ChickenboneJohn's Blog (24)

After my mammoth posting last time, I thought I'd keep this post a little shorter. Our next destination was Asten, in Noord Brabant, Netherlands...to stay with with Ozzy Van Der Loo. We'd never met, but he'd done all the arranging of our gigs and the workshop in Belgium and Southern Holland, so we reckoned he was an on-the-ball sort of guy. We were warmly received by his partner Jolanda, and very shortly afterward Ozzy turned up, and we were introduced to Thomas, their 8 year old son, who…

Well...as the words to a Hollowbelly song go, we knew it would be a "Long Long Road". It was all planned out in a very short time, so our itinerary was a bit random, but we were up for it. A couple of days before the off, my car had to go to the garage to be repaired as the ignition lock barrel had broken...so I had to nervously wait for the "dealer only" parts to arrive, and I got it back in the nick of time on Wednesday night, ready for an early start on Thursday.



A steady drive…

Friday 7^th September dawns, and I’m busy packing gear into my car…all my amps and guitars for the open mic. and Saturdays gigs, Mike’s guitars, my stands and merchandising for Leeds guitar show, a load of parts for guitar making kits, plus tools and workmate benches, drums…and a load of cahon making kits…the top box is packed full...and the gear in the back of my little Meriva is packed tight to the roof.

We dial the now-familiar route to Manchester into the…

So, Saturday…time for a little relaxation, and Mike, Jane and myself head off into Birmingham. After taking in the canals around Gas Street and Symphony Hall, we were walking along into town and I get a phone call...I’ve left a mic, stand and cables in the back of my car at home. My bass player needs them…and my kids cant find the spare car keys..so muttering “No rest for the wicked”, I run off, drive home in Jane’s car, sort the gear, back into town…and catch up with Mike and Jane in The…

So, Boxstock is all over for another year..and I’m counting the cost...financially, emotionally and physically, but it’s been an amazing couple of weeks.  This year Ben took over the organization of the event, and planned an ambitious line-up…which meant even more effort and co-ordination than before, plus bringing over two overseas touring artists in the week before the event.  So here’s the first installment of the full unexpurgated story…or at least what I can remember of…

These days it seems like my working week continues thru' the weekend and back round to Monday without much of a break. I was all geared up for leisurely drifting over to meet up with Hollowbelly at a country pub on Friday night to see him play for the Panther Owners Club (motorcycle weekend). So on Friday night  I go out to pick up some pizzas for the family...get home and Mrs Chickenbone tells me that Mr HB has been on the phones (both land line and mobile) saying he's at the gig but…

Well..it's been a busy couple of weeks for me..making 8 guitars in a week, up to Stockport for the Air Raid Shelter session...finishing off another 4 customer guitars, then this Saturday off to Ashbourne for an all-day gig with ChickenboneBues...and Sunday the Pendle Guitar Festival...a lot of miles and a lot of hours.  And after all this I'm still behind with my work...with orders for guitars and parts coming in...still, I'm not complaining.

Photo from the Lancashire…

Just about to set off to the airport to collect Tinqui8. He's here in the UK to play some gigs...and hopefully he'll see a bit more of the UK than the last couple of times..when all he saw was the inside of a pub and the main venue, a motel room...and West Brom shopping centre!

Got the kick drum and hi-hat all ready...…

So...a guitar free weekend ...a trip to Paris for me and my wife Jane.  This is where we ended up having lunch on Saturday...a bit rough but we put up with it....

And guitar free? Almost... on Sunday we were up at the Marche Aux Puces, Paris's massive (but massive) flea market....walking…

Slowly catching up with my backlog....2 Stellas just gone out after being with me for neck resets and general overhaul, a 1920's/30s Oscar Schmidt and a 1950s Harmony.

And this just finished today..a ResoCaster, flame maple over mahogany, Bill Lawrence blade humbucker…

This cigar box guitar caper has pretty much taken over my time nowadays...although nominally I still have a day-job...it's very much in the background these days.  I managed to get a late booking at the Barnsley Guitar Show...so pressure is on to get some stock made..but how hard can that be?.... 8 or so guitars and half a dozen stompboxes by the end of the week.

First priority however: I had to make sure I had 24 guitar kits ready for Malc's workshops at the Sweeps festival...so I…

I've just been messing around with GarageBand on my computer...I haven't a clue what I'm doing...and an hour's fiddling about has produced about a minute's recorded stuff..I hesitate to call it music...but here it is...my first effort...Aint%20right.mp3

Vocals and guitar recorded direct to the computer using…

If you want the very best in genuine bottlenecks slides...look no further...Diamond Bottlenecks.

I've stopped making my own bottleneck slides...and started stocking these fantastic slides because Ian McWee and the good people at…

I've been pretty busy making and repairing more regular-type guitars over the past few weeks...here's one, a telecaster resonator electric...

..and another resonator guitar..this time a 12 string converted from a Harmony Stella...…

Blimey, last night was Cigar Box Guitar Central at my gaff. Hollowbelly dropped by to collect his new "Pyronator" 4 string reso...and Roosterman was on the phone to both of us.

Mr HB gave my latest creation a thorough test...I don't think I've ever been so nervous having someone play one of my guitars...then he requested a minor adjustment....so  I made a new nut, altered the action & string spacing, did a rough fit...HB tested it..them I did a final fit for the new nut,…

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…

Another steep learning curve...after sifting through the footage that Stan Newton had taken throughout the day I managed to assemble something that approached a film record of the day, figuring out how to add credits and titles.  Then the task of actually putting it onto a DVD...converting it to the right format, adding menus, titles, music...blimey still I just about managed it.  Of course then the next task is figuring how to actually burn it to disk..and then software tells me the whole…

Well...it's all over for an other year...Boxstock that is. Just over two weeks on and I've got my office and workshop almost back to normal and I'm starting proper work again. I've got a long backlog of guitars to get on with, so sincere apologies to all my customers who are still waiting. The responsibility and culmination of a lot of work had taken it's toll on me both physically and mentally..so I'm just about surfacing again! This sort of thing just doesn't stop, as soon as it was over,…

A very long day...up at 3.45am...load up the car and on the road for 5.15am and a 150 mile drive to Yorkshire. I love being on the road that time of a morning...quiet roads, and seeing in the start of the day, even if it's a misty drizzley one.

It was nice to see some old friends and meet some new customers....I had another good day for sales, and some great networking..one guitar shop wants to stock some of my stuff, another wants a custom guitar with their logo on it, I…

Last weekend I had a good day at Haydock Park, taking my store on the road to The North West Guitar Show...even got quoted in Music Instrument Professional....blimey...!!!

It was great to meet a few people that I'd only exchanged emails with, and some existing customers... "TexMexy" Kev was there to collect another custom guitar from me. There's always lots of…