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A Tour of Maddog's CBG Cabin

Maddog's (Patrick Mallette's) riverside cabin is a cigar box guitar emporium, workshop, and antique shop. It is a lot of fun to visit. It makes me feel like a kid in a toy store. Even more so on the day of this impromptu video. Justin Johnson's newly released Christmas CD was playing as I made the rounds. Great CD! I am going to order one. Pat (Maddog) is proud that one of his builds is used on the CD.

The cabin sits on a high west bank on the Nebraska side of the river. It is just a stones throw from Pat and Janet's steak house, The Driftwood. In the massive flooding of 2011, many area homes and buildings were ruined by the flood waters. Maddog's place was just high enough to escape, yet it is a stones throw to the water.

The Missouri River is swift, deep and powerful. Janet and friends catch catfish – large catfish- from the bank or from a boat. Pat is a river man. In his younger days, he made a living commercial fishing the river. Now he is a contractor, restaurant man, antique dealer and cbg man.

Pat's cbgs are good players and well crafted. He is primarily a three string builder and player, but there were d-bows and a deuce on hand as well. His antique dealings lead him to some great amp and cbg parts, such as his old drive in movie speaker – amps.

Currently, Pat is into fretless and he is using a lot of vintage auto license plates. Most of his guitars on hand were fretted. Unlike most CBGers, he started with frets and now has gone the other direction.

Besides guitars and amps, I sampled 2 MojoBone slides, made by artist/CBG man, Randy Bretz. They are light in weight, comfortable on my finger and play very nicely.

More on the river. I love looking out on it and across it to God's country, the Iowa side. Wildlife is plentiful. In the few times I have been there, I have seen deer, bald eagles, mallard ducks, coots, not myself and Maddog, but a duck like bird, Canada geese, wrens, juncos, herons, swallows and crows.

Pat and some family have seen mountain lions across the river on the Iowa side. I've never seen one, but would like to, from distance. The river valley is flat bottom land. A few miles east, Iowa's Loess Hills jut up abruptly from the plain.

Pat is a good guy and welcoming host. If you CBN folks are ever in the eastern Nebraska region, contact him and if you can get there on a Thursday through Sunday evening, I recommend you order a a ribeye steak at the Driftwood.

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Comment by bemuzic on November 28, 2013 at 7:54am: thanks for the tour, yeah I'd be like a kid in a toy store too, could spend days playing all those CBG's !!

Comment by Piht Bull (Delta Dawg Guitars) on November 28, 2013 at 7:00am: you would have to drag me out of there kicking and screaming lol

Comment by James on November 28, 2013 at 6:21am: great stuff !!! love it !!!

Comment by Diglydog on November 28, 2013 at 6:11am: Wow, what a great place. I'd love to visit but I don't think I'd manage one of those 'hang-over-the-side-of-the-plate' steaks that you guys eat - that's keep me going for weeks !

Thanks for the tour Uncle John and a happy Thanksgiving to all !!

Comment by Justin Johnson on November 28, 2013 at 4:55am: Our Nebraska home away from home! Thanks for sharing the visit, Uncle John.. It was great to get a little virtual Driftwood in our soul this Thanksgiving morning!

Comment by Rob Ingram on November 28, 2013 at 4:50am: Very Nice ! Thanks for making and sharing the video Uncle John ! And Thanks Maddog for letting us see your place !!

Comment by Jamie MacBlues on November 28, 2013 at 4:21am: Mother Nature can be cruel at times, Patrick :)

Comment by Maddog on November 28, 2013 at 4:08am: John talks of the flood of 2011, here is a photo a friend of mine took from his plane of our property during the height of the flood. The store where this vid was shot is the middle building, the big building with the green roof is our restaurant the "Driftwood" and the building to the far right is my lil' cabin. The water was at this level for 3 months.

Comment by Blind Lemon Cello on November 28, 2013 at 3:59am

Comment by Dave Lynas on November 28, 2013 at 1:03am: Thanks Uncle John, Maddog. A dreamy look inside the best shop of fun yet seen. Hope to get there someday if the river don't rise. I don't even get to southern Minnesota these days, but the hope is there. Thanks for a nice tour and facts about Pat.