April 2010
I realize that the initial intent of my Ramblings blog was more for political verbal vomit
of mine, LOL but in the past few months I have taken on the tasks of building ins-
truments, mostly doing a few repairs and such. Well here is the deal.
I am currently finalizing my plans to build a cigar box guitar, complete with dual
pezo pickups, and will be building my neck from scratch. I want to document the
progress as I go through my blog. This is to include photos and even some videos
if able.
The Cigar Box Guitar is one of the most exciting instruments that seems to be nearly forgotten, and has a very rich history in American music from Blues, country and rock. Jimi Hendrix, BB King, and other legends, started off their careers and worked their way into our minds and hearts with nothing more than a home made cigar box guitar.
There are several websites which devote themselves to being a community of CBG'ers builders and enthusiasts, however, what I have noticed, is that although there is some wonderful information out there, to help get started, most really do not follow the build step by step in a way that really exploits how incredibly easy this can be.
I want to get this started, and in fact have a vision of hopefully starting something regionally or locally, that generates a community of laymen, building and showing off their work. I can think of no other entity in our area that could do this effort better justice than BannedPromotions.
My build is going to be a bit more elaborate than the simple design, but everything I am using will be either materials I already have IE recycled stuff, or materials which cost no more than 10$. The whole point of a CBG is to be able to built one without having to be a master luthier or spend a bunch of money. Hell dude, I even have plans to make a pre-amp for the pezo from a Altoids can, and perhaps 5$ in parts from Radio Shack. That will be in the future.
What do you think?
Rex is a solo guitarist/songwriter for his Country/Americana/Rock project, "Rex Rambler."
Visit Rex at www.myspace.com/rexrambler
(The views and opinions expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect those of BannedPromotions.com)
built a 5-string cbg last year with a piezo pickup and it works remarkable well. just a little bad design on the neck, so the action is really high. i'll re-do that part some day, but for now, it works fine with a slide. i have two more boxes...planning on making a bass and mandolin some day.