that was cool,My 1st CBG i built was a 2 stringer,I played it for a couple days then decided to add a 3rd string,But the 2 stringer had a very cool sound to it,that Is alot different but just as cool as a 3 stringer,Im going to half to buid me another one or pull a string off me 3 stringer;-) ---------- Hobostubs
yeah is me in the first vid but im not playing robert johnson closer to john lee hooker with some slide. its a dutch all indonesian cedar box very small with a big sound. a maple broomstick pike neck with an african mahogany playboard (no frets) same thickness as old 30s yardsticks. the tuners are thumbscrews and the strings are brass coated steel screenwire. the bass string is two .012 screenwires twisted together. theres a transducer pickup that doesnt really pickup neck tapping noise but does sound like foot stamping when i scrape the strings with a homemade turkish pick the right way (i dont foot tap). the only cheating i do is the pickup (but is is loud acousticly) and the thumscrews are drilled. this wasnt possible with hand cranked drills in the 30s. the screenwire was usually made like a nooseinside the slot of a flathead screw, then wrapped around and screwed into the handle. a bit on an angle like zither pins.then the string was tied to the bottom. it was tuned with a screwdriver. very simple. oh and that arabic sounding/hooker/dr ross bit is done on the fingernails. if you have say a 1 string broomstick and you play on the pads of flesh it wont be very loud. when you play on the finger nails its louder the finger nails work like frets. the harder you press the louder and more intense the sound. you can also slide on your finger nails fretless and it will sound like a bottleneck. i use the back of my ring fingernail to slide on a broomstick, because i cant really press and get a good sound on my third fingernail. this is why the guys who started on CBGs before real guitars were so good. they taught themselves techniques alien to western music.
yeah they could but the there are extra frets. your bent notes are built in with extra frets. so theres no string bending its more of a sway like on sitar.
i tie extra frets on guitar if i put frets on a CBG i do them sorta like this http://www.handmademusicclubhouse.com/photo/quartertones-1?context=user
the green and blue lines are extra frets. it allows you to turn on a dime. like in western music if its asending it stays that way or desending. its always in an open or modal tuning so say you have two Es E1 and E2 on one split fret, and E is your root you can use the 1 E and play in one direction then pull a sneaky fast one and go to E2 and play the other way without hitting a train wreck like you would in western music.jeff beck and jimi page use this alot. they play on their nails between the frets to do crazy impossible shit.
