Artsy Fartsy

alldatndensum wrote:

Grrrr!!!!!  I hate setbacks!

I agree!  But, failure is always an option.  It's one way we learn.  If we don't let failure defeat us, it promotes growth.

Xid wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

Grrrr!!!!!  I hate setbacks!

I agree!  But, failure is always an option.  It's one way we learn.  If we don't let failure defeat us, it promotes growth.

I have always been the type to get discouraged and quit.  I can't name all of the hobbies (besides listening to/collecting music & reading) that I have started and stopped because of discouragement. 

I don't consider this a failure.  I consider this neck issue a setback.  I can make a new neck.  I can possibly remove the current fretboard and replace it.  That's what I am going to try first.  If that doesn't work, I will just build a new neck with the right scale length and life will be good.  I want this little canjo (a banjo made from a metal can or tin) to be a cool and inexpensive instrument that will be easy to sell. 

Failure is NOT an option.  I've built one guitar from a wine box that I could not tune.  It was the neck that was the problem.  I removed that neck and made a new one.  It tuned just fine and I sold it quickly.  I took that neck that didn't work on the wine box and threw it on another box just for giggles before trashing the neck.  Guess what?  It worked just fine.  I was able to tune that instrument, set the intonation, and I gave it to a pastor in Ohio.  So, failure isn't an option or I will get discouraged and quit.  That's what I have always done.  I want this to be different.

I like your dogged determination to make it work!

Thank you!


I couldn't save the neck on the canjo.  I tried my best to be gentle in order to remove the fretboard with a hammer and chisel.  That didn't work as I ended up breaking the neck.

Fortunately, I had a couple of necks started and a fretboard already with the fret grooves cut.  So, I will have a setback, but I am already in the process of fixing this.  I can reuse the tuners, so that isn't a problem.  I may add an internal pickup so this could be played both as an acoustic and electric instrument.

I have the new neck for the banjo built.  It will have a shaped headstock and is made from solid oak.  No bowing with this one!  I still have to drill the tuner holes, fret it, and do my many coats of teak oil.

Since I quit making flower arrangements I don't have artsy fartsy things to post anymore.

You should not have quit.  You should have just found another reason to make those arrangements.

rockerVu2 wrote:

Since I quit making flower arrangements I don't have artsy fartsy things to post anymore.

That makes me sad.

Behold!  This is an original piece done by our very own Guilty/Forgiven.  This will be the artwork for the upcoming Big Chris & D'Bare Bones Band debut blues album.  Is this freakin' amazing, or what!!!

Very cool!
That guy climbing out of the grave looks almost exactly like Sabidoo...way to capture his likeness G/F.

That is awesome!

Very cool!

I got input from my wife and daughter.. so you can thank them as well :-)
I asked them what they thought of it, if there was anything I should change... course, being women, they just said "ooh I love the moon !" 

Dude that is fantastic!!!  Wow I love it!

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

I got input from my wife and daughter.. so you can thank them as well :-)
I asked them what they thought of it, if there was anything I should change... course, being women, they just said "ooh I love the moon !" 

As a guy and the man that made the guitars used on this, the first things I noticed was that one of my guitars really is in this picture and my logo is on the tombstone!

Oh, there is a moon there! 

That's a cool cover for the first album of Big  Chris and D'Bares Blues Band.
Well done Guilty/Forgiven.

Thanks all ! And yes Chris, I lifted 2 of your cigar box geetar creations and used them. Unfortunately the guy WAYYYY in the back was too small and you can't make out his CBG, but I'm sure everyone gets the idea.

Here is my latest guitar that I have built.  It is a beautiful electric 4 string with Fender style headstock and a single coil pickup.  Because of the thin material and deep sound chamber, she sounds great clean.  With that single coil, however, she sounds gritty and has a lot of power and snarl when you crank it up!  The box, being plastic, had to be reinforced inside to give it strength.  This is a commissioned piece for a friend of mine who is a fellow geocacher.



As you can see from the above picture, the geocaching emblem is there in the center of the guitar.  I found this hat pin in a cache, cut the main spike off, and glued her on here.  Voila!  A geocaching guitar!



If the geocaching pin in the middle wasn't enough, I decided to make this every geocacher's dream.  I applied a vinyl sticker on the back with its very own tracking code.  Yes, this guitar can go to events and it is fully trackable.  Please, however, do not log this just from the picture here as the code is not yet registered.  I hope that this one attends this year's Geowoodstock.

