The Birth of Sancho Panza, a la Benjamin Button

Small Break for Maya...


...

Long Time, No C

It has been 16 months since I posted, but not to worry. I am ok. Just in a slight state of isolation from the e-world. I have been working on music intermittently, and am preparing for a rush back into the world of artisan instruments.

A bit ago, Jarrett D.'s dad made a cigar box guitar for Marissa P. I could not find a photo on Screaming Females blog, but I did find the picture posted above, a sweet ol' dude in Kansas, if I remember correctly, who made his very own cigar box banjo...

After seeing Marissa's new CBG and taking stock of how many cigar boxes I had, I decided to give it a go. Using the simple plan on CigarBoxGuitars.com, I put together my first CBG, Maya!



The good:
Reinforced string holes, ergonomic neck with matching finish, altogether awesomeness.



The bad:
Misunderstanding of proper measurements, neck not flush with body, a crappy hatch, and crappy hinges, replaced with good hinges, destroyed in a tragic telling-scary-stories-in-the-dark-at-Meat-Town-unhinging accident.


The ugly:
Built in Cassette Tape Distortion, crunchy sound, taped down, wiry mess.

All in all, it's a great effort; wonderfully playable with a slide in open tuning, and sexy, in a 1970's-tanning-ad kind of way.

Alas, it is time I go to bed. This post was not meant for Maya, but I am glad she got her time in the sun. This is all a precursor to my new CBG project. I will post my progress soon. Until then I can only tell you his name: Sancho Panza!

Butterfly Guitar

Did many things today, and bending this toy guitar from start to finish was one of them. I did a pretty ugly job but it sounds really nice. I will post better photos and some audio samples tomorrow.