Hello! My name is Kevin M. Kraft, founder of the annual Kansas City Cigar Box Guitar Festival. This year's event will take place on August 26th, and once again I am accepting cigar box guitars and cigar box guitar-related donation, which will be raffled off during the festival, the proceeds to benefit Kansas City's Blues in the Schools program. If you have a guitar, accessory, CD, DVD--anything related to cigar box guitars that you would like to donate, please contact me at the Cigar Box Nation or email me at kevinmkraft@juno.com  to learn where to send it.

 

Thanks for you time and consideration.

 

- Kevin

 

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/events/the-2nd-annual-kansas-city-cigar-box-guitar-festival

Hello David,,,was looking through your Mose Williams....pics and info...I thought several years ago I found a video from about 1978 where he is playing the door dbow...do you have any info on such a video...thanks for posting....a real blues man...willardj

Cool mouth bow clips you put up.
Thanks

I recognized your name from your web site which I found because I'm fascinated by dulcimers and might have a go at building one some day. I'm English and the mountain dulcimer just exudes Americana, you hardly need to touch it, it just happens!

i always do the tap test david with wood fer tops. i havent gone further with the reso coverplate thing yet but the domed coverplate is just an embellishment as far as i can tell right now.when i actually put a domed coverplate on a resonator i have built and it makes a difference in sound i will be glad to tell about it. will keep you updated on cool acoustic sound experiments. if you ever want to know about the experiment i did once in louisiana where i figgered out what i thought was one of stradivarious methods in wood top tuning fer maximum sound vibration i,ll be glad to share that story but its a very long one so i would have to tell it in a few pages on the message part of our pages.thanks fer your interest in the same subject of acoustic principals.

hello david, i have made that leather sand bag and it works great.didnt have any sand so i just put back yard dirt in it and that works great it took me less than 5 minutes to make a nice dome shape in a paint lid with a leather covered mallet.put a coupla pics up on my page if yer interested in seeing what it looks like. i guess we could call it a dirt bag,haaaaaaaaa but the idea came through and worked well.

fer making a dome in metal i have a plan to sew up a leather bag and fill it partially with sand or crushed glass, not full all the way so there can be an indention in the middle of it to allow fer the concave shape,then beat it with a leather mallet. havent done it yet but i heard from a guy down the road doing this to make headlight bezels fer a 1937 lincolin that he is restoring. he said that the crushed glass in the leather bag works better than sand. hope this idea helps ya david.take care man and have a great week.

the holes are in the top of the cans just like the top of the box david,if you turn the cans just a little the holes in the cans wont line up with the holes in the box so it will make the volume of the cans less. the steel plates were removed cause there wasnt enough room fer them in the box so the cans are mounted directly to the top of the box. and that is why they are touching the back of the box,not enough depth to the box. on some others i built last week i would set the can on dowels to lift it off of the back of the box so the sound would flow from the bottom of the can. i built 5 or 6 resonators in the last few weeks.there are videos here of all of them david.all were sound experiments,one-the black vengeance has a leather ted crocker tesla piezo transducer right under the cone of the angelfood aluminum cake pan i used fer the resonator. they were all great fun to build.

just figgered out how to put the video of the tri-can reso on the how good can it sound unplugged page hope that is ok with you david.

thanks david,i just loaded a video of the sound sample on the nation,s vid page it is kinda loud acoustic sound. the can size is 3.25 X 1.25 tuna cans and i made holes in them like the holes in the box.they set flat on the box back so to get the sound out i had to make holes in the cans but here is the cool thing about the holes,each can has a screw in the center and if you loosen the strings you can turn the screw and turn the can to change the volume of how loud it may be.kind of an accidental discovery. i played it before i made holes in the cans it was kinda loud then but wanted to see if i could make it louder. take care brother.

Cheers David,
Thank you for your kind comments - would you believe that you are one of my strongest influences in building and to actually be able to show you my early efforts is just amazing...even a little intimidating!

As always your instruments are so refined, I particularly love the string retainer tailpiece design you have, shows years and years of experience that I can only aspire to. Personally I can't wait to see your CBG Resonator effort - is it gonna be a dulcimer resonator? That would be cool...

Hello,
I have started a CBN group entitled, "How to Play CBG" It is my hope and intention to encourage the "Wealth of Talent" here on the Nation to share their knowledge and skill to further the CBG movement. Please consider contributing an instructional "video" link to this group. If you are a viewer seeking instruction, please feel free to write. If you have any suggestions or know other players who you think may want to post instructional "video" links, please contact me. Thank you for your interest and support, Keni Lee

Hi David,
Actually tapering tools are on my wish list! That would make my life a lot easier.
I did try to taper the spools by hand. Actually they are all pretty good except for one needs replacing...sigh!

Love the Diddley Bo photographs and your instruments are lovely!

Found one more amp kit. 1W with vol pot http://store.qkits.com/moreinfo.cfm/QK139

hey david, that hamhock banjo-neck cbg no.4 [the dark horse] has got a mason jar lid set inside the black plastic insert and the inner metal part of the lid is actually resting on top of the lid instead of inside it and the ted crocker tesla is on the metal lid insert and the banjo bridge is seting directly on top of the tesla piezo.it was the only way i could see to set it up for proper height to acomadate the proper string action,it turned out great and functions very well amplified.if you would like to see the set up i used before any work is done i am going to use that set up again on another hamhock banjo-neck cbg,it is pictured with my very first cigarbox amp that i will build. you can find that set together if you look at my latest pics that i posted. thanks fer your technical inquisitiveness because it makes me have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for you as a new friend in this great cigarbox nation of great folks. be well my new friend and thanks fer starting the acoustic group cause it will be a great group to be a part of.

Hey Buddy your thinking about Johnny Lowebow!

Hes on here too.

I use "polyurethane cord" for strings. So far the only commercial outlet is RoadToadMusic.com They make bass ukuleles using this material. I have gotten "samples for manufacturers, but I haven't found any who will sell in small lots.... (500 per size minimun order is a little much)...

The problem with Ashbory bass is that they were strung with surgical tubing that broke down and you had to use talc powder to play. otherwise too tacky.

If you really get into it, let me know and I'll recommend string sizes....

the best,

Sam

Hey David, thanks for the compliment. I don't have any sound files of the fiddles yet, just learning to play them. I've played a little clawhammer banjo, 3 string cbg's and a little mandolin; I'm really diggin' your Shady Grove vid. Man, '73ish was a cool time, huh?
Johnny

Hey David,
thanks for welcoming me to your beautiful place. I had a great time today. Thanks for sharing all your great tips with me. You sounded great on buckets of rain, and your banjos sound GREAT!!! I was so impressed with the sound of that big beede. I was blown away. As David and I were stuffin our mugs with BBQ we were talking about that poplur BB, Honestly I was getting goosebumps talking about sound of it.
Looking forward to jamming some more.
Ham