fretwire was gentyl presses into the slot. Using a small hammer head as a sort of punch, with masking tape to cushion it, using a mallet, the frets were tapped into place starting at one end and working across the face to the other end then the surplus snipped off. The ends of the frets are prevented from springing up with a drop of superglue on the them which sort of gets sucked into the slot. The hammer head was used to apply pressure for about 30 seconds until the glue had set. When all fitted, a file was used to smooth the ends flush with the neck edge. Then running the file lengthways at an angle, a bevel was put on them. The rest of the session was used to further shape the back of the headstock. Photos to come later.

new music track

At last I've been able to do some recording again. Been so busy with making amps and stuff that music making has taken a back seat. I started a project with a pal a while ago. He sings in a band called The Choppers who are out in Cambodia. He had a song idea and we played around with some riffs and managed to knock out a punky/rocky/bluesy sort of number. Took a few takes and it's a bit rough and ready (as I like it). Two guitar tracks on it are played on one of my CBGs and the vocals were done through my ex-military bakelite headset mic - hence the thin sound quality of the vocals. I've put it upo on Soundcloud - here's the link if you want to listen to it.

http://soundcloud.com/smojomusic/mayday

guitar build session 8

Missed a week of building last week. This week it was all on the neck again. Final filing of neck back profile and sanding to a nice finish. Drilled out holes and installed the mother of pearl fret marker dots and edge dots. Drilled out holes for machine heads. Still a fair bit to do but I put the body and neck lossley together so I could see what it's looking like. Starting to get exciting now.

turning vintage radios into amplifiers

So as well as building a more conventional 6-stringer guitar, you might be pleased to hear about something more in line with cigar box mentality - i.e. taking something that was meant for another purpose and making it into something more fun and appropriate for making your own music. My latest adventure is taking old vintage radios from the 60s and 70s, hacking into the wiring, adding a 1/4 inch jack socket and turning it into a small amp. These things are so cool, why has it taken me so long to get into it? The older radios like these have a fairly decent power output. At half volume with a guitar plugged in they have a pretty clean sound but crank them up full and they overdrive nicely - rather like a small valve amp. Loud enough for your home and maybe enough to annoy the neighbours. They make great practise amps but just look so cool. I've done a few videos, take a look and see what you think. This one is a "keeper" though!

guitar building course day one

I mentioned in my last post that I was going start on a guitar building course to build a 6 string reso cone, solid electric guitar. OK I know this blog is supposed to be about CBGs but there are many of you who are also interested in more conventional guitars too and learning some general building tips. The idea is that I learn some new skills and build myself something really special. It's loosely based on a National resolectric but with some of my own tweaks to it. I've done a rough photoshop job to show you what it might look like.


I will be building it in half day sessions, roughly once a week. So the first day we headed off to John Boddy's timber yard near Boroughbridge. There's a big warehouse with lots of planks of interesting timber. Martin, my tutor helped me select a piece of maple for the neck/headstock and mahogany for the body. Mahogany was chosen because it is a fairly light hardwood which should emphasise the bass end of the tonal range to balance the rather toppy reso cone. I also bought myself another maple plank that will cut down into 4 nice CBG necks for future builds. Was surprised how relatively cheap maple is. The neck plank cost about £8 and the CBG plank about a fiver. Back at Martin's we started to draw up a full size plan of the guitar. Didn't quite finish it this week. We ordered some hardware too - truss rod, reso cone and plate and a pre-cut rosewood fretboard. Next session we finish the drawing, cut the mahogany in two and glue both halves together to make a wide plank for the body. Probably start cutting out the neck too.

special offer on two cigar box guitars

I'm making a special offer open to the UK only.

I have two cigar box guitars for sale. They are both three-stringed fretless guitars currently tuned to open A. They have an internal piezo pickup wired straight to a 1/4 inch jack (no vol or tone controls). I have given them the usual smojo treatment of having a distressed neck look. I'd like to move them on now so that I can make space to make some more so if you fancy one of these, here's my offer. £75 gets you :-

One guitar + free smojo handmade wine bottle neck slide + free leaflet on tuning and playing + free shipping to mainland uk address. This package would normally cost you £100 so you're getting a whopping 25% discount. Order now and get yourself an early christmas present.

Email me at my usual smojoguitars(at)yahoo.co.uk address for further details and have a look at the two guitars on my Flickr page here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21767997@N05/sets/72157622689976796/

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.

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.

sorting out finishing some projects

I get to a point where my workshop becomes unworkable. I tend to leave stuff lying around with the intention of putting it away later but just forget. Eventually things pile up so much it drives me crackers. So that's what happened this week. I started to sort out my electronic bits after building some amps and realised that my last attempt to organise things had fallen short of the mark. I'd put things in tins and boxes, figuring I'd remember what was in each. Resistors in this box, capacitors in that one and so on. After a few months of not opening some of them, I had completely forgotten what was in each one. So I've been really anal and labelled them all. I realised that some things get used very frequently but are not in convenient places. So I've rearranged some things to make them more accessible. I've discovered things I'd forgotten I'd got too. So it's a good exercise to do every so often.

