Comment

Comment by Mark on November 12, 2009 at 10:47am

John - I felt £25 was fair when you look around and see what gigs and festivals cost these days. However, if you're aiming for increased numbers of people for 2010 then you probably want to avoid having to put the cost up too much because there's definitley a proportion of people who will be priced out. For me it was just about feasible to drive back in the evening and avoid an overnight stay - but if I'd been in the situation of those who came from further away then I might well have thought differently about the cost. We have to face fact that times are tough for a lot of people - if the economy picks up and we all find ourselves making good money again then it might be different but right now I think prudent planning wouldn't count on that too much. It also has to be said that one of the central aspects of the whole CBG thing is about enabling people to make and play instruments cheaply (very much the antithesis of the parts of the music business which are about persuading people to pay crazy money for "vintage" gear or the latest fashionable gadget).

The Brum arts festival does sound like a great opportunity. Without knowing details it's difficult to see how best to exploit it. Is there any possibility of having a CBG session in a side room at some bigger event? (the idea being to avoid having to rent and run a whole venue while at the same time having a higher profile or more central location). Just thinking out loud really - please ignore if you've already looked at this sort of thing and ruled it out.

The slide fest does sound very interesting but sadly I think it's just too long a haul for me to make it a feasible day trip. And being in January it comes at a point when Christmas will have cleaned me out of any spare cash.

Comment by smojo on November 12, 2009 at 7:33am

John - I think the price was very good value but any more might put some people off, as Ben said it's also fuel, B&B etc costs. I liked the intimacy of the small gig and fear that something might be lost in a bigger venue at this stage. Maybe the other Brum public/arts festival stuff could be an option for an extra day with for those who want to go that route? The slide fest sounds great, pity it's so far from here. Micheal Messer does some good stuff, I have his slide guitar lesson on DVD.

Dom - love to see your 2X2 and very interested in the valve amp. I've been hankering to make one for a while now. Got my note to Santa in for great book on amp valve building so will wait till then before attempting one.

Comment by Kevin Lawton on November 12, 2009 at 5:21am

Dom, that sounds excellent ! A 2 x 2" combo using an LM386 ! ! ! Sounds even better than my electric-kettle amp. :-) It is good to hear of somebody else other than myself still able to use valves. Its a dieing art you know ! Where you getting them ? Russian ones ? 'Sovtek' ?

Comment by BigBadDom on November 12, 2009 at 1:24am

John,
I'm going to the Slide Guitar Fest - see you there. I'd happily pay £25 for next year's CBG fest and more. The Euroblues weekend in Pocklington (which I'm also going to) costs £70 for the Saturday only including gig, so even double still looks competitive.

Regretting not staying for the evening at the last CBG fest. Have since built a LM386-based amp - it's a 2x2" combo! I'm now working on a valve-based amp using low voltage/output valves originally designed for car radios!

Cheers,
Dom

Comment by Roosterman on November 11, 2009 at 11:04pm

Gluten for punishment John! hehe
It will be interesting to see what the art centre says - seems to me it would be good to hit the general public a bit more next year if its affordable. I certainly like the idea of having a display for a few weeks before the event (though the logistics could be a nightmare!).
Personally I feel the cost was about at its limit - I say this as I know a couple of folk who didnt come because of the combined cost (it does add up with 1000 miles of fuel money, B&B, tickets, beer etc) BUT its also clear there is an awful lot of work in organising a venue, food, artists, beer etc. Would I pay £25 again next year? Yes, I would. Would I pay a bit more for a bigger event at a bigger venue? Probably. Will I practice like hell so that I might be able to stumble through a 12 bar blues next year? Hell yes! Will I regret NOT practicing enough at next years show.... probably!!!
Keep us posted CB!

Comment by Trevor (Babajack) steger on November 11, 2009 at 10:51pm

all sounds good ,

Comment by ChickenboneJohn on November 11, 2009 at 9:00pm

Hi Guys

UK Cigar Box Guitar Fest 2010 and UK Slide Guitar Festival

During the course of the 1st UK CBG Fest...I was asked when the next one would be...and at the time I was inclined to pass it on to someone else to cope with the grief and worry of organising another event.

Well, after recovering and reflecting, tentative plans are forming in my brain. I have a few ideas. I'm thinking we could run a similar event to last year, as the basic format seemed to work, but perhaps with an additional/optional day for other activities such as city centre CBG busking, hands-on building workshops and more jam open mic sessions. If we run around the same time of year (sept/oct) there is the possibility of linking it the one of the biggest public arts festivals in Europe, Birmingham ArtsFest..which could be exciting.

The venue is a thorny problem - this time it was just about the right size for the numbers, so if we went for the same place or similar, we could probably cope with a 50% increase in numbers at most, above that and we'd need a bigger venue or have to cap the numbers attending.

There are other options, but I have another radically different venue in mind, a new arts centre which would provide the opportunity to do a package of an exhibition of Cigar Box Guitars (as a sort of folk art theme exhibit), workshops etc. and a concert. The venue would be much higher profile, and would have the potential to cope with a lot more people, but I'd have to look at the finance implications -it just might not be on, but I reckon there's no harm in asking. It's local to me, and I do have some connections there, so I'll check it out and get back to you good people.

Cost for the event..what do you reckon? This time it was £25 for the day and £5 for the evening. Most people seemed to think it was OK, one or two said they couldn't afford it, others said they would have paid twice as much. Please let me have your thoughts. Of course, the venue we go for could have serious implications on this, so the costing might rule out a higher profile place.

And finally, I'd got wind of another little fest, the 1st UK Slide Guitar Festival, 23rd January, in Atherstone, Warwickshire. It's focussed on slide and resonator guitars, and it's a spin-off from the Michael Messer website. I'm going to go and take some of my guitars - I've provisionally booked as stall and a spot in the open mic session. It's at the Red Lion Pub, and I think it's max 100 people. I've no idea what it's going to be like, but as it's near to me I'm giving it a punt - might be an opportunity to have a little CBG subculture get together within the event. As I say, I've no idea what it will be like: I've met a few people who might be going, and know Michael Messer, who will be doing a slide guitar workshop (how that's going to work if there are 100 people there I don't know!), so no I'm not endorsing it, just bringing it to your attention.

You should be able to find some info about it here -

http://michaelmesser.proboards.com/

If anyone is up for it, get back to me here, and we'll see if we might need to try and squeeze in a little CBG session into the day's proceedings.

John

Comment by Pete Handy on November 5, 2009 at 12:24pm

I sold several boxes, so it cudda bin me.
I've got 3 el trebor R.P.B which are green and gold with dark (grubby) wood.
Whats the word for crap? oh patina I think. paper edging a little worn but nice embossing on lid and inside, so you could reverse them. Spring clips to keep lid shut. I'm sure they are made just for you as I found a feather inside one as I was checking them over.
Wood lookls like sapelle/mahogany.
Aprox size in inches eight and a half by four and a half by one and three eighths. Also one monte cristo no5 yellow gold and red with green warranty seal. slightly deeper and wider than the others. All boxes without any splits that I can see.
Pete.

Comment by Roosterman on November 2, 2009 at 3:17am

Hi Guys,
A bit of help if I may. At the brum show someone was selling some nice vintage boxes. I meant to buy a couple but forgot in the excitment of it all, and of course now I have an order which requires a vintage box! Was it you, and do you have any to sell still? Or does anyone have one? Il happily pay you a fair price and cover postage :o) Cheers fellas

Comment by Little Soul Eric on October 30, 2009 at 2:09am

Free pints i`m up for that cheers Joebud :))

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