Oct 2018

THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED THROUGHOUT OCTOBER.

Well September went really well for me I made my first full Cigar Box Guitar and it turned out superb.
Had A few days meeting up with some friends and had a mini holiday within a holiday.
This month I will be starting my next project another cigar box guitar  I have all the parts ready so no hanging around for the postman I also have a few new tools to make thing a little easier for me.
With three new chisels, a small wood saw rasp and a few fine files in my toolbox.

Another new toy

After watching Chris using one of these boss eband audio players with built in guitar effects along with pre loaded backing tracks I just had to get one this is the JS 8 the newer model is the JS 10 costs just under £300.00 I got this older model for a lot less than that.

Some Videos From My Visit To Silver Sands And Kennack sands along with Cris playing guitar.


Video 1 Kennack Sands

Video 2 Silver Sands Campsite.

Videos from my meeting with Chris and Trica.

Going to start on my next guitar shortly I have had some artwork done to the box this was worked on by Dave at  Circle of Five Gift Shop  Click on this link to Visit the shop. The Best Shop In BUDE .
Dave likes to get the job right and will help you if you not sure about something

Picture of the top of my next project for Sea Breeze Blues Guitars.

My Next Project 

Part 1.

  Part 2.

Part 3.

Part 4.

Just waiting on some comments on what I should do (ie) do I put sound holes on, and a floating bridge. now before I start on the box  

The Guitar is starting to take shape now I had one or two problems with getting the neck to sit right

 it was caused by the bridge support that I glued to the underside of the top.

 The support was 2mm deeper on one side than the other, and here am I taking bits off 

the neck trying to level it out I ended up taking the support that

 I built into the neck off completely. 

That added about two hours of unnecessary work but its a learning curve,I have decided to put a lipstick pickup inside the box

 instead of on top and have cut the grove out of the neck and hot glued it into place. To test the pickup I placed the guitar upside down on to another one and

 give the strings a strum with some success I got quite a good volume from

 it but I won't be one hundred per cent sure until the guitar is up and running. 

Thinking about it, its working the same way a pizeo works if I get any of the problems

 that are normally associated with the fitting of a pizeo pickup its back to the drawing board.

Part 5

While I was out in the sunshine sanding the neck of the Guitar on one of the picnic benches

I thought I would nip back to the van and make a brew.

I went to open the back door and found it locked for some reason it locked itself and both other doors 

were locked.

Without my phone or van keys I was Stuck borrowing keys from anybody that stopped in the lay bay

without any success, I went for a walk to a nearby house asking if I could borrow some tools and -

a set of ladders.

using the tools I had to hand did not help me so plan two was to get on the roof and see if I could feed

a pole with a hook on one end through the shower room skylight and open the window .

After about an hour I did manage to get the window open, setting up the ladders to make a ramp up to-

the window.I would get in head first,getting myself almost in I then realised that I would not 

be able to pick myself up off the floor.

So backing myself back out I went back to the house and explained the the lady, name of Claire 

That I could not get through the the window without injury to myself Claire said let me take a look

 with you she then said it beats doing the ironing.Watching this lady backing up a ladder

 sending one leg through the shower room window then folding herself in half and disappearing

 was some how Strange.

Anyway a big thank you to this lady for helping me and turning something stressful into fun.

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8 Finished

My next project is going to be a 2 string guitar which i am starting this weekend the box is a 1980 Gran Panatela box which is quite small but should look nice .

Had a really good weekend at a friends 70th birthday party at a local campsite his family were amazing and fun to be with the live band played nothing but 60/70s rock and roll all night .
this kept the swing of the party at full tilt right to the end. Free food was on offer this was not the normal type of buffet you would expect,it was top quality made by the head chef of the restaurant attached to the campsite.
Thanks to Ian and Sheila, Donna & Neil and the rest of the family for making me welcome I enjoyed
being in your company.

The Build on my 2 string cigar box guitar is starting to take shape now the neck is made from an old left over piece of floor boarding the type that's slots together, along with a small cigar box proper job from the 80s.
It has two new black tuning pegs with covered gearing and the strings are being fed into two rolled pins that are set at 45degs which pass though the tail piece lastly a piezo pickup with volume control.
If the Piezo sounds awful I will replace it with a single coil pickup
 As you should be able to see in the video I did change the Piezo for a single coil pick up and it does sound much better.

2 string and 1 string Diddley bow.

I am now in the process of making three fretted cigar box guitars which will be for sale on this blog  and my youtube channel Brick To Rubber for a fortnight and only offered to my subscribers each will come with a video of the guitar being made and will be personalised for the buyer.

