Coming Soon to a Website Near You!

I am currently working out the bugs on a great How To Make A Cigar Box Guitar eBook!

It should be pretty cool, with a lot of close up detailed photos and plenty of step-by-step detailed easy to understand information!

How To Make A Cigar Box Guitar will cover everything from the amazing history of this unique instrument, where to find quality cigar boxes, tools needed to build your own and the best darn directions ever seen by man!

Resonator Cigar Box Guitars

Not getting enough sound out of your acoustic cigar box guitar but don’t want to go electric and lug an amp around?

Install a resonator for a really big sound.

According to Wikipedia
A resonator guitar or resophonic guitar is an acoustic guitar whose sound is produced by one or more spun metal cones (resonators) instead of the wooden soundboard (guitar top/face). Resonator guitars were originally designed to be louder than conventional acoustic guitars which were overwhelmed by horns and percussion instruments in dance orchestras. They became prized for their distinctive sound, however, and found life with several musical styles (most notably bluegrass and also blues) well after electric amplification solved the issue of inadequate guitar sound levels.
Resonator guitars are of two styles:
Square necked guitars designed to be played in steel guitar style.
Round necked guitars, which may be played in either the conventional classical guitar style or in the lap steel guitar style.
There are three main resonator designs:
The "tricone" ("tri" in reference to the three metal cones/resonators) design of the first National resonator guitars.
The single cone "biscuit" design of other National instruments.
The single inverted-cone design of the Dobro.
Resonator’s are finding new life in CBG’s. I have taken the liberty of posting some beautiful pictures of some Cigar Box resonator Guitars.

Folks are building there own resonators out of all types of materials.

I recently purchased a lightweight all brass resonator from a fellow in the Cigar Box Guitar community that goes by the name of Old Lowe. They are nicely made and inexpensive. Below is an example of Old Lowes resonator built into a CBG.

Big Sound Cigar Box Guitar youtube

I thought you would enjoy this rendition of the classic song John Henry produced and performed by Moreland and Arbuckle.

These 3 fellas put out a whole lot of sound with some microphones, a set of drums, a harmonica and a 4 string cigar box guitar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyTrbH16LZg

Enjoy the great vocals and root style music offered here. Pay particular attention to the great playing and sound of the cigar box guitar. After listening to a promo posted on http://www.cigarboxnation.com/ I found out this CBG has one bass string which is plugged into a bass amp along with three guitar strings plugged into a regular guitar amp. You can clearly hear the bass notes!

Johnny Depp and Cigar Box Guitar

Thought you might enjoy this picture I gleaned from the Cigar Box Nation http://www.cigarboxnation.com/ of Johnny Depp and his Cigar Box Guitar!

Raw Talent on Cigar Box Guitars

I’m looking for video links to other countries of folks playing Cigar Box Guitars. Please post them in the comments section below this article, thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKJtoy0KTwI German Cigar Box Guitar crew!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WFZqFLzK7s little guy shows no fear! Not a CBG player (yet) but worth seeing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wsMZGlMuR4 David Williams gives a musical history of how One String Willie goes to Europe and what he sees.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnJ6IZKLX1s Smojo from England. A builder and CBG musician

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7xCrgi2b-Y&feature=related Hollowbelly on 3-String. Maybe my British friends recognize the surrounding scenes?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBHAaoVO_oA&feature=related small box with a big sound

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USwytBKQCHI&NR=1 not just for slide

I hope this gives you an idea of the versatility and growing popularity of the Cigar Box Guitars…. Get one, get playin’ and get hooked!

King of Cigar Box Guitars Shane Speal to Close at York, PA Fair

Shane Speal the self proclaimed King of Cigar Box Guitars has been asked to be the closing act for the York Fair in York, PA. Headliner for the show is Kelly Clarkson from American Idol fame.

This is clip from Shane’s newsletter: “I've just been scheduled as a closing act at the massive York Fair in downtown York, PA, Sept 20 from 6-9pm. Expect total primal mayhem blues!!!”

Here are a couple little samplers of Shane on a CBG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWZiXQe4EkA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caOHwHfuxps&feature=related

For directions to the York Fair grounds visit http://www.yorkfair.org/find_us.htm

For more information on cigar box guitars be sure and visit Cigar Box Nation at
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/

Enjoy,

Norm

New 3-String Cigar Box Guitar Started

New 3-String Cigar Box Guitar Started

I wanted to post a couple pictures of my new build. It’s going to be a fretless 3-string cigar box guitar. Fretless in that there will not be regular frets installed. In their place will be inlayed veneer to mark the fret positions which are laid out to a Fender scale.

This layout will be perfect for slide guitar work.

