Description
Price: $11.49
(as of Jun 10,2023 01:18:25 UTC – Details)
From the Publisher
Making Poor Man’s Guitars
The pages of this book are packed with everything you’ll want to know about these classic DIY guitars:
Step-by-step projects to create your own instruments Builder’s Diaries offer inspiration for your own inventions Excerpts from newspapers and magazines chronicling CBG history Suggestions for accessories and modifications
The Heart and Soul of Cigar Box Guitars
Explore the Roots of DIY Instruments
Learn the history of DIY music while you build your very own cigar box guitar (CBG)! Making Poor Man’s Guitars presents authentic stories of American DIY music, interviews with music legends, and photo studies of antique instruments.
Renowned CBG leader Shane Speal will take you on a journey through his own experience in the DIY music world. From live shows, recording studios, and road trips to building and perfecting the instruments found in these pages, you’ll find endless inspiration!
Foreword includes an interview with blues legend Little Freddie King Step-by-step directions to build your own CBGs Firsthand stories about the roots of DIY music Beautiful photographs of antique instruments from the golden age of blues and jazz
Tried and True DIY Instrument Projects
Three-String Cigar Box Guitar
The step-by-step directions inside will take you from choosing your cigar box all the way through stringing up your finished guitar!
Handy pictures, diagrams, and a detailed list of parts and tools will help you create your very own three-string cigar box guitar with ease.
Tin Can Guitar
Also known as “The Portland Cowboy,” the tin can guitar is fantastically simple in design. Speal discovered this antique guitar at a flea market with a set list attached.
Build your own replica of this gem following the detailed instructions inside this book!
Cigar Box Percussion Unit
Speal has refined his “foot stomper” over the past decade to the setup you’ll find in the pages of this book.
Build your own handy percussion unit with carefully thought out, easy-to-follow instructions.
Electric Washtub Bass
No DIY band is complete without the “Soul Bucket”! Follow the detailed directions inside and you’ll be able to create your very own thundering washtub bass with an acoustic pickup, metal washtub, and an 80-gauge weed-whacker string.
Shane Speal
Shane Speal is a musician, historian, and instrument builder, the self-styled “King of the Cigar Box Guitar,” and is recognized as the founder of the modern CBG movement. He is the creator of CigarBoxNation.com, a network and history site for cigar box guitars.
Shane has recorded more than 10 self-released cigar box guitar albums, and publishes Uncle Enos zine, dedicated to cigar box guitars and other primal poverty art and music.
The History of DIY Music
Learn about the history that spawned CBGs via first-hand stories, interviews, excerpts from newspaper and magazine articles, and photo studies of antique instruments found throughout this book.
You’ll discover an interview with bluesman Albert Collins, a “Guitarcheology” of instruments like the one-string violin, and the “Circus One-String Cigar Box Fiddle Story” as told by Henry Wood to Michael Fedo.
Modify and Personalize
Learn how to personalize and modify your instrument using a woodburning pen, paint can lid, acoustic pickups, and more fun ideas!
Inside Making Poor Man’s Guitars, you’ll find various sound hole design suggestions, learn how to personalize the neck of your guitar with pyrography, explore new approaches for a custom resonator cone, and much more.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Follow detailed step-by-step directions, pictures, and diagrams to build 8 of your very own DIY instruments and equipment, from a beer can microphone or electric washboard to a lap steel guitar made out of a 2 x 4 inspired by Hank Williams’ “Cold Cold Heart.”
Shane has made these instruments himself numerous times, perfecting the process for you to learn!
The Author
The History
Modifications
8 Projects
“Not all legends are written in books. Sometimes they’re written inside the instruments we make.” —Shane Speal
Beer Can Microphone
Don’t throw away that can of beer, save it to build your very own microphone!
This DIY setup creates an AM radio, lo-fi vocal effect that emulates the sound of 1930’s recordings.
2 x 4 Lap Steel Guitar
Grab a 2×4 from your garage or local hardware store and you’re well on your way to creating your very own handcrafted lap steel guitar!
Find inspiration from Speal’s many modifications like adding legs, painting fret lines, and adding art to use on your own instrument.
Cigar Box Preamp
Meet every DIY instrument’s best friend: The cigar box preamp!
Achieve a deeper bass response and reduce piezo pickup feedback easily with this essential project.
Electric Washboard
You’ll love this feedback-proof design using a magnetic pickup. While a washboard rarely needs to go through a PA system, you’ll be ready when the occasion arises!
The included bonus section lists easy additions for the bells and whistles that will take your washboard up a notch.
Publisher : Fox Chapel Publishing; First Edition (October 8, 2018)
Language : English
Paperback : 176 pages
ISBN-10 : 1565239466
ISBN-13 : 978-1565239463
Item Weight : 1.2 pounds
Dimensions : 8.1 x 0.4 x 10 inches
