CBG #2 aka: "Big Volume"

There is concept called “Unnecessary Creation” where the idea is to make something on your own time, on your own terms, and with no other standard or expectation--except for your own. No rules, no deadlines, no critiques, and no real purpose except to enjoy the process. For me, this is….bliss. I can just feel the endorphins swirling around my brain as I work. What a pleasant break from the demands of my degree program. 

My most recent unnecessary creation is Cigar Box Guitar #2 (CBG-2)  which began with an eBay purchase of a pre-made Red Oak neck with Walnut laminates. I like the pointy headstock, because it looks slightly menacing. I sanded, stained, and glued a Poplar fretboard into place, and applied three coats of Tung Oil for the finish. Tung oil is awesome stuff and a recent discovery for me. It is now my preferred choice of wood finish. The box that serves as the guitar's body started out it's life as a “Diversion Book”. These are realistic looking books with hollow interiors designed for hiding valuables in plain sight. Diversion books have a long and interesting history and were the forerunners of today's book safes. I found my diversion book while poking around a re-sale shop last December after just completing CBG-1 for a school project. As most of my regular readers know my first CBG was a guitar that also qualified as an "Art Book". Or was it an Art Book that qualified as a guitar? Anyway, CBG-2 is a guitar that looks like a large and rather impressive book. There is no intentional pursuit of a book theme here, it just kind of happened that way. What I found at the re-sale shop was a good sized, well made, wooden box…that just happened to look like a book. How could I pass this up, right? Like my first guitar, CGB-2 also has an internal pick-up for amplification purposes. So it only seemed logical to name my book-that-looks-like-a-guitar, “Big Volume”.

 

Here are some photos of the build. No hidden panels or internal gadgetry as in CBG-1 but I did come up with an idea that I haven't seen anywhere else yet, after looking at hundreds of CBG images. My humble innovation was to continue the fret line around and over the top edge of the neck that faces the player. This is intended to allow the guitarist to see better when the instrument is laid across the lap and played with a slide. Small brass nails and screws were used to as fret markers in all the usual places. Brass studs were added to the book's cover to make it look a little more "top shelf", but also a little more rock & roll.

Although these are called cigar box guitars, so far I have yet to use an actual cigar box. I suppose I’ll get around to that eventually, but every project currently on the drawing board involves using some other box-like object for a resonating chamber. For example, CBG #3 will feature a vintage cedar humidor for the guitar's body. The humidor's interior is lined with copper sheeting that is loose in some places. With that particular combination of wood and metal, there could potentially be all kinds of interesting sounds produced when it gets played. I can hardly wait! I won't know how it will sound until I build it, and that's the fun part. I don’t have a clever name for this guitar yet, (Up In Smoke? Puff the Magic Dragon?) but that will come in time. I’m open to any suggestions.

­­In my life I've had many interests, a number of passions, but no real hobbies….until now. This kind of thing is just too much fun, and will hopefully keep me off the streets.

 

My CBG at the Blaffer Art Museum

Last Friday April 26, an exhibition of student art works opened at the Blaffer Art Museum on the University of Houston main campus. The head of the Book Arts & Printmaking department asked me to display my Cigar Box Guitar (CBG) that was my final project for a Book Arts class in December of 2012.

My girlfriend and I attended the opening and noticed that most if not all of the work on display was from Junior and Senior students. I am only a sophomore in the program so this made it all the more special for me to have my work included with the more advanced students. I'm posting some photos from the event because up until last Friday, I had no photos of my completed CBG. I know that must sound a little odd but I'm not very good at documenting my works-in-progress... or the finished product itself. I'll try to do a better job of that in the future.    

BuckToonz is now on it's twice yearly End-of-Semester Hiatus until at least May 11th. I'll see you all after my finals have concluded. Thank you for your patience.

Cigar Box Guitar

This week we're looking at a final project for my Book Arts class from late 2012. Book Arts is a highly recommended class where we learned to do such things as: make various book bindings, book covers and paper, origami, and design/build decorative boxes. Each student was required to choose a theme for the semester and all of our projects were to be based upon our theme. My theme was Music: from the Player and Listener Point-of-View. When it came time for the final project, we were strongly encouraged to be "ambitious". I chose to make a Cigar Box Guitar (CBG) because I thought it would be a good way to demonstrate and use a number of the skills we had learned in class.

I first became aware of Cigar Box Guitars from Guitarz blog a few years ago. CBGs occupy the smallest niche in American music history. Starting about 150 years ago, people with a desire to play music but lacking the funds to buy a professionally made guitar would make their own instruments. Found objects were the primary source of building materials. Scrap wood, wire, metal, and cigar boxes were assembled into playable instruments. The idea was to have a primitive but functional guitar to practice with until the day came when a "real" guitar could be bought. Many famous musicians, particularly Blues players in the Mississippi Delta region, began their careers by playing CBGs. Since the early 1990's there has been a renewed interest in the CBG. But the difference this time around is that the CBG is no longer built as a means to an end, but as an end unto itself. Today's builders use modern power tools, techniques, and materials. There is an entire sub-culture of do-it-yourself amateur musicians who are behind the CBG "Revolution".

