Burtsbluesboxes

I typically don't do covers and Hate telling people I'll do something and I end up not getting to it. What I'll do over the next couple days is record some portions of the song and share them privately with you to try and incorporate into your project. I downloaded some midi files to get the notes from and found various guitar and bass tabs, now to learn it. Check out Shane Speal and his Snake oil band doing Billie Jean, very cool cigar box guitar rendition. I love rockin' and inspiring others to do the same :D Thanks Nick :D Watch for a private message with a link to mediafire for some Billie Jean stuff.

Money just ruins the fun and it becomes a job :D Like you, I do it because I love music and the joy it brings, Same with making my homemade guitars. I get alot of crap for not charging "enough" for them. Some things money just can't buy. You should've seen people's reaction to the musician Fat Knuckle Freddy when he played on homemade guitars at Maine's first cigar box guitar festival, it was like Jimi hendrix up there, then the crowd swarmed all of us that were vending, "who knew you could get sounds like that out of a guitar made with discarded junk!!" Just having so much fun it should be illegal ;) Thank you Sweetcherries, stay tuned, more to come.

Quick mix entertaining myself before work, I think I'm going to revisit it and possibly add some length to it. Sometimes we just need a good jam session to get a break from the troubles of the real world. I like that nick name :D Caught my attention on your tune there earlier. Ive been making some loops for this community and been very impressed with the quality of the tracks people create with them. On facebook I've been involved in a group teaching others to play, soon I'll be using some of your great blues loops to teach about digital music, loops and composing around them. Always a pleasure Danke, handshake, guess I'll call myself Slider ;) Don't you play bass too? Bet you never tried a 2 string bass, it's a bit different!

Definitely not sweating here! I do live in the woods next to some swamp land, that's close enough to a bayou right? No mosquitoes this time of year, thankfully. As long as I don't hear banjos all is good ;) MMmmm nutra rat leg, my favorite! Do these tunes give you flashbacks to your bayou days? Oh I'm having so much fun it should be illegal!!LOL! I'm collecting license plates from all 50 states to make a license plate guitar for each state, got about half of them with more on the way. I'll even record a tune on each. Such simple expressive instruments it's pretty hard not to get a soulful sound out of them, regardless of what some may say. I'm trying to get some recordings in while it's cold, and before I have to start working outside making stock for the upcoming festival this summer. My shop is tiny!
Always a pleasure Wayne :D Watch out those mosquito swarms don't carry you off, listen for banjos too, RUN if you hear them!!

We all have a different take on music. I've made songs with layer upon layer of instruments and sounds with alot of dynamics. Sometimes less is more. This was literally just some improvisational jamming after a tough week, with a drum groove for keeping time. One of the beautiful things about these primitive instruments is sometimes that's all you need is the guitar telling it's tale all on its own. I like to point to this tune as an example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz5wMGovkuQ Thank you for the honest feedback :D I don't do this to become famous or show off, just playing music is something I enjoy very much. I also love bringing attention to the homemade instrument revolution/renaissance showing people you don't need expensive instruments to let out the music inside of you. Imperfection is ok.

It's not made with an actual cigar box but it is the same design. I used pine and a wallet tin for the body with a scavenged single coil pick up, 3 strings tuned GDG and played iwith a cut off wine bottle neck. Cigar box guitars are fairly easy and cheap to make, as they're traditionally made with found objects. Cigar boxes were readily available, but now they're made with license plates, homemade boxes, tins, gas cans, olive oil tins, bed pans, laptops, old game consoles... Imagination is the limit. I love how they can tell a story all on their transporting one to another time or place. Thanks JKingz.

I love the music made by every day people, and since I'm not a singer, trust me ;) I got into making soundscapes and using everyday sounds to accompany my playing adding even more depth. One friend calls these head movies. They invoke different visual interpretations for everyone. Thank yu ou sweetcherries :D More to come, I used to prolifically record and build been a bit slack lately.

After a long week, we don't always get what we want, I was just relaxing late at night unwinding with my favorite guitar. I could play for hours on end just chill melodies. Always a pleasure Danke
Handshake :D

It was right here on Looperman I learned about cigar box guitars and the homemade instrument movement, instant addict! I hardly ever touch my production guitars anymore in favor of my own homemade ones. Made so many great friends into the same, crafting instruments and accessories like picks, slides, pick ups, and other parts for creating music. The sound of these primitive simple expressive instruments can be very hyptnotic and I love how alone they can tell a tale. Thanks for the great feedback. I joined this revolution against overproduced/refined music a few years ago. The guitar itself is made of scavenged wood, an old wallet tin for a resonator, a scavenged single coil pickup with a bolt for a nut and bridge. My pick is a wood hand carved one from Mojoboneworks and the slide is a blue cut off wine bottle neck, handmade adds to the mojo ;)

Hey Wayne :D I remember that story on my first swamp tune a few years ago. Never been that far south but the wife's got the woodstove going making it feel hot enough!! It's when you hear banjos you have to worry LOL!!! I mentioned Gitty Gang Show in the description, that's very much like the old show Hee Haw except it's all homemade instruments and indie artists similar to here on looperman, just more country/folk/roots music oriented. I had been just sittin and pickin most of the day taking it easy and thought hey I'll make another video, they like the others :D Well, they really liked this one. How did you deal with the mosquitoes, a flame thrower? Good to see alot of you guys still hanging here. if you haven't put it together, used to use phatkatz4 or Rob Serling ;) ;)

