Re: Cigar Box Guitar build....... New Youtube clip loaded !!

[grizz]

Update for today:

I went looking in the rubbish bins of 3 pubs today because we do not drink wine or much beer etc at home, and found some interesting treasures.

Firstly, I need to make a Glass slide to play this thing with, "Twanging" as it has been called.

Got various bottles, so now need to cut the necks off.... ordered a pack of 10 diamond dust covered dremmell wheels off Ebay for £4.00 delivered..... but am impatient, want to make them today. Any ideas ??

In the first pub wheelie bins I also found two complete Pool Cues or are the called sticks?
First thought was stuck together they could work like broomsticks on a CBG, then I thought....hmmmm, Diddley Bow with them stuck to the sides of that plank Nicola's brother gave me, looking like a rocket.
Call it the "Pool Cue Rocket" ?????

Looks like this thing gets deeper under your skin the longer you play with them.


Today's treasures.



Any other suggestions and ideas welcomed.

[StPatron]

but am impatient, want to make them today. Any ideas ??

1. Glass cutter (either free-hand using tape guideline or fixed position with bottle on rollers).
2. String soaked in flammable liquid, wrapped on the cutting mark, lit afire and then bottle put into cold water and neck tapped.
3. Fine hacksaw blade, tile cutting saw....

The use of varying materials will impact the sound. Glass isn't the only option. There's also bone, copper and steel for example. A deep-well socket is commonly used. For a 4-stringer, keep it short. Last two finger joints of ring finger (in length) works the best I've found.

Looks like this thing gets deeper under your skin the longer you play with them.

Yeah, kinda like these trailers!

Check ya later, Grizz. Gotta go take care of a pesky rodent now..

[Engineer Guy]

Fill a Bottle with cold Mineral or Vegetable Oil to the desired break point level [the base of the Bottle Neck?]. Heat a Nail to red hot. Hold the Nail with thin Wire and lower it in while wearing Eye Protection, of course. The Bottle Neck should snap at the Oil level from thermal shock. Buff it smooth with abrasive Pad. This was the 'approved' method in the late '60s to snap empty Beer Bottles; buff the new rim; and use them as free Drinking Glasses w/Labels attached, of course. We'd dip and coat them to keep the Labels intact. They made for an interesting set of Glasses. They were also good to make into Hippie Candles, once filled with Wax, or whatever...

A Glass Tube - like a Cigar Tube or a Chemistry Test Tube - is lighter and breaks more easily. But, they're not as much fun to Dumpster Dive for. On those, I'd probably use my old, trusty, wheeled Glass Cutter.

Or, buy Cold Pills and keep the small Bottle. Bonnie Raitt and others did this with an unmodified [uncut] 'Coricidin' Bottle.

Nice Bottle recycling, BTW. I guess an 'Irn Bru' bottle won't work, eh?

[grizz]

I think I have decided that the bridge for the DB will be a toss up between the Desperado's bottle and the energy saver light bulb.



Back to the day job tomorrow, so not sure how soon I will begin on build no 2, but looking forward to it greatly.

May go fretted and electric.

[Verna]

Rian, is that energy saving light bulb one of those with mercury in it? I know some of them have mercury, some don't. Just something to think about.

And, I'm liking your recycling and reusing--great ideas!!!

Verna

[grizz]

Rian, is that energy saving light bulb one of those with mercury in it? I know some of them have mercury, some don't. Just something to think about.

And, I'm liking your recycling and reusing--great ideas!!!

Verna

Hi Verna, being England where the whole blame culture is really taking off now, I suspect it will be the safest possible option, so hopefully no mercury.

Thanks for the heads up though, one tends to forget stuff like that.

[grizz]

Well, I attacked a SOL bottle wrapped in sellotape, stuck in the vice grip tonight with an angle grinder..... CRACK !!

Then I got back to what I really wanted to do. Work has been in my head too much and costing me sleep (waking at 4am worrying about it is a bit silly) so I needed to just refocus a bit working with sharp tools etc.

Firstly I gathered all the bits together in the shed.

Then used masking tape to strap the Pool sticks together, drilled them in 4 places and screwed together.

I made a small oak base for the hinge anchor from the first DB, followed by hollowing the two sticks out a bit for the Desperados bottle to rest.

I also have a small mint tin which should hold the 1/4 inch jack once soldered to the pickup, although I have to figure a way of securing it to the back of the sticks.



I also made a small base and cut out space for the pickup to fit into, fitting it longitudinaly.



Last job to do this side will be to solder and secure the jack inside the tin and then figure the way to keep it attached to the rear end of the Diddley Bow.



On the other end I fitted the last complete machine head and cut and drilled a channel for the wire to run through.