I purchased a $50 CBG starter kit on eBay from Sam Kindly Guitars. The kit had a pre-shaped neck, fingerboard, tuning keys, bridge, and piezzo pick-up. It also came with a DVD that gave extremely valuable building tips. I'm not a guy with a lot of tools or skills when it comes to building things but my father taught me some basics when I was a wee lad. So, I was going out of my comfort zone on this one but that was all part of the fun. I sanded, stained, and glued the neck together, drilled some holes, installed the tuning keys, the nut, and assembled the bridge. So then I had a completed neck with all the necessary hardware in place. After that it was a matter of building the box (body) around the neck. I was not allowed to re-purpose a box of any kind, and I had to build my own from scratch.

Box building is not as easy as it may sound, it is indeed an art and a science. Book board (or Davies board) was used to construct the box's back, sides and top. I used double wall construction for everything because I wanted the box to be very stable and solid in order to hold up under the tension from the strings. No template was used for the box design itself, and I just spent some time examining a small cigar box to see how all the various parts fit together. Then the proportions were enlarged to a size that I thought would work the best, and hopefully create a good sound in the end. After the box was built it was time to apply the graphics. Instead of copying an existing cigar company logo or graphics, I had my own concept in mind. I created a fictitious company called "From Trash to Treasure". My pretend company does not produce cigars but instead is a custom cigar box maker that uses exclusively, re-claimed, and re-purposed bamboo and other wood products. My little "green" company has it's own logo, mission statement, and back story. The graphics were output by a sign shop onto an adhesive backed vinyl material that is a standard in most sign making today. Basically, all the graphics were in the form of decals that were then applied by hand onto the box.


Normally, when we work on any school project we go through a critique process. Every time the class meets we are required to bring in what we have, show our progress, and get constructive criticism from classmates and the professor. For this Book Arts final project, things were a little different. We only had to show up once for a critique about ten days before our due date. All I had to show the class at that time was the completed neck and a sample of the materials I expected to use, plus some sketches of the finished guitar. The only questions my classmates had for me was; "Are you sure you can do this?". "Are you in over your head?"  "Will you complete it on time?'. "Will it be playable?"  (Oh ye of little faith!)  Personally I have never been so enthused, excited, and maybe a little obsessed with an art school project before. I had never spent so much time researching, planning, and engineering. This CBG project was very personal to me for some reason. I had really caught the CBG fever!

Your probably asking how this guitar qualifies as a "book"? Well, from the very start of it all I had in mind to included a "book element" into the guitar itself. What I designed was an accordion folded page that pulls out of a semi-secret panel on one side of the guitar. The tricky part was how to build the inner structure to anchor the page in place, but also allow it to feed out and retract properly when needed. This internal structure had to be solid and I could not have anything rattling around loose as I intended this to be a fully functioning acoustic-electric instrument. Printed on that page is the mission statement of my cigar box making company, and a short overview of CBG history in America. I know it sounds like a bit of a stretch but my professor said that it was enough of a "book element" to meet the project criteria. Believe me, the long history of book art design is filled with all kinds of wild, wacky, clever, amusing, and beautiful creations that really push the definition of what is a book. Its pretty interesting stuff and some of these books are truly works of art unto themselves. I encourage you to Google the subject and check it out.

When my CBG was completed, it turned out exactly as I had planned and anticipated. For once I had a final project with no major set-backs.  This was a very pleasurable adventure for me. My guitar is a 3- string fretless and is set up to be played with a glass slide. Those are pretty typical features found on many CBGs. But the cool thing about CBGs is that they are built by individuals and that there is a huge variety of different looks, sounds and configurations.

On the last day of class everyone brought in their various book designs for the final critique. These critiques are always great fun to participate in, because everyone is showing off their absolute best work, and we get to hear all about how they made it happen. My professor had designated me go last. I explained the entire concept and then played the main riffs from Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" and AC/DC's "Whole Lotta Rosie".  After a round of applause, I then surprised my audience by whipping out a tiny battery powered guitar amp I had previously stowed away under the table. I quickly plugged in the guitar and played the same riffs again, but this time with some volume, loads of distortion, and reverb! My performance went pretty well considering that I'm a bass player and only had a few hours to practice playing slide guitar, which I knew nothing about at that time.

Last week I was invited to display my guitar in the University of Houston School of Art Annual Student Exhibition at the Blaffer Art Museum. The show will run for two weeks. My guitar will help represent the Book Arts and Printing Department. There may be an opportunity for me to play live at the museum for another audience.

I also heard last week that for the very first time there is Design Principles class which is having it's students build CBGs for their final projects. Hmmmm...I wonder where they got that idea from? It has been said that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". I agree, and we'll leave it at that.

I'm working on an album of more CBG photos for my Facebook page. If you're at all intrigued by CBGs then I recommend Songs Inside the Box a fun and inspirational documentary from a PBS station in Alabama.