I chose a wooden Cuesta-Rey Centro Fino cigar box from the Dominican Republic for the body and a nice piece of red oak for the neck. I enjoy the artwork a lot with the lovely senorita having red blossoms in her hair and palm trees to the sides. The beautiful dark reds, golds, yellows and blues really appealed to me. The thought of putting sound holes in this great looking box disturbs me somewhat. Oh well, CBG building is all about repurposing, rebuilding and remaking one thing into another.

I used to cut all the frets with a coping saw but I really like the perfection of a fret slotting saw and miter box which I show in this picture.

UK Cigar Box Guitar Festival Announced!!!

This is great! Cigar Box Guitar Festival in the UK!!!

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX – THE 1st UK CIGAR BOX GUITAR FESTIVAL
[3, Oct. 2009]

Tickets are available for either the all day event, including the evening performance (£25.00), or for the evening performance only (£5.00). Ticket sales http://crossroadsbluesclub.bigcartel.com/

CONTACT: John Wormald – wormald.design@virgin.net
0121 429 9996
07957 255 846
Available for interviews, live performance broadcast sessions etc

PRESS & MEDIA RELEASE
Introducing the alternative music sensation that's the hot ticket!!!

In today's economic climate, there's pressure on everybody's finances, and for music-makers, some people have gone back to the old-timey approach of making their own entertainment, and making their own instruments from whatever is to hand…a box, a stick of wood and some strings…and you've got a cigar box guitar!

This has a venerable tradition from the plantations of the southern USA, and many famous musicians made their first instruments the very same way. Thanks to the internet, this tradition has been slingshotted into global awareness through sites like cigarboxnation.com, and now we have organized the very first get-together for these UK music pioneers.


The event is taking place in Birmingham's "Tower of Song" bar. It's a dedicated music venue after the fashion of the classic USA roadhouse…a small no-frills room, atmospheric lighting and great music of all genres, easily spotted from the roadside by the 25 foot high image of Robert Johnson adorning the façade of the building. Here you're likely to encounter people like blues and jazzman Steve Ajao and Birmingham rocker Steve Gibbons chatting to customers and the proprietor Tom Martin, a quiet spoken muso with a passion for genuine, original live music. The event is organised and hosted by Chickenbone John, who, together with bass player Ken Stratford, runs the weekly Crossroads Blues club at the venue.

The event comprises an all-day get-together with workshops for players to learn and swap techniques, and for cigar box guitar makers to `show and tell' about the way they make their instruments. Guitar makers will be bringing example of their work, for display and for sale. There will also be the opportunity for informal music sessions during the day. In the evening, the headline act is Hollowbelly, an amazing one man band performer on drums, cigar box guitar and harmonica…laying down some original tunes in a thrash punk blues style. Support will be from Chickenbone John, and the evening will also feature an open mic session for those cigar box guitar players who feel brave enough to perform in front of a paying audience, so an entertaining evening of energetic and original music is guaranteed.

http://www.towerofsong.co.uk/blues/
http://www.myspace.com/hollowbelly

Let’s Talk To Get Things Done

It’s not how much media coverage we have, it’s not how much the talking heads in politics go on and on and on and well you get my point.

It boils down to people communicating to one another. Communicating and sharing ideas that are important to each other.

We the everyday people make up the world we live in, yet we hand our lives over to a few individuals that “Know what’s best for us”. Their minds are no clearer than ours, their souls no more divine and their lives no more precious.

Let’s talk, let’s share our ideas with one another again. Share what’s important with each other. Ideas such as family, liberty, and freedom to worship as you choose, equal justice, the pursuit of happiness, enough food on everyone’s table, clean air and water, a safe and caring community. What are your thoughts? Talk to your friends and neighbors. Don’t be silent. Let’s talk to one another until our voices are heard again.

Remember it’s the popular voice that wins.

Pot Luck Dinner

Let's have a Pot Luck! Or whatever you call gathering together in your country to share a meal, where everyone brings a dish of some delicious simple food they've made with their own hand.

Pot Lucks are a time of sharing, giving and receiving. Where we are on equaled ground giving and taking. Sharing company, thoughts, love and community.

What is simpler than a Pot Luck?

Spread the word, The world needs to have more Pot Lucks!

Acoustic Six String on the Way

After much thought and research I have decided it’s time to build myself a 6-string acoustic cigar box guitar.

I found a nice all wood cigar box with brass hinges and clasp. It has some nice artwork right in the middle of the lid that I think will look good. The wood is lighter in color with a decent grain pattern on the top and bottom with a darker mocha colored wood for the sides and end.

I spent quite a bit of time just sanding it and getting it ready for the golden oak stain. I was going to use tung oil but plan on using a several coats of polyurethane and didn’t know how well it would hang onto the oil.

