Diddley Bows and Other Primitives

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Diddley Bows and Other Primitives

A place to discuss one-string diddley bows, washtub basses, washboards and any other primitive instrument that may fall outside the Cigar Box realm.

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Latest Activity: Sep 13, 2022

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Comment by Frank Carr on March 18, 2016 at 4:56am

Another diddley bow build, this time with a handmade box.

It has a 45 degree headstock angle.

The sound hole decorations are antique bobbins from Hobby Lobby, cut in half. The tailpiece is a Chinese coin pendant, also from Hobby Lobby. The finish is olive oil mixed with a brown dye. Electronics is a piezo pickup. Scale length is 24 3/4. Dot and side markers are celluloid guitar pick punch-outs. Frets are standard narrow acoustic guitar frets.

On building the box, I made it out of scrap oak I had around plus birch plywood for the top and bottom. I didn't get it quite as square as I would have liked but it was good practice since I hadn't built a small box like that in a very long time.

Some people have asked about why I have the long tail. I've found it makes the instrument more comfortable to play since the extended tail acts as sort of an elbow rest.

Comment by Frank Carr on March 8, 2016 at 8:57am

Here's a short "Rollin' & Tumblin'" clip with my paint can diddley bow seen below. It's plugged into my Monoprice 5w tube amp with a touch of delay. I also added a bit of compression in Audacity after recording.

Rollin & Tumblin Diddley Bow Demo

Comment by Frank Carr on March 6, 2016 at 5:07pm

It's about 3 1/4 inches wide. I probably planed about 1/2 off of it with a spokeshave to get the rounded top. That side of the plank was beveled to start with so it was good practice with the shave.

The board was about 4 1/2 feet long to start with. The finished length is 32 inches with a scale length of 23 inches.

Comment by Gordon Cooper on March 6, 2016 at 3:23pm

Thank you Frank! Quite inspiring. Nicely done! How wide is the pallet wood? 

Comment by Frank Carr on March 6, 2016 at 3:10pm

I just finished up this paint can diddley bow, sort of in the style on Eddie "One String" Jones. The board is from a discarded pallet. The paint can is the standard Home Depot quart can. The pickup is a disc piezo. The bridge and nut are 1/4 threaded rods. Frets are simply cut into the wood and the dot markers are punched out picks. I used some dollar store "bullet hole" stickers to decorate the can and the holes in it.

It is decently loud acoustically. Plugged in and played with the stick and slide method it's "scare the dogs" loud. It also seems to get a pleasant harmonic tone from the can. I'll see if I can capture it on my not-so-great recording equipment.

Comment by Gordon Cooper on February 1, 2016 at 11:28pm

Frank, could you post some sound files? Have you thought about a series run pair of piezo pickups to boost volume?

Comment by Seasick Mick on February 1, 2016 at 11:00pm

Very nice...

Comment by Frank Carr on February 1, 2016 at 6:14pm

Here are a couple of diddley bows I just completed. They have a 1" square dowel neck and a Halloween decoration coffin box for a body. I did a scarf joint headstock. The scale length is 24 3/4 and has acoustic guitar frets and abalone dot markers. The nut and bridge are cut off threaded rod. I install a piezo disc pickup in them. The key hole tailpieces are leftover scrapbooking supplies.

They don't have a lot of volume unplugged because the coffin boxes are rather small. The jack is on the back since it wouldn't fit anywhere else with the neck thru taking up most of the box space.

Comment by Gordon Cooper on January 30, 2016 at 2:45am

If fellow diddley players want to hear some new definitely far South of the Delta sounds for inspiration, have a listen to South American diddley bows, played for martial arts classes-

http://www.capoeira-music.net/capoeira-rhythms/

Comment by gary sheldon on November 20, 2014 at 6:21am

Hi Garreth,

I dug out my main diddley bows yesterday after not seeing them for a while.

I have built 3.  One sounds good, the other 2 not so.

The good one uses a Ashton box.  I like these boxes a lot for diddley bows, and ukes.  The larger one for the ukes ande the smaller for the diddley bows. They have a thin plywood top and back.  I think I will take the other 2 apart and put those necks in the Ashton boxes.

I use a slotted screw for the nut.  It works real well.

Also I have used both round and square dowells.  Like you, i round off the underside of the square dowells.

I haven't put piezos in any so far.  Probably won't.  I want them to be cheap and fast to build.

 

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