Part one Video

Start of the first of my builds this one has a Romany Caravan theme on the front of the box
 

 Building these cigar box guitars is fun but I must say its starting to run costly wanting to put the best parts into the build for me is important. 
As i do want to pass on to the customer the best possible components, also for me knowing that I have done my best at this early stage in my guitar making venture.
Things will get better the more I make and the better the tools that I will be buying to make the end results much more polished and professional looking but importantly keeping that home made look and feeling to the guitar.

Part 2

 Part 3

Click the link below
Me talking about the first cigar box guitar I built.

Sept 2018

My New Project .

This is my new project for the the winter months its a guitar kit from Chickenbone john follow link below.
It a make your own Cigar Box Guitar Kit.



Chicken Bone John The Godfather of the cigar box guitar

 Taken From Chicken Bone John,s Web Page

Product Description

My best selling kit...now offered with a beautiful traditional genuine Nicaraguan cigar box. Everything you need to make your own 3 string cigar box guitar. All you need to add is some wood glue and materials for putting a finish on the neck. Everything else is included, and you only need a few basic tools to make your very own instrument. Comes with clear and simple step by step illustrated instructions.
This is the deluxe model - it comes with a slotted fretboard, frets and a single coil electric pickup.
Included in the kit are: Mahogany or cherrywood (subject to availability) neck blank and heel lamination blank - the headstock is already shaped to take the tuners. Open back machineheads, bushings and screws.
Blackwood Tek fingerboard, already pre-slotted. Fretwire (high quality Van Gent, made in the EU)
Internal fixing blocks. Walnut floating bridge with fretwire saddle and string spacing slots. Machine screw nut. Aluminium rivet string ferrules. Retaining screw and bushing. Screws for neck fixing and string guide.
Single coil electric pickup, "Alpha" volume and tone controls, tone capacitor, cream or black (subject to availability) Chickenhead control knobs. 1/4" Neutrik jack socket. Set of Zilpha Newtone hexcore custom gauge nickle strings and illustrated instructions.
The parts are the same top-notch quality as I use on my regular cigar box guitars.  The fretboard is pre-slotted, so your first venture into making a fretted guitar is made easy - all the hard work of measuring and slotting the fretboard is done for you (I slot my fretboards on a custom table saw rig using a CNC cut fret template for superb accuracy).
(Please note despite the name "Aroma de Cuba", the boxes are NOT Cuban, but are made in Nicaragua)


I will be looking forward to starting this and I will keep you posted with some Videos of my work in- progress.
This will be an interesting project for me especially with the lack of workspace and the lack of tools 
available I will not be able to sit outside as much in the winter months. The dust from sanding down the neck indoors would get everywhere that's enough to drive anyone mad.

Video Part 01 Opening the box.

 

Making my  Cigar Box Guitar Part 2

                                  

I meet up with a friend of mine Chris and his wife Trica, Chris has been following me on my blog for a few years now and they spend their holidays in Devon/Cornwall
I meet up with them last year at Davidstow Air Field, This year I drove down onto the Lizard to the Holiday park where they are spending three weeks on.
The Holaday Park Is Silver Sands and is found at Gwendreath.Ruan Minor. Helston Cornwall TR12 7LZ  ( www.silversandsholidaypark.co.uk).
As you know if you follow me on the blog am not really into campsites but I was really surprised with this one and really enjoyed my short stay.
Taking a short walk along a nice tree-lined path through a wooded area which ended at Kennack Sands  which was one of the cleanest beaches I've have seen, The aroma of bacon cooking tempted me over to a small tea bar on the beachfront where a bacon, egg and sausage butty along with a cup of tea was my second breakfast of the morning.
walking back the same route to the holiday park  I meet up with Chris and Trica and spent the next few hours chatting and putting the world to rights.
Chris spends his days when not holidaying in his workshop where he makes valve amps and cabinets and turns his hand to anything.
I noticed a  Boss sj music processor on the table and asked what you doing with this thinking it was a repair job he brought along with him.
It turns out he plays the guitar (in his words badly) bringing out a Squire Stratocaster and plugging into the Boss which is a bit like a teacher/trainer that has a load of preset effects and each style is attached to more than enough pre-loaded backing tracks he just blew me away with his playing.
Considering he like a lot of others cannot read music and knows nothing about what key he is playing in god it was good just watch the video to be added into Oct 2018 page and you will see.
Also turns out to be a good cook as well I was treated to a very good freshly made stirfry and a few nice bottles of beer along with a good few tunes this made my visit a wonderful few days.
I could Big this most unassuming man up all day about his abilities and talents one last thing Chris thank you for that Lipstick Guitar Pickup you gave me that will take pride and place on  one of my next Cigar Box Guitar project.
 Look out for the video in next months blog where you will see chris playing some mind blowing stuff.