I have two more that I am working on.  I have a 3 string cigar box guitar box guitar that just waiting on pickups to finish.  I also have the metal canjo made from the metal tin with the picture of The Hermitage, the home of Pres. Andrew Jackson and a Tennessee landmark, that I am building.  I still have a couple more coats of teak oil for the solid oak neck that I will use on this canjo.  Oh, it only has 3 strings as well.

It looks fantastic!
Does the neck run through the body? Almost looks like it stops at the ammo can.
Watched the video of you playing this one on f.b. I have to say that I was really impressed with how it sounds.

With only four strings which ones do you use? Is it just the low end strings EADG? or something different?

Staybrite wrote:

It looks fantastic!
Does the neck run through the body?  Almost looks like it stops at the ammo can.
Watched the video of you playing this one on f.b.  I have to say that I was really impressed with how it sounds.

With only four strings which ones do you use?  Is it just the low end strings EADG? or something different?

The neck does run through the body.  That's what the tailpiece is attached to.  The neck is reinforced with a thinner 2nd piece of oak.  Inside the box is a frame that runs around the parameter of the box since it is made of plastic.  That took away from the overall volume of it acoustically, but it will make that box last a LONG time.

The new owner was very impressed yesterday.  I delivered this and got my $200.  I had about $80 in it.  This will be a chunk of the change I will use to get my album mixed & mastered.  I have another commissioned build that I will complete (Lord willing) this week that will give me the last of the money I need.  So, even if I never build another, I am happy that these guitars not only helped me record my album; they've helped me pay to complete it as well.

Oh, I forgot about your question about the strings!  I used the EADG strings on this one.  So, you COULD play most of a standard chord here.  However, it is tuned to DADF# to give you this killer blues 7th chord with only a single finger to play if you so choose.  It is a tuning used if you want to play slide and make it easy with a minimal learning curve. 

The beautiful thing about these types of rustic instruments is the freedom they give you.  You don't like the standard CBG tunings (GDG, DADF#), then put on different strings and try an alternative tuning.  That's what Robert Johnson, Sun House, and many of the original blues greats did.  They experimented with tunings to make it harder for other people to steal their songs in an age where copyrighting wasn't something musicians did.  Johnson had tunings that created the whole myth about him selling his soul to the devil for his talent.  His tunings have been uncovered now, but it took many decades to decode.  He didn't even use the same tuning for each song.  That gave him techniques that would be impossible for other players to steal just by watching him.

Building your own instrument is pure musical freedom.  You build it the way you envision it.  You tune it the way you want.  Then, you can choose what style to play.  This particular build would sound great in a metal band.  I am going with a more electric blues sound (like ZZ Top/Stevie Ray Vaughn) while most CBG artists tend to lean to the folk style of blues.  There is a band called Fairtrade Floyd that is doing metal with their CBGs.  It is pure freedom to do whatever.

alldatndensum wrote:

Staybrite wrote:

It looks fantastic!
Does the neck run through the body?  Almost looks like it stops at the ammo can.
Watched the video of you playing this one on f.b.  I have to say that I was really impressed with how it sounds.

With only four strings which ones do you use?  Is it just the low end strings EADG? or something different?

The neck does run through the body.  That's what the tailpiece is attached to.  

Ok, that's pretty much what I was thinking....just wanted confirmation.

Alldat wrote:

The beautiful thing about these types of rustic instruments is the freedom they give you.  You don't like the standard CBG tunings (GDG, DADF#), then put on different strings and try an alternative tuning.  That's what Robert Johnson, Sun House, and many of the original blues greats did.  They experimented with tunings to make it harder for other people to steal their songs in an age where copyrighting wasn't something musicians did.  Johnson had tunings that created the whole myth about him selling his soul to the devil for his talent.  His tunings have been uncovered now, but it took many decades to decode.  He didn't even use the same tuning for each song.  That gave him techniques that would be impossible for other players to steal just by watching him.

Holy moly cow!  That is crazy!

Dude, Alldat ! That looks SO amazing ! It trips me out how you can make an instrument out of practically anything !  Very cool talent indeed 

That's cool a geocache cigar box guitar.

rockerVu2 wrote:

That's cool a geocache cigar box guitar.

I don't know if they will use it or not, but I submitted pictures of my geocaching guitar to FTF Magazine.  FTF Magazine is a bi-monthly print publication that has cool stories, tips, and news about geocaching.  Maybe they will print my story and give me a little free advertising.  You never know.  It is worth a shot!