During the process I came across a half finished CBG. A beautiful Indian Tabac box which I planned to make into a 4 string fretted guitar for myself. I think I got busy with other stuff and put it on a shelf intending to go back to it later. That was over a year ago. So carrying on the mood of sorting and organising, I decided to make my next project to finish it. Whilst sorting tins and boxes I found a four-pole magnetic pickup from a bass. It's perfect for this four-stringer. I'm fitting a piezo as well with a changeover switch and a volume pot. So having spent a couple of full afternoons on it, frets are on, neck bolted up, machine heads fitted and it's well on it's way to completion.

So the moral of the story is, take some time out to tidy your workshop, take stock of what you've got and see if there's something that needs finishing. You'll feel a great sense of achievement and maybe have a new instrument ready in half the time.

thinking outside the box and charity shop finds

Forgive the pun about thinking outside the box but that's just what I was doing on one of my charity shop trawls. I rarely find cigar boxes in these places but sometimes I pick up something that relates to my unorthodox musical taste. I spotted this horrendous looking electric guitar. A cheapo heavy metal styled jobby in day-glo yellow. Well the price was the factor in deciding whether to buy or not - £15. Totting up ebay values of the hardware alone told me it was worth at least £30 in parts. Two single coil and one humbucking pickups plus wiring to two pots, machine heads, strat style tailpiece and a half decent neck and a see-through plastic gig bag - how could I resist. I could just dismantle it for the parts and build them into CBGs but I'm thinking about cutting the body down to a big cigarbox shape, keeping the humbucker and pots. Repaint the neck and headstock in something more subdued and maybe cladding the chopped down body with some rusty tinplate and turning the nasty thing into something even nastier (but cool).

I seem to have strayed back into circuit bending territory and my charity shop finds included two electronic childrens toys that are great items for modifications. Even as they are they can be used to make some interesting loops on my Akai Headrush. If you don't know anything about circuit bending, just type it into Youtube and have a look. I thought I was weird but some of these guys making this stuff are positivley mental!

What I did find that really excited me this week was a site I found that is related to circuit bending. It's a small collective of very clever guys who make stunning pieces of synth type equipment. They are sheer works of art as they stand, housed in lovely old cases with lots of copper plates, big old knobs, lights etc and they make some really cool sounds. Have a look at their site and see what I mean. http://www.folktek.com/

new Monte Christo and Cuaba CBGs

Some photos of my latest creations.

A cigar box guitar message to young folk

Although the majority of visitors to the UK CBG fest was made up of middle aged blokes, it was refreshing to see a number of young people and a few ladies there too. The high number of (shall we say) older men (I am purposely avoiding the word mature) is quite understandable. We are part of the 'baby boomer' brigade that grew up on rock n roll and have never wanted to let it go. Unlike the lyrics of The Who's My Generation, who sang 'hope I die before I get old', we didn't. And we only got old in our bodies, not so much in our hearts and heads. So we're hanging in there, following our passion for music and instruments and exercising our creative muscles. We were fed on blues and soul and folk and raw rock and roll music. Real bands, real people just having fun and doing what they wanted. Sadly today, the music industry has lost it's soul and degenerated into a multi-million pound industry mostly churning out the equivalent diet of sanitised, flavourless baby food.

So what's this message to young folk then? Well you see, we older dudes can still remember the good times and want a piece of it still. So we are still flying the flag for good, home grown music but we are getting to an age where we will be disappearing from this planet. It's nice to think that there is a younger generation (though in a minority) who feel the same way as us about music and that was evident at the fest. I am impressed and heartened by the enthusiasm and creativity of the young folks that were there and that lurk about on various internet sites. So what I want to say to you is this. Keep up the good work, be yourselves, fly the flag of individuality and true creativity. Seek out the good stuff that is still being produced. Don't be frightened to come forward and let your work be known. Talk to your mates and get them on board. Lastly, don't be shy to come and talk to us oldies. We're not your parents! In CBG World the generation gap doesn't exist and we need your energy and enthusiasm. We're pretty much the same as you inside, we're just walking around in Ratrod bodies.

Love and Peace from an ageing hippy.

Two guitars finished, tobacco tin amps started

Just finished my latest two CBGs. One of them has to be the prettiest looking yet. A white and green Cuaba box. I've done th neck in a matching white rubed-down paint finishe with a crackle paint green headstock. The other is a big yellow Monte Christo box. Neck in rubbed down red paint. Pleased with both of them, just need to let them settle in by playing them a little to make sure there's no problems with them before they go to their new homes.

So my next project is a batch of tin amps. Gonna make about 5 or 6. Some will be in nice old tobbacco tins and some in other old tins that I have picked up. One is a lovely yellow and red mustard tin from 1979. I'm quite excited about this project because I love making these little things and I think the old tins look incredibly cool. Probably follow those up with soem baccy tin mics if I can find some suitable inserts. The last ones I made used old 1960s telephone receivers. Being an ex-telecomms man, I had them in my "bits" box already. Need to investigate other sources.

