Comment

Comment by Sparky John on February 21, 2015 at 7:32am

Thanks Bill I'll give the transducer pickup a try but if it's not good I'll change it for a humbucker.

Comment by gary sheldon on February 20, 2015 at 12:57pm

Got it.  Yes sir, Bill.

Comment by Bill Raddatz on February 20, 2015 at 12:46pm

Thanks, Uncle John!

Comment by Bill Raddatz on February 20, 2015 at 12:45pm

You are welcome, Gary. Yes, film making was a real interesting career. I met many great people, worked on all kinds of projects, and went places that many others don't. It is also interesting that building canjos has some of the same aspects as making films. The first one that comes to mind is creating something which exists on a level that is more than the sum of its parts, if you get my meaning.

Comment by Uncle John on February 20, 2015 at 12:43pm

Keeper photo!

Comment by Bill Raddatz on February 20, 2015 at 12:38pm

John, good luck with your new hobby, and thanks for your comment. I think you will find that each build is different and you can't really predict how they will sound when their finished, which is, I feel, a fun aspect of building CBGs. But, since there are no rules, you can rebuild or modify your build at any point including when you thought you were finished the first time. I used disc piezo pickups on my first canjos and they worked well except that they would tend to amplify handling noises when I touched the metal cans. So, as I got more critical of the sounds my instruments were producing through an amp, I decided to try humbucker pickups since they pickup the vibration that each string makes in a magnetic field produced by the pickup. In other words, they tend to not amplify the handling noises. I would suppose, though, that wooden instrument bodies, like cigar boxes, would not transmit as much handling noise as metal cans do.

So, experimentation is the key.

Comment by gary sheldon on February 20, 2015 at 11:34am

Thanks for the info, Bill.  You must have had an interesting career.

Comment by Sparky John on February 20, 2015 at 11:31am

What a great looking instrument Bill and what a fantastic setting to play it in. I am new to CBG and my second build is a Canjo. I am using a tin that held construction site cutting discs and is about 60cm deep I saw it in a supplier of mine and it was laid across a pick axe handle and at first glance it looked like a banjo so I asked the guy who owned the business for the tin and he gave me it. I bought the pick axe handle and decided to make a slide Canjo. The handle is Hickory and quite difficult to work but I will get it finished and post some pictures. I was going to fit a transducer pickup inside because the tin has quite a nice design on the lid and I didn't want to cut a big hole in it. Do you think this will sound OK as I am still unsure what pickups to fit into what instrument.

Comment by Bill Raddatz on February 20, 2015 at 11:01am

Thanks for the comments, Gary. Yes, the film cans are made very sturdily to protect film, so once they are integrated into the instrument, they are solid and have a lot of resonance by themselves. I have built 6 of them so far with cans I wound up with from my career as a film maker. I think you can probably find some for sale on eBay. From my experience, people seem to like the ones that are beat up just a bit so the older ones are better and some actually have a patina on them from being handled by film labs (pretty much a thing of the past now).

Comment by gary sheldon on February 20, 2015 at 10:51am

Kodakaster.   What a great name.

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