I also made a nut from a bit of brass of unknown origin or age, which I screwed through a bit of oak and fixed at the back of the sticks.

Lastly I removed all the masking tape.



I hope to get some time tomorrow to solder up and seal the jack.

[grizz]

Found a shop in London that sells cigar boxes at £2.00 each. Money goes to a charity.

He had about 7 to choose from, I took these ones,and he tossed in a couple of single cigar tubes ( I see the Monte Cristo costs £20.75 each)

I think we have one CBG, one "who thought it would turn out that way? " and a small Cigar Box Amplifier in the cube.

The tubes will have to function as deocoration or jack points later.



I am actually quite pleased with the price he charges, nothing beats FREE of course.

I will check back at a later stage for another large one.

These things are a bit addictive it seems.

[StPatron]

These things are a bit addictive it seems.

I've noticed that too!

My box sources range from free to $2. The stash is running kinda low but I promised myself I would not buy any more until these were used.

I'm starting to get the shakes, though.




Grizz, I see a lot of tins being used by Brit and Aussie builders.

[grizz]

These things are a bit addictive it seems.

I've noticed that too!

My box sources range from free to $2. The stash is running kinda low but I promised myself I would not buy any more until these were used.

I'm starting to get the shakes, though.




Grizz, I see a lot of tins being used by Brit and Aussie builders.

Hi Gary, thanks to you.... I am addicted and will contend that I do not have a problem.

You have some beautifull boxes there.

I suspect you guys have a lot more to choose from.

If you are talking about the tins for hiding electrics, jacks into, I guess that you are right.

Check this guys Diddley Bow playing out.....

He is a bit of a genius, mechanic etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBJQ0JmC ... r_embedded

[StPatron]

Check this guys Diddley Bow playing out.....

I hadn't seen/heard that vid, thanks.

That non-distortion, clean sound and slide is a good match for that song. Known here as a somber Civil War tune, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home".

At the other extreme is this one from Seasick Steve. Over-driven, gritty and loud. Such a wide range of music styles all coming from a one-stringed instrument.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMf-em-56Mc

[grizz]

Today was another one of those days.... work absolutely frustrated the hell out of me.....

However, when I got home there was soup, fresh rolls out the oven and smile or two, including Tom who got one of his Christmas prezzies very late from China.... but at £2.89 for a pair of matt black skull headphones I would not complain.

Elmothewoking ( Oli ) had previously offered me the electric bits from his first guitar, so those were collected on the way home.

Basically 2 pickups and a Humbucker pickup, 2 volume/tone knobs, a 5 way switch and a 1/4 inch jack plug.

These will mostly find their way onto some future builds.



Thanks Oli !!



Weird how when you mention what you are up to, people find stuff to help.

Nicola's mum today emptied her cuttlery canteen and sent the very solid and nce box home for me to use in a build. Actually really nice as it is a bit bigger than the Cigar boxes I have, so maybe a place for the humbucker in a future build.




Lastly, I went down to the shed for a bit after dinner to solder up and make the jack plug fit into the mint tin I had planned for it.

I also fine tuned a few other points on the Diddley Bow, as the sticks were not the same size and weight so needed a bit of tweaking.

Then I brought it in, strung it up and took a pic, with Harley refusing to move out the pic, as she wanted to inspect both and would be doing so at her own pace.




I am busy uploading another one of my attempts at just showing the basics of this DB, without an amp, though I am hoping to buy a small amp soon so that I can mess around a bit and make more noise.

Youtube clip to be posted as soon as upload is done.

Comments welcome as always.

[StPatron]

Nice pile of goodies! And another great pic of Harley!

Good idea adding the humbucker to the cutlery box. Unless the lid and bottom are thin they probably won't provide the resonance/volume you'd desire in an acoustic only version.

You're ahead of me with the build variety, I've yet to build a DB. That being said, I'd need to take a closer look at typical DB construction... but, a concern I have is that the distance between the pickup and the strings is too great. Hard to tell from the pic, might be ok. Usually that's about 5 mm or so and works on the magnetic field principle. Try it with the amp first and then if you're not satisfied with the output, you may want to reduce that gap.

Sorry to hear that your job is so stressful, hope that turns around quickly.

[grizz]

Hi Gary, You are right regarding the gap to the pickup, I will reduce it once I have tried it as it is... suspecting it will need significant raising up, but that should be reasonably easy.


And the last one for now loaded.

At least until I can get it through an amplifier.

Sound was not too bad in my opinion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNcImbnr ... e=youtu.be


Will do one more when I can record it with an amplifier.

Thanks for looking in.

[StPatron]

Sounds good and is louder than I expected.

Then again, I don't recall hearing any doubled cue stick diddley bows before.

I'll be anxious to hear it amped up and also to read your impression of the impact on your billiards game.