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.