November 2011 Blog Posts (14)

I pass the door at least twice a day...

I wake up nervous on Saturday morning-tonight I play my (unbelievably) first northern gig-a mere 25 miles from my birthplace-my twin brother will be there.People are travelling there and staying in hotels-I want it to be good.I'd planned to try out some of the new tunes from the as yet unrecorded next album, but both guitars I need have developed faults days before-still, every cloud has a silver lining-it forces me to pad out the set with some extra storytelling-a…

Well, I've been pretty busy lately...trying to get my back-log of work reduced, and deperately trying to juggle all sorts of other stuff. My workshop customer orders has kept me away from going on the road to guitar shows, but last weekend I finally managed to get out to Liverpool and do a show. It went pretty well, but this was the first time I'd had stuff stolen from the stand...even with two of us on duty, those naughty Scousers managed to lightfinger a few bottlenecks and DVDs...my first…

  "7 Hills Stomp" began as a lofi punk blues cbg band set up in the style of "The White Stripes" and "Black Keys", lead vocals, guitar, drums.  The twist was that all the songs were played on 1 and 3 string electric cbg's.  Our 1st album (self titled "7 Hills Stomp") accomplished the in your face approach to punk blues we were looking for.

On our 2nd album "A Different Engine", we set out to record just what the title implies.  We were "driven" by other influences- the midwest garage…

Build day 2>>

4 neck blanks and 1 box blank finished. 1 box in process. Honey-do list got in the way of building. By tomorrow night need 2 other neck blanks done and head stock blanks finished.…

I am going to try and chronicle my build over the next few weeks. Today is November 18. I have until Dec 14th to finish at least 6 CBGs. One of which will be a donation the rest will be sold (hopefully). I will also use this opportunity to build two of them using my own hand made boxes. Last night I glued up the side of the first box and tonight I glued the bottom on. I also, cut 4 neck blanks. Ran out of wood so looks like a trip to Dunn Lumber in the morning. I decided on a 24" scale 4…

found it thru petapixel.com. May be interesting for some of…

I know most people start with a good old cigar box but nooo, I had to go straight into building a wood box CBG. I built this…

My latest photo is of a prototype of a drone instrument I have made. It has worked really nicely. It has a scale length of a metre, can be bowed, plucked or struck and has some nifty non-intentional features. I can press down on the soundboard and bend the note down or I can use the bone nut to lever the string into more tension and bend the note up. The instrument will end up with 3 strings but I think this should still work. I have also mounted springs in the sound chamber in order to…

Just when I thought it was finished....

But another useful lesson learnt. Click here for more pics  Never try and glue a bridge on to an existing finish. Wood glue requires…

This is what I refer to as "Old School" bottleneck slide guitar. All the notes are fretted using the slide. From an educational point of view, compare this arrangement with the 6…

Hi Guys

I am looking for a CBG Bass player for a project starting in the new year , will be based in Barnsley south yorkshire , free rehearsals on a thursday night , the plan is to do original material and a bit of rolling stones stuff.

PM me if interested

Tony