Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jawbone on August 31, 2009 at 7:00pm

I love questions without answers haha I'll use terms like "diddley box", "d/bow", " ", etc etc but only to avoid inadvertantly offending anyone. Interestingly though, no-one seems to get offended or upset by "not quite so accurate" use of the term diddley bow. As a general rule of thumb, I tend to use the term "d-box" when decribing my 1 string cbg's and "d-bow" when the main structure be plank. As far as number of strings goes...."x string diddley bow" usually suffices.
Also take into account that 90% of folks haven't heard of them or seen one, so you can call it what you want!?!

Permalink Reply by Brian Lemin on August 31, 2009 at 7:51pm

I was looking for a definition too when i was preparing my article on "Diddly Bo's. None was forth coming, and perhaps in line with the "No rules" philosophy of our hobby i was not surprised.
In the article (Wot no articles) I traced the historic origin from the mono-chord (one string "scientific" instrument used for teaching music theory). through anthropological instruments and then to the rustic instruments of the African slaves.
The interesting thing is that there was quite a lot of Mono-chords that had two strings.
I would go with one or two strings as part of any definition that might emerge from this discussion.

It would be nice for a musicologist person to have terms like Jawbone uses defined, but they never will because that is what we are!

I have some difficulties with a beautifully made CBG with one string (or two) being called a Diddly Bo. I think they should be a plank, couple of nails, a bottle and a tin or a box. Follow the tradition.

Permalink Reply by Jawbone on September 1, 2009 at 11:51am

Maybe we could also take into account how it's played? eg; you'd never fret a diddly bow, would you?
I personally regard them as more of a percussion instrument than a guitar and although I do occasionally pick and strum my bows, I mostly "bang 'n' slide. Uh-oh, I better disembark the "Off the Topic Express" before it goes too far.

In the end I think that the term diddly bow can be used for an instrument that encompasses the SPIRIT of the primal, lo-fi, no-frills, back to the root of the music that is the diddly bow.

"You wanna REALLY play guitar? You don't need to spend no money!"






Brian Lemin said:

I was looking for a definition too when i was preparing my article on "Diddly Bo's. None was forth coming, and perhaps in line with the "No rules" philosophy of our hobby i was not surprised.
In the article (Wot no articles) I traced the historic origin from the mono-chord (one string "scientific" instrument used for teaching music theory). through anthropological instruments and then to the rustic instruments of the African slaves.
The interesting thing is that there was quite a lot of Mono-chords that had two strings.
I would go with one or two strings as part of any definition that might emerge from this discussion.

It would be nice for a musicologist person to have terms like Jawbone uses defined, but they never will because that is what we are!

I have some difficulties with a beautifully made CBG with one string (or two) being called a Diddly Bo. I think they should be a plank, couple of nails, a bottle and a tin or a box. Follow the tradition.

Permalink Reply by One String Willie on September 8, 2009 at 7:35am

Hi Kevin-

I tend to think of the diddley bow as a primitive, single-stringed instrument (a monocord zither). I differentiate it from a washtub bass (a modern derivative of an African ground bass) in that the tension on the diddley bow string is maintained constant and the pitch is changed by changing the length of the vibrating string with a slide.

My response to the question of whether a diddley bow can have more than one string is by asking another (rhetorical) question--how (that is, using what method) are the two (or more) strings tuned in relation to one another?

For the primitive, traditional diddley bow, the string is brought to tension by putting two objects under the string and sliding them towards each end-stop--except for string length and wire gauge, you do not have much control over the pitch the diddley bow is tuned to. Trying to get two strings tuned to the same pitch, or to some specific relative pitch interval, using this method would be pretty tough. This is especially difficult if both strings were to be noted with a slide at the same time (implying the string length for both strings would need to be the same).

Most instruments with more than one string use tuning machines or pegs to achieve the appropriate pitch (although using a screw to fine-tune the pitch by adjusting the tension is possible). I tend to think of these as something significantly more sophisticated than a diddley bow, and I personally would not use the word "diddley bow" to describe them.

We seem to use the term "cigar box guitar" for an instrument with a cigar box body that has between two and six (or more) strings, and is held and played like a guitar. Doc Oakroot calls his two string cigar box banjo (one drone string and one noted string) a "diddley-jo." Perhaps a plank-type instrument with more than one string should be called a "plank lap-steel" to differentiate it from a single stringed instrument.

But that's just my opinion.

Best regards, Willie