Last night at the Destination Blues Listening Room, a monthly event sponsored by The Exchange in Bloomsburg, PA, Clarence Spady banged out a tune on the license plate guitar I built and donated for a raffle. It was dramatically untuned after being fooled with for a couple of months, but he found music in it. It was a blast seeing an instrument I built in the hands of such a talented musician! I hope the winner of the raffle enjoys the instrument too. It was autographed by the members of…

It had been a while, but it was time for me and Hollowbelly to go back on he road again…the Van Thom Weekender and the German Cigar Box Guitar Festival were happening on two consecutive weekends, so that was the cue to arrange a little tour. We had a contact from a new promoter offering a midweek date between the two weekends, and I managed to arrange some more dates on the way out and back, so we had a viable tour organised. Getting gigs is one thing, but getting shows that pay and work…

Next will be fretted.

I was once a man.

Who did not act as friends, acquaintances or lightning traces.



A skin on a river.

Bones in an hourglass.



The time so never flowed into me like it should have,

like he knew how to do it with the others at least.

Neither does blood.

The seconds quickly dried the one that I became one day.

The minutes reminded me of it.

The hours to certainly regret this still life,

Visible in every mirror,

in every pair of eyes,

in…

Proprietor of OneWithCoolness, building canjos and little guitars since a few months ago..

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It's time to get weird.

Tonight, I've re-launched www.StubbySlide.com, my online catalog of…

I got some really rough 1x2s and hand tools today in HCMC, quite the accomplishment. Basically I went to the wonderful Mr. Binh (of Guitar Binh Handmade Guitars), who sold me a lovely acoustic a couple years back, and he told me where to get wood and tools. I forgot a few things, but was able to hack down the 1x2s to get rid of split ends. Tomorrow a trip to the Humidor (the only real cigar retailer in Saigon)? Maybeeeeeee....

OK, I want to make a few one stringers or Canjo's, but my question is;...why do some, well, many that I've seen, mostly fret-less ones, have such super high action??? They usually have a super high nut and or bridge and don't look like you could do much more than twang it open string. I've seen this here and other places where it looks nice but appears to be impossible to play. Are these just made by people as a novelty, or inexperience, or am I missing something.

I'm not talking…