Not into Stamps? Build a CBG! No. 9 just arrived

Inspiration for Junkyard No. 9 was a less than spectacular Cigar Box, my daughter Simonne, Elvis Presley, and about 15.000 Stamps waiting for a collector! I've used perhaps 30 stamps on this guitar, well darn only 4,999 guitars to go!

Here are the stats for you Guitar Junkies out there: 3-string tuned Ebe, cheap used tuners, hack-saw blade nut, 18 (polished) finishing nail frets, bolt (and glued) on neck, 3.800 ohm hand wound pickup (no Alnico) P-90 style, Lincoln Head volume knob, and a new (different) bridge/ tail piece construction. All lacquered and waxed with a lot of tender loving care......

Now here's a cute little story: about 5 years ago I had a Guitar Player issue about Slide playing. The right techniques, equipment, and the different Slides that have been used - glass, steel bars, ceramic, copper, etc. Also Bone! Everybody knows about Ham-bones, right? Do you know anyone who has a bone slide? I know why! No one makes them to sell, so you have to make your own. Don't do it! I did and I won't (maybe for money) do it again! Why?

1. Go to your butcher and ask for bones, hold up your slide so he'll know what your looking for. A hand full is free and you wave goodbye, hurrying home with a bag full of Ham bones.
2. If no one is home, you're lucky - put them in a pot of water to boil. Hours later, when your wife comes home the very minute she walks in you're finished! It's one of those, "who killed the cat," or "where did the dog crap this time" things, and you know right then, throw does bones away, but (mistake no. 2) you don't!
3. You leave them someplace far away to dry and wait for your wife to go shopping again. Now the bones are dry, scrape, file, drill the rest of the marrow out of the bone (you can use every tool you have now because they'll all wind up messy and kinda gooey) and since maybe only 1 out of every 1.000.000 bones is as round and smooth as that cheap glass, copper, brass, or steel slide in your pocket you start to form that bone slide to your liking! File, sand, sand, file, polish until it's just right! Looks good, works fine, didn't cost a dime (is that DIY rhyme?)

Now here's some advice from american George: it wasn't the work or the time it's the smell (of burnt or rotten flesh and bone) that just isn't worth the effort. I've done it once, in fact I have 4 bone slides now to prove it, but never, ever again! And my wife says, "Amen!"

I hope you've enjoyed reading and seeing my CBGs and I hope to be hearing from you soon as well,
best regards,
american George
If you like what you see, you can buy to own - make an offer!

To Fret or not to Fret, that is the question - No. 8 has arrived!

Due to popular demand (I think it was my son) I've added (working - at least you could call them that) frets to Junkyard Guitar No. 8! No they're not silver nickel polished frets from Stuart MacDonalds (I'm saving that for next year) but just plain finishing nails, but it's just as much work as the real thing and works just fine. Now you have the best of both worlds - slide pure or notes by the numbers! As you can see from the pictures I stopped at the 20th fret. I could have gone for 24 but it would have just been for the optics - at best the slide is on the pinky and you're and not going get any fingers working up there anyway and with the slide it's millimeter work so play it by ear!
As always I've added my home-made and hand wound AlNiCo custom pickup (3,200 Ohms for those interested) and a Fender volume knob mounted on top for the violin-effect fanatics among you. What more could you want in a Cigar Box guitar? As always they're for sale so make an offer!
I hope you enjoy reading my Posts and I'd sure like to hear your comments so drop me a line!
Your,
american George
P.S. If you want to take a better look at all my Junkyard guitars, visit my Picasa Web Album @ http://picasaweb.google.de/ggborrelli/JunkyardGuitars

Is it Bo Diddley or Diddley-bow No. 6 & 7 just finished!

Well the first attempt on eBay with my Junkyard guitars wasn't as promising as I had thought, but I was still busy this week and turned out two new Junkyards.

Junkyard No. 6. is a cover version of No. 3 with some changes: shorter (57 cm) scale, a diagonal Pickup position and a sheet metal bridge - a little Tele touch! I added my "Money for nothin'" tuner buttons for good looks!

Junkyard No. 7 is a cute little Diddley-Bow with clean European design. The hand wound alnico pickup goes directly to the output jack. I'm pretty proud of the tuner/nut solution, it's both functional and cheap - very DIY-ish!

I've added all the new pictures in my slide show (previous posting) or you can go directly to my Picasa album to get a better look: http://picasaweb.google.de/ggborrelli/JunkyardGuitars

I hope you enjoy having a look and I'm looking forward to be hearing from you soon!
Your
american George

P.S.: If you find something you like, remember everything is for sale - make an offer. If you want something special drop me a line.

Finally some sound.... not great but (if you turn it up) loud!

I've finally managed to add some music (noise?) using Studio 9 (such a pain!) to animate my pictures. Some may not find it particularly virtuous, so I've kept it short to spare those with critical hearing. Mostly your hearing just Junkyard Guitars No. 2, (Lapsteel) and No. 3 (trusty 3-String Cigar-box)
If you have some tips (musically or otherwise) feel free to offer them.....
hope to be hearing from you soon,
american George

A Thousand pictures (hope it works) are better than a million words?

Well it's worth a try. If it works you will be able to start the official american George Junkyard guitar slide show (courtesy of Google - I thought I'd just add that since it's for free!) Now if I could just get my music to work....
Hope you like it!

The Collection.....

I want to keep my promise and present my 4-Cigar-box-guitar-collection. As you can see only two are genuine Cigarbox guitars - the little three string sweetie and my latest achievement the double neck fretless one-string bass/ three string slide. The cream colored is a lapsteel and the orange Anti-War-Demo is from a baking pan I bought at the flea market.

The little brown box is my battery operated reference Amp - if it sounds good through that it will sound great through anything else!

In coming posts I'll introduce each one in detail. If you've enjoyed yourself so far drop me a line.
Your,
american George

In the begining....

Don't ask me how or why I decided to build my own guitars, maybe I was just surfing the Net and discovered a Cigarbox-Guitar web site and found that cool, followed some more links and said to myself.... "I can do that too!" So I did and so far have managed to make four different guitars.

Basically they're all slide or frettless and since there are thousands and thousands of fretted e-guitars from all over the world out there I thought the DIY Cigarbox idea very appealing.

On the one hand it's a very simple musical instrument that doesn't cost a fortune to make. On the other hand unique (for every 1,000 Strats or Paulas out there you won't find a single one like mine) and with a little imagination and an awful amount of time you can develop something that no one else can buy - a real custom shop guitar. A great eye catcher on any street corner, Pub or Concert.

In the coming days I'll be adding pictures (maybe a sound file or two if I figure out how to add it) and stories about my ongoing Guitar-making-adventure. Needless to say if you like what you see, tell me about it. If you want to own (even now I hate the thought of parting with one, but....) I'll be eBaying the one or other shortly.

Hope to be hearing from you soon,
American George