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Permalink Reply by Richard Dean on September 25, 2017 at 6:54am

A 1ft tall tin doesn't leave much for a neck or frets left, especially if you carve any area out in front of the tin for strumming room. You figure average scale 24-25.5", you used half that right off with the tin, otherwise you'll have to face it downward so your scale distance won't be affected, but you'll then have one heck-of-a long canjo in the 42plus length overall

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Permalink Reply by Br Harold F Stubbs III on September 25, 2017 at 7:34am

Not sure on your thought there.. 

Tin is ~1ft tall, dowel is 4' - if I attach the dowel to the side of the tin and square with the bottom that leave 3' above the lid.. ohhh...

I'm attaching the string to the LID, plan to put a piezo under the lid and another at the bottom, with a spring between the lid and the bottom. I'd have to put a screw or something to hold the lid on is all.

And planning tone knob + psycho distortion so far..

Attaching to lid and closing the resonator has worked for me so far on 2 acoustic canjo -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0EvEog79Y0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9xBX_KcucI


 This is gonna be a long Canjo though - 4 foot overall, ~30" scale length ( depends how long the .056" on order is or I can use unwound .046" music wire... )

The length, string gauge, jumbo piezos, and distortion are what lead me to calling it Djent. I really should have clarified my idea more..

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Permalink Reply by Richard Dean on September 25, 2017 at 7:52am

No you were clear for the most part, as you already know, you were talking about it being 4' or better, wasn't sure you were aware of what the overall length was going to be, and to make sure you were mounting the can in the right direction.

As far as strings go, you don't need anything special if your sticking to standard scale lengths, most common 6 strings using standard string lengths have a scale of 24-25.5" like I said earlier.

Never seen real long canjo's, but there are no rules, I've seen them with Altoids mint tins, spam cans to tall boys and cookie tins, why no a "foot long" tin LOL

Lay it all out on a surface to get an idea what it will look like before drilling/screwing/mounting anything to get an overall picture to make sure it's what you want it to end up being.

That's what's fun about this, no rules, make it up as you go, but also can be overwhelming with all the ideas you can come up with, can't decide which I want to make next.

For the most part, I've been just getting my feet wet into the hobby, trying to sell what I've made, sold my first 3 string, selling my 2 canjo's and my "Gambler" 4 string, I think I want to make my next 2 builds "keepers" I want to make a real nice electric 3 string res for myself and the wife wants me to get started on the 4-5 string banjourine(12" tambourine drum) for her banjo build.

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Permalink Reply by Br Harold F Stubbs III on September 25, 2017 at 8:18am

I actually started with plans to build a Banjo out of a 4Lb cookie tin we still had laying around from Xmas.. So far I've only roughly shaped and glued part of the neck... still needs a lot of work.. I have all the parts I need except banjo strings ( they ended up on other things... )

While I was trying to figure out the banjo initially, as I've never seen up close or held any home made instruments I haven't built, my son got in on it wanting something to play, so I built him the 1 string Canjo with the batman symbol on the end...

Then inspiration struck me and I built the cigarette pack shorty guitar, and a week later I was ripping it apart and rebuilding it and the neighbor kids came around, I built a quick board-on-tin 3 stringer about 24-25" scale for the one kid and gave him a homemade glass slide..

After finishing the rebuild I hadn't worked on anything up until a week ago.. Just busy with life.. But I have about ~90 cookie tins and other things I want to build guitars out of and turn it into a business... ( but I still work full time doing IT... )

I already have some offers from local ppl I met that if I build more cigarette pack guitars they'd buy them. I am just hoping it all turns out well. 

Hoping to do farmer's markets and such next summer.. Right now all I have an etsy store, a dba, and a dream...

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Permalink Reply by Richard Dean on September 25, 2017 at 8:01am

Djent huh? Haven't heard that term in quite a few years, but actually is quite appropriate for this industry's onomatopoeia type of instruments. Sorry....couldn't resist, for those not in the know(onomatopoeia-imitation of a particular sound) usually described for various animal sounds, screeching of car tires, any sound that pretty much doesn't have a definitive description. Sorry, couldn't resist being a smarty pants WV hillbilly ;)

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Permalink Reply by Br Harold F Stubbs III on September 25, 2017 at 8:09am

What part of WV? I spent a few weeks in Morgantown one summer so just curious..

Nothing wrong with being a smarty pants hillbilly though.. I think you're just being pedantic but that's OK

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Permalink Reply by Richard Dean on September 25, 2017 at 8:14am

HaHa, touche'

Salem WV, not all that far from Morgantown, go there a lot, but mostly hail from central WV Braxton County. Originally a displaced buckeye getting back to my roots, never too late, even at 55.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on September 25, 2017 at 1:13pm

Hmmm. 4' long neck piece...place 1' tin in center of neck...two strings, shorty dulcimer to the right, shorty chromatic on the other end...belt spinner in the middle... and fuzzy dice on the ends...

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Permalink Reply by Br Harold F Stubbs III on September 25, 2017 at 3:21pm

OK. wow. I was thinking my plan was crazy.. and I was asking for crazier.. And this is too crazy for me right now.. I might have to come back to this.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on September 26, 2017 at 2:54am

I'm often described as an out of the box thinker...

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Permalink Reply by Br Harold F Stubbs III on September 26, 2017 at 8:19am

I am still thinking about that belt spinner canjo thing... Not for this build but I will have to stash that notion in my noggin somewhere for another time..

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Permalink Reply by Lane Martin on September 27, 2017 at 2:36pm

Look up circuitsandstrings on youtube...Daniel is on here. He's got a quad-neck uke that spins like Ron suggested.

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