I’m seeing the whole CBG revolution as being:

• Historical
• Collaborative
• Innovative
• Experimental (Building on history, collaboration and innovation)

In that spirit, and given I have my own soapbox blog on CB Nation (yay!), I want to introduce a link for an interesting fellow in the UK, that somehow fits into the whole CBG Esprit de Corps:

Tom Fox

https://vulpestruments.com

Some…

I had some electric stove burner covers from when we bought the house. The small ones are 8" in diameter and I figured they would work out just fine. I have it tuned dgbd and to my ears it sounds great, almost like it is being played through an amp.

Now I need to learn how to play.…

Anyone have some building plans and scale templates for a diatonic canjo?

Trying to come up with a simple, easy to build, an inexpensive one for a bunch of elementary school kids (maybe twenty of them) to build and decorate. One stringer, no frets, and a hardware store eye hook (or something similar) for a tuning peg. Need to keep cost way down. I'll probably pre-cut and pre-drill everything, and mark the fret positions, then they can paint or decorate the neck…

This past weekend, I made a trek to York, PA and attended the 10^th Annual Pennsylvania Cigar Box Guitar Festival. It was a heck of a good time and I drew a ton of inspiration from the folks in attendance. In fact, as soon as I got home, I started my first electric washboard build. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the festival, it is said to be one of the premier cigar box guitar events in the United States. It takes place every year in the parking lot of…

I went all in, buying almost 400 lbs. of defective guitar necks to turn into coat racks.  Selling them at $30 each at fall festivals in September and October.  I can officially say I'm getting tired of making coat racks out of guitar necks, but they sure look cool and I'm excited to see how many I can sell.  I love having something in my booth that you don't have to be a musician to appreciate.  Just a music lover.  Give me a holler if this looks like something you would want hanging on your…

Okay, so I sell at markets and festivals and such.  One of my big mistakes starting out this year was just selling guitars.  I learned real quick that it's tough to get folks to plunk down $100+ on a guitar when they don't know how to play.  They appreciate what I'm doing, but they don't want to buy in at that high a cost.   could tell, they wanted to buy something.  I simply wasn't carrying items that fell in their price range.  It sent me back to the drawing board and made me…

Spent some quality time at the Indiana State Fair.  Things I learned.

1.  You can mount pretty much any food this side of pudding to a stick, fry it, and it will sell at the Indiana State Fair.

2.  You cannot buy Coke products at the Indiana State Fair.  Part of some deal they made with Pepsi.

3.  The shortest distance between any two points at the Indiana State Fair will be blocked off by the biggest crowd of humanity you have ever seen in your life waiting on fried…

My dad always said the same thing when he saw something marked at a way better than average price:  "how much for all of them?"  I have learned that you can buy 200 of something for just slightly more than 100.  If you're willing to buy all of somebody's stock, they will REALLY make it worth you're while as long as they are a halfway motivated seller.  I recently walked into a cigar shop with a table filled high with empty boxes.  $4 each or 2/$6.  I bought them all and saved a ton.  The…

I've jumped in with both feet and bought shellac chips and mixed my own shellac.  It's easier to make than I thought.  I used the advice and instruction from Stew Mac videos and it was a great experience.  It's more labor intensive, but you can have a gorgeous finish built up in 2 days.  I've used shellac in the past, but it was from the can.  It took a lot longer to dry and cure.  The stuff I mixed myself dried completely in an hour and cured within 24 hours.  Nice.  

Give it a…

I've never done a blog before, but the ones I have read have been rather long-winded.  I'll try to keep these short.  Plus, I'm pretty sure nobody will ever read this that's not related to me.

I know it is ugly as sin but it is able to be tuned. So I am happy with it, she has already gone a few changes. The parts were ordered through cb gitty after I purchased Shanes book. I had 3 cigar boxes but they ended up being made of card board. So I made a box using the dimensions of a john ruskin cigar box. I made the guitar to be played right handed and without frets. The dark wood under the bridge was the bridge and the oak fret was not in place. I had about 3/8ths of a inch in action…