Falling Star

Here's a little video segment I've been working on to learn 3D animation. The music was played mostly on the Cyclops CBG.

Blues Jam Special No. 13

Recently, I've been attending the biweekly blues jam at the Broad Street Cafe in Durham, NC. I've been playing bass on the Kickin' Bass - which works out fine, and also acting as band leader while playing guitar on the Cyclops and singing...

That's led to a few problems:

First, and most shocking, I found that some of the other players don't know much about blues before about 1970... so when I called for "Back Door Man" - what I thought would be a conservative choice that everyone would know - I just got blank stares... and I never did get them to play the chords right. I guess after 1970, no one ever stayed on the "I" through the second four, lol. Since then, I've tried much easier songs with less deviation from the stock 12 bar formula... but any deviation seems to throw them off, unless it's a blues/rock/jazz song that they already know. ("Summertime" works OK. So does "Stormy Monday"). Now I don't want this to sound like I'm bitching about my fellow players - this is a much a failure of my pickup band leadership as anything - a new skill I need to learn, lol.

Second, I really need much more volume in my solos than at other times - but the Cyclops doesn't have a volume control.

Third, I find that the bottom two strings really kind of interfere with the bass player's part, more than add anything useful to the mix.

And finally, there's one guy there who seems to be unable to play in any key I ever sing in... but apparently, he can play in C.

So what does a cigar box guitar player do to solve some problems? Why, build a new guitar of course!

So that brings us to the Blues Jam Special No. 13. (No. 13, because it's my 13th instrument of 2009).Four strings, tuned CEGc - ideal for playing blues in C without interfering with the bass- and a hand wound pickup, which allowed me to add a volume control (I'm not convinced a volume control would work with the piezos I usually use)

So next blues jam, I'll show up with the Blues Jam Special No. 13 and three songs in strict 12 bar form in C and see if we can make it work. The songs I've chosen are "Ninth Street Blues", "Good Morning Blues" (Ledbetter), and "Old Willie".

Here's a sample of what the Blues Jam Special No. 13 sounds like. This was recorded straight into the computer from the pickup with no effects. Download a Sample Tune.

Black Jack CBGs

Here are the Jack of Diamonds and the Ace of Spades cigar box guitars. They will be the give-away guitars for the Sept 13 show at the Cave in Chapel Hill and the Sept 28 Carrboro Music Fest.

These cigar box guitars are half spike lutes - similar in general design to many African lutes, including those played by the Griot. The neck runs part of the way through the body with the bridge (to which the string is anchored) mounted to neck carry-through. The consequence is that the neck takes all the string stress and transmits the string vibration into the body which functions as a resonator.

On the Jack and Ace cigar box guitars, the bridge is actually zither pin used to tune the string.

One consequence of having the neck transmit the vibration is that everything that happens along the neck gets amplified. That means handling noise can be a problem... but it has a good side too.

When played with a slide, not only the part of the string you pluck sounds, but the string on the other side of the slide also vibrates and is picked up an amplified. This can sound really out of tune... but if you play (5-limit) just intoned notes, the "back notes" just happen to also be harmonious just intoned notes... so you get two note harmony using only one string. Very cool.

Fingerlakes CBG Fest

CBG Fest, Canandaigua NY, Oct 3-4, 2008. Be there!