Thanks Tsochai Neo really touched on the history, roots of the instrument. Not only the southern U.S. but in the apalachian hiils region as well, homemade instruments are a big thing. People make them out of anything and everything. Many of the great bluemen got their start on home made guitars. The young boys would take their mother's corn broom, pull the wire off holding the head on and use that as a string on the broom handle making a 1 string Didley bow. Their mother would whip them for it but only once so they felt it was worth it :D

Great comment Neo! The cigar box guitar was born as a poor mans guitar. People were so poor and in some cases weren't allowed to own instruments so to make life suck a bit less they began making their own out of whatever they could find. Cigar boxes were abundant and made of great tone woods. I dont recall the entire story but someone involved in recording at the time was waiting for a bus or train and came across a gentleman playing a guitar by sliding his knife blade across the strings. I got the chills still do hearing these primitive instruments. Check out songs inside the box by max shores all about the current renasainance of the instrument. Earliest known picture of a cigar box fiddle was civil war era. I've been mb aking a number of these live recordings, people loving it, and I'm hoping to get others inspired to do the same. It's not about perfection.

I play unconventional guitar :D Do you play slide guitar? I took it up a few years ago when I became hopelessly addicted to cigar box guitars and other homemade instruments. Immediately fell in love with the sound, and how expressive such a simple instrument could be. The audio was ripped from a web cam video I made on Saturday and got alot of love. Just chillin and playing around. I noticed each track you checked out was played on different guitars. That's why so addicting, each has such a unique voice. I've been meaning to make more slide loops, that's the beauty of this place, the diveristy. Thanks Chokehold, more to come. If you want some jamming blues check Friday night jam, played on the same guitar.

I recorded the train many times behind that bank. I can probably cut those sounds, I'll see. After a long break I've been back at. Came across this fun little recording and thought to share it here. I have a small crock pot I wax pot my pups in. The hardest part is waiting for the wax to liquefy! Modified sewing machine for a winder. This guitar has a production 6 pole, it was one of my first builds, and my favorite.I'll be recording more with guitars equipped with my own pups. Walking Dead is one, kinda a rough recording/playing on that one. On my amp they're fine but direct to the computer they tend to feedback. I'm making the traditional pole style pups now, but I'm going to experiment with flatpup humbuckers, a real big thing right now in the homemade instrument scene. Over the summer I was invited to show at Maine Luthier showcase, The guy that taught me and I demonstrated pick up winding, I did the traditional style, he did flat pups. Here's a video from there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJq9Tr7IgCU That's my table in the beginning :D Fat Knuckle Freddy is a local performer and incredibly nice guy. Tom Dube runs a guitar shop and sells cbgs made by Marty - Maine Made Cbgs the guy winding/playing the didley bow.

Thanks Toschai. My thoughts exactly when I first heard a cigar box guitar played. This one isn't actually made with a cigar box for a body but a wooden box I made with a wallet tin for a resonator (face of the guitar where the bridge sits), and a 6 string single coil pickup. I wind my own 3 pole (or whatever pole numbers needed now). That's the beauty of these simple yet so expressive instruments. Alone they tell a tale, just close your eyes and be transported to another world. I make music and my guitars for personal enjoyment, you're more than welcome to use this any other recordings I put up, any way you like. I don't market or sell my music, just share if freely for others to enjoy. My guitars I do offer some for sale but it's really primarily all in fun. Who doesn't want to be a rockstar, but reality... ;)

Hows it going Dan? I love the images these soundscapes evoke for others. Don't I miss that bank! I recorded the train a few times, even made a soundscape once of zombies attacking as I was in there. I wonder what Cowboy was up to. Did you put him up to adjusting the records on your mortgage to show one payment left? ;)
I made a still photo video for fb of this with a train passing through a dilapidated industrial city, it was the closest pictoral representation of the area I could find without actually going there and photographing. Funny you mention cowboy, just up the road is a nightclub called Club Texas.

Cigar box guitars are very addicting!! You've been warned before venturing down that rabbit hole ;) They're actually the Grandad of the blues, many famous bluesmen got started on one, such simple but expressive instruments. Yes, slide guitar, no frets on this one, played with a handcarved bone slide and wood pick. These materials give a softer more mellow tone than say a bone or plastic pick and a metal or glass slide

Well getting as wasted as possible seems a good plan with the world gone to hell and overrun by the walking dead :p I love the way a cigar box guitar can tell a take all on it's own. Thanks EggsOntoast, now I'm hungry.

I'm sad Looperman has been taken over by urban producers so I've escaped to the swamp LOL! Thanks Cru, I need to fine tune this guitar a bit but really wanted to record it in time for Halloween.

You're right Joe, they always come back! But what exactly is dead? https://youtu.be/PkJFq9tNe8w The stupid ones are pretty slow and easy to outrun, it's the thinking ones you need to watch. I hear there's a thinking German zombie looking to collab on some cbg music ;) I seem to be pulled in other directions constantly lately. I was just trying out this new build when I thought I better record it because I probably won't get a chance to later, it does need some minor setting up still. I have a new string bass to record with too with another started.
I'm hoping this winter to get a break and record/write again. Just sat down to wind a custom pick up for someone and I get called into work, the new normal...

Good to see you around Bear :D To the swamps of Florida from the dry deserts of Arizona, quite the change! I hear the weather is crazy there being surrounded on 3 sides by ocean. If if helps I have a swamp in my yard :)Going well, I've been very busy in the cigar box guitar world lately, not so much time for writing, recording and interacting on here as I'd like, trying to change that. FatKnuckldeFreddy performed on a 4 stringer with the same set up at Maine's inaugural cigar box guitar festival this summer. I had to make one!! Even got him to sign this one at my last luthier show. I just made a 2 string 34 inch scale cigar box bass with another Boneshaker box and my own 2 pole handwound pick up, recording soon to come.