I found a couple of dings in the wood on the bottom and decided to try a technique I found on utube for “pulling them out”. I put a few drops of water in each one until it beaded up. Just short of the running stage so it would still hold its form. I came down the next morning and the water had done its trick. The dings were gone and the wood was perfectly level.

I got a really good start on the neck for my CBG. I used a 2 inch wide piece of red oak and beautiful piece of African padauk for the fret board. I finally got to try out my Stewart MacDonald fret miterbox and saw along with my new fret template guide. All I can say is, "Nice!"

There will be a tail piece that extends out of the opposite end of the cigar box to anchor the strings to. With 6-strings there will be a lot of tension on the neck and by having the neck extending clear through the body will cut down on any tendency to warp the neck.

Retire when the work is done; this is the way of heaven

It lives!

After much trial and error I finally have my first Cigar Box Guitar up and running!! I plugged it into the amp last night startled the cats, made the dog bark and woke my wife up! So I guess electrically it's a success. I felt a bit like Dr. Frankenstein when he threw the switch and exclaimed to Egore, "He's alive, he's alive!"

Pics and Utube to follow!

Profound Quote

I read this very profound quote and then had to read it again just to make sure it was so simple:

"It's all so different since everything's changed." taken from Karen Blue's Midlife Mavericks

I love simple make you think phrases!

Think it, Believe it, Have it!

A lot of times I think in the future perfect tense. You believe you can do something and then you create that positive energy that enables it to be real.

I like this qoute by Troppe

Save the Trees, Save the Planet, Make a Choice!

Check out this amazing site I just came across in Mother Earth News! It's called Catalog Choice. It is listed in the "Links I Like" section on the right hand side of my blog page.

In a word, it is good for the forest, good for the planet, good for every living thing and good for helping you control the incoming junk mail clutter constantly invading your home!

It's very simple to use. Go to the site; get a user name/password. Don't worry they won't spam you or sell your name and email address to advertisers!

Go to the Choose Catalog page. I found it easiest to click the browse button and start from "A" and go through the names. Once you find a magazine that “invades" your home just click on it and select a choice as to why you don't want it mailed to you anymore and they will be sent a message to remove you from their mailing list!

I'm inspired and refreshed by this very cool site and I hope you are too! Pass it on to everyone you know! This is a really simple tool that has a big impact on the environment and our lives!

T. Boone Pickens Saves America

T. Boone Pickens made a lot of money on domestic oil production. Simple said, “I was a good geologist and found a lot of oil reserves.” I like what he says. In simple terms we need to free ourselves from Middle East oil and quickly.

T. Boone is an interesting fellow. In recent interviews one interviewer tried to corner him by asking, “Aren’t you in this just to make money?” T. Boone answered back, “Any business person would hope to make some money, but my standard of living is not going to get any better.” Simply put T. Boone isn’t in this for purely self serving interests.

T. Boone found that in the middle of the USA from southern to northern boarder we have some of the strongest most “consistent” chartable winds in the world. He is moving ahead with establishing a chain of wind farms there, which will have a bonus of putting a lot of out of work people and struggling farm families back to work! Jobs in good clean renewable energy. T. Boone is even being so bold as to say we need to convert all of our 18 wheeler semi trucks over to natural gas. The 18 wheelers account for close to 35% of all the oil imports to our country! It seems we have huge cheap reserves of natural gas in the USA. This by the way just happens to be another clean burning fuel.

Another thing that will have benefits is when Obama changes our infrastructure is if he would add bike lanes everywhere. Make it affordable, convenient and appealing to commute on a bicycle. Bicycles equal more jobs and more green transportation plus the bonus of shedding tons of unhealthy American weight.

I for one believe it’s high time we make the change to a strong self sufficient economy. One that is not dependent on Middle East oil, creates green jobs and preserves and heals our environment. It’s time for us to get the oil habit off our backs and become a great country once again.

Check out the Links I Like section of my blog for information on T. Boone Pickens Plan, Building your own recumbent cycle at Build Your Own Recumbent, folding bicycles at Bike Friday or for general biking information check out Century Cycles blog. Enjoy!

Cigar Box Guitar Building

I finally got the last couple of tools I needed to start building two Cigar Box Guitars! I'm pretty excited, I glued up some red oak for the two necks and am letting the glue set.

Check this utube video out of Grammy award winner Marcy Marxer playing her CBG. Her CBG is a nice work of art as well; enjoy her playing ability and the close-ups of her CBG by going to the right side of my blog page to "Links I Like" and clicking on CBG Boogie

Nice qoute: My life is part of every other life
I have no need to control anyone or anything: I can affect change by transforming the only thing that I ever had control of in the first place, which is myself.