The Process
As a musician, the more I studied the guitar, the more I became fascinated with the functional interactions of sound and design. The bottleneck slide guitar style, made popular at the beginning of the twentieth century by blues musicians in the Mississippi Delta, is one of my favorite sounds. The 3 string cigar box guitar with its open tunings, create the ideal factors to play with a slide. The slide can be anything from a beer bottle, a lighter, or a battery, but usually made from metal or glass and worn over the ring or pinky finger. Whether played by using a slide or by barring your finger to play major chords, with my slide box guitars, you as the player take over the creative process and continue to spread happiness and music through your own personal expression. You keep the art alive when you sit down, set yourself apart, and tell your story with your own sound.
My guitars: Using a mix of contemporary and vintage materials I continue the same spirit of those musical adventurers of old. I use repurposed materials such as antique hinges, bolts, paint tins, shower drains and and a little dirt for good measure. The guitars are all electrified using piezo and Magnetic pickups. My slide box guitars are the essence of the folk outsider, musical adventurer, and intellectual hobo with a mission of starting a sonic revolution. The sounds they create are reminiscent of a time found outside of societal constraints and formed from beyond the boundaries of the mainstream music world. When you plug in a Slidebox and give it a strum, my hope is that you will feel the freedom of creating music that is authentically your own. The Slidebox is meant to encourage you to break the pattern of how you think music should be made.
The Box: Spanish Cedar is know for its aromatic scent and rot-resistant properties. It is light weight and used for humidor construction for cigar boxes. Spanish cedar is also occasionally used for veneers on electric guitars. The thiner wood is great for acoustics because the thin wood picks up the sound of the strings when plucked. Many cigar boxes are made from cedar and create a wonderful tone. Particle board of this wood is also used, which can sound great acustically if not too thick. Boxes can be made from a plethora of other materials including cardboard, plastic, and metals such as aluminum and brass, ceramics, leather, and combinations thereof. Although some of these boxes can have an amazing vintage appeal, I have yet to experiment with all these materials. I am not above the sound quality that these materials might create and look forward to experimenting with each slide box I create. The variety of cigar boxes, with their differing thickness, wood types and materials, create a mysterious and distinctive sound with each guitar and is unique to every build.
The Neck: The wood I use for the necks vary from an array of hardwoods such as poplar, red oak, maple or a variety of other exotic hardwoods. A hardwood is important for the durability of the guitar and prevent it from bending which will disrupt the tuning due to the tension of the strings. Colors and grains vary, creating a one of a kind design.
The Fretboard: Fretboard wood is usually made from walnut, survey stakes, or vintage yardsticks.
The sound: Some words I use to describe the sounds that a cigar box guitar create can be is raspy, rattly, buzzy, gritty, raw, electric, dirty, dissident, otherworldly, emotional, personal, harmonic, thick, atmospheric, bluesy.