October in Smojo's cigar box guitar world

Well that's just about the end of summer, soon we'll be cabin'd up for the winter. It always depresses me, the thought of having to wait six months before we emerge again. But it's a good time to get on with some projects. October is now a landmark for UK cbgers with the Birmingham fest coming up very soon. It's shaping up nicely already. I've seen a preview of Lesley's short documentary and if you're still hovering about whether to got to the fest, we get to see the full version plus Max Shores long docu about them that was aired on the U.S. tv channels last year.

I've somehow let myself get drawn into doing a demo at the fest. I'll be featuring the Akai Headrush mainly and a few other bits. Kinda scary as I'm not used to public appearances but I know I'll be buzzing with excitement when I get through it. There's some kind of weird masochistic element here. Something pushes me on to do some public stuff but my old shy self wants to run a mile! Can you figure that one? I'm blowed if I can. anyway I hope to see some of you good people at the fest. Come and say hello and forgive me if I don't immediately know who you are.

What's happening here then? The two new cbgs haven't progressed much due to hospital visiting my old mum who fell and broke her hip. I need to find some time to crack on with them. I'm also doing some practising for the Akai demo. These looping pedals really are fantastic toys. If I could choose to keep just one pedal - it would be this one. There are probably better loopers out there but I like this because it's quite simple and has a great tape delay facility. You can really push your creativity with this thing without needing a degree in music.

I have a lovely old red Kit-Kat tin and I'm hoping to make a guitar out of it once I finish the two on the bench. When I do it will definitely be another "keeper". I'm also trying to devise a simple two channel combiner that will fit in a baccy tin. No batteries or power. Just want to combine a CBG and a mic into one output so I can connect it to the Akai pedal. I have a small mixer that will do the job to perfection but it's a bit cumbersome to hawk around. If there are any electronics wizards reading this and you know how I can make one, please drop me a line.

2 new toys

Just had a great caravanning holiday in Devon (anti-caravanners might want to leave here). My fingers were getting restless when I stumbled into a music shop. Right in the doorway were some ukes. I've been asked to build a cbg uke but not sure about construction yet. I've been fancying one for myself and being too impatient to wait until I can make one, I decided to spend my birthday money and buy one satisfying the need for a musical toy for the caravan and a model for basing a cbg uke on. I avoided the cheapest painted ones you can pick up for about £15 and picked a natural wood concert model. It's a sweet little instrument and great fun for doodling on.

A day or two after buying it, I came across a junk shop. A proper one full of tatty stuff and run by an old chap who was fiddling with an old radio. I spotted a narly looking banjo-uke, all dusty, rusty and nicely worn. A ratrod uke if ever there was one! The bridge was placed up near the bottom of the neck - the wrong end of the skin. I asked the bloke how much he wanted for it - £25. I had a good look and moved the bridge roughly to where it should be and strummed it. "Sounds better already" he said. "That should be worth a fiver off the price then" I said cheekily. "Are you making me an offer" he replied. "You got a deal" I said and bought it for a crisp £20 note.

I got it back to the van and sat outside in the sun to play with my second new toy of the week. The strings were still on it and it all seemed pretty much intact. I tuned it up and had a little play on it. So far the wife hadn't objected too much but when I put my upturned straw hat on the ground in front of me, in case any fellow campers felt the need to reward my entertainment with some gold, she put her foot down and ordered its removal. It's a bugger to keep in tune but it's fun and looks great.

building cigar box guitars again

Well I've broken the spell that was keeping me from making guitars. I just needed to completed some other unfinished projects and have a crack at some recording. I've done enough of both now to satisfy that lust for a while and feel I needed to make some more guitars. I'm building two simultaneously. Neither will be meant to be keepers - but I've said that before and had to eat my words! I'm using my last green Ramone Allones box for one guitar, these are my favourites in terms of making pretty looking guitars. The other box is a Don Thomas one. Nothing radically new about either design but I'm using my aged paint look on the necks with burnt in fret markers. I think they'll both be pretty guitars when finished. I have thought about trying to age some of these paper covered boxes but am reluctant to try in case I just make a mess of them. I think I prefer to let them age naturally by the owners. After a year or two they will blend down nicely with the other ageing I have done to the necks.

Talking about recording, I had a fun time messing with my new gear. Mainly using the Akai Headrush, my Zoom 505 effects pedal then recording it in simple mono on the Backtrack device. It works well - nice and simple. The backtrack records everything you play as seperate WAV files, so you can drag them onto your PC, import them into your editing software and produce a track quite easily. I found that whilst simply "messing about", a musical idea would start to take shape and with a bit more practise and fine tweaking, I can produce something quite listenable (I think). I now have a loose plan to collect these odd tracks together and eventually put them together as an album. Maybe not for general consumption, but mainly just as an interesting project to work on with a tangible product at the end of it. I'd urge any of you players to have a go at something similar yourelves. It's fun and it tightens up your playing and helps get you out of those ruts we tend to get stuck in when just playing on our own.