T-belly johnson's Posts - Cigar Box Nation2024-03-29T05:38:41Zt-belly johnsonhttps://www.cigarboxnation.com/profile/tbellyjohnsonhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/364466736?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://www.cigarboxnation.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=02039e4pcuhqp&xn_auth=norebuilding old guitartag:www.cigarboxnation.com,2021-02-13:2592684:BlogPost:36039912021-02-13T17:21:59.000Zt-belly johnsonhttps://www.cigarboxnation.com/profile/tbellyjohnson
<p>It`s been an age since I built a guitar due to the amount of gear out there and the fact all my relatives and friends have been gifted!</p>
<p>As a result I decided to re-visit an old 3 stringer I built several years ago. It`s a guitar I was never really happy with but I was loathe to get rid.</p>
<p>So I stripped it back and added a radius to the neck and refitted the frets. I kept the old under saddle pickup and decided to change it from a red stained wood and black fretboard to a black…</p>
<p>It`s been an age since I built a guitar due to the amount of gear out there and the fact all my relatives and friends have been gifted!</p>
<p>As a result I decided to re-visit an old 3 stringer I built several years ago. It`s a guitar I was never really happy with but I was loathe to get rid.</p>
<p>So I stripped it back and added a radius to the neck and refitted the frets. I kept the old under saddle pickup and decided to change it from a red stained wood and black fretboard to a black body with a high gloss finish!</p>
<p>As I didn`t have any black dye available I decided to use an acrylic black paint but I added some silver to get a lovely grey finish. Similarly I didn`t have any high gloss cellulose spray for the body so I decided on a polymer lacquer. I had some yacht varnish and also some Danish oil. In a moment of madness I thought it would be a good idea to mix the yacht varnish and oil together so I could get a quick drying varnish that I could lay on with a cloth!</p>
<p>OMG! What a great finish! It`s had 2 coats and is nice and shiny. Still waiting for it to dry so I can take a photo or two to add.</p>
<p>I know there are a lot of you out there who have old guitars hanging around that you don`t use. Why not waste some of your lockdown time and try making improvements?</p>
<p>You could be very surprised ;)</p>
<p></p>DIY easy peasy chord sheetstag:www.cigarboxnation.com,2013-03-08:2592684:BlogPost:14678712013-03-08T14:00:00.000Zt-belly johnsonhttps://www.cigarboxnation.com/profile/tbellyjohnson
<p>So, I was thinking about playing guitar, and how difficult it is to practice without giving up. It is hard, mainly because most folks learn a few chords then struggle to put together a few simple tunes to make them feel like they are making progress.</p>
<p>There is also a lot of confusuion for people who have no knowledge at all about music theory, it goes right over my head!</p>
<p>I,III,V,VII, doesn`t mean a lot, especially when you look for simple tunes you know that are written down…</p>
<p>So, I was thinking about playing guitar, and how difficult it is to practice without giving up. It is hard, mainly because most folks learn a few chords then struggle to put together a few simple tunes to make them feel like they are making progress.</p>
<p>There is also a lot of confusuion for people who have no knowledge at all about music theory, it goes right over my head!</p>
<p>I,III,V,VII, doesn`t mean a lot, especially when you look for simple tunes you know that are written down in tab form or chords.They use A<B<C<D etc. Nothing numerical at all.</p>
<p>So, I started looking at an easier way to learn to play tunes <em>I know</em>. Playing tunes <em>I know</em> was the main thing.I`ve seen lots of stuff on the site, but some of the songs I`ve never heard before, so it makes it (at least for me) difficult.</p>
<p>So I started looking at open tunings on a 6 string I made, and after finding a chord chart realised this was the way forward for me. I realised I could use all the major chords just by barring with one finger. And once I have this off, it would then be easier to use different barre chords for minor chodrs etc.</p>
<p>This is the chart I found <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/403508304?profile=original" target="_self">open%20chords%20G%20chart.jpg</a> </p>
<p>So, there isn`t any numericals here, just G-A. So I have to learn G-A! and then all the minor chords. My memory is terrible......I`m over 50 now so there will be a few out there who will understand my problem.</p>
<p>So, I went to chordie and looked for tunes I know with 2,3 or 4 chords, and the important thing was that they were all majors, thats the simple 1 finger barre chords on the open tuned guitar.</p>
<p>I then added the fret number to the chord. So, where there was a C i added a number 5, a D I added a 7 etc. The reason I did this was purely for ease of use. It`s really easy to learn where the frets are by number. not so easy to remember what the name of the chord is.</p>
<p>And it works! I was actually playing tunes!</p>
<p>The added bonus is that, as I was adding those numbers to the chord charts I found I was also remembering which chords goes with which number.</p>
<p>I also found I was adding chords, or changing chords to suit my voice or to add a little to the songs. </p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/403508963?profile=original" target="_self">alreadygone.jpg</a> </p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/403509177?profile=original" target="_self">superman.jpg</a></p>
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<p>I hope this will help anyone, like me, who is,or has found it difficult to play a few simple songs. </p>
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