KaBar2 Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 The question I keep asking myself is "Why?" Yesterday I put the finishing touches on my dumpster-dived, home-built, plastic-bucket, five string banjo. I built it out of a cut-down white plastic detergent bucket, and used a piece of oak shipping skid as a neck. I sawed the neck blank out of the shipping skid with a hand saw, shaped it with a draw knife and a spoke shave, drilled the holes for the tuners and the lag bolts with hand-powered crank drills and a brace-and-bit. The head of the banjo is a 1/8" thick piece of maple plywood that I dumpster-dived. I used Black Diamond "light" strings. The tuners I got from Stewart-MacDonald. The "nut" and "bridge" I built myself from some REALLY hard plastic I recovered from the railroad track. It's a plastic buffer that goes between the bottom of the rail and the top of a concrete railroad tie. Hard as shit. I built the pick-up from a Radio Shack "piezo transducer", part # 273-073A. I sawed the little plastic case off the piezo very carefully. If you bend it, it breaks and is worthless. I used Radio Shack audio cable--soldered the ground wire to the white wire, then attached that to the black wire on the piezo. The blue wire, I soldered to the red wire on the piezo. Stuck the piezo on the bottom of the plywood "head," using double-sided tape. It didn't work at first, until the tech guy at the guitar shop realized I was using a bad guitar cord (those Radio Shack parts!) Bought a good one and the thing sounded awesome. Well, it sounded pretty good, anyway. I bought a $25 30W amplifier at the pawn shop. Now, I'm rockin'! Trying to learn how to play it! Next on my list: electric cigar box guitar. The first annual Cigar Box Guitar Festival is being held May 14-16 in Carrollton , Kentucky. Several hundred CBG enthusiasts will come from all over the world and spend three days playing music, making CD's, selling merchandise, and generally having a good time doin' it. Make your own music. You'll be glad you did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheoHuxtable Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 http://img26.photobucket.com/albums/v79/diverse/thinkingwhat.jpg'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Quickwood Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 i assume you sawed the bucket off some ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T=E=A=S=E Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 edited. cool... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaBar2 Posted March 28, 2004 Author Share Posted March 28, 2004 Yup. Sawed the bucket off. It looks a lot like a regular banjo. Some Appalachian banjos have thin wooden heads, as well. I used a coupler nut to attach the lag bolts in the neck to the tension bolt that goes through the back of the rim. It has a wierd sort of sound. Fretless. Sometimes I play it with a slide. go to cigarboxguitars.com You'll see what I'm talking about, as far as CBG's goes. I need to get a picture of my PBB up somewhere on the net. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinyl junkie Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 i was gopnna ask what you used for frets... then i saw your last post... well done kabar... cheers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaBar2 Posted March 28, 2004 Author Share Posted March 28, 2004 Vinyl Junkie I actually have some fret wire now. I was down at my buddy's guitar shop and he gave me an Epiphone electric guitar pick-up to use on my next creation. I was astounded at how well the piezo pick-up works. It has a high impedance. I'm going to buy an in-line EQ box so I can balance out the signal. It doesn't have to have it, but I'd like to experiment with the levels, to see how it sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adderall Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 Originally posted by TheoHuxtable http://img26.photobucket.com/albums/v79/diverse/thinkingwhat.jpg'> lolol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveAustin Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 Kabar...I don't care what you have to do...to do it...but I wanna see pics of this thang. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kr430n5_666 Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 http://www.kak.ru/images/archive/13-14/earls/performanceposter.jpg'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty_habiT Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 hahaha omgomgogm... that's the fucking sweetest idea ever. You can't look like a true struggler without the white bucket/shipping plank banjo.... that is the ultimate awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zack Morris Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 Originally posted by KaBar2 The first annual Cigar Box Guitar Festival is being held May 14-16 in Carrollton , Kentucky. Several hundred CBG enthusiasts will come from all over the world and spend three days playing music, making CD's, selling merchandise, and generally having a good time doin' it. Make your own music. You'll be glad you did. I didn't think anyone from the board would have any interest in this, but I am going just to see the homemade guitars, and carrollton is only like a 45 minute drive from here...good times are sure to be had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2 blaazed Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 http://forumspam.articblue.nl/post_related/whocares/images/0191.jpg'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pfffffffffft Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 kabar...what gave you the idea for this? (the concept of the using the bucket) and can you post a picture of it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synaps Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 a picture of the final product would be nice i'm really interested in seeing how it turned out good work kabar http://www.602.org/pyro/inaya/thumbsmile.gif'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overtime Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 Originally posted by synaps a picture of the final product would be nice i'm really interested in seeing how it turned out good work kabar http://www.602.org/pyro/inaya/thumbsmile.gif'> yes, final project please... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaBar2 Posted March 29, 2004 Author Share Posted March 29, 2004 ZACK MORRIS If you are interested in Do-It-Yourself musical instruments, go to the cigarboxguitars.com website. They have instructions there on how to build them, how to tune them, using piezo pick-ups out of thrashed computers, or musical greeting cards, or from Radio Shack. All sorts of cool links to musical-instrument building sites. The reason they picked Carrollton, KY for the festival is that there is a major player in the world of CBG's that lives near there. They are holding it in a state recreational park. All the info is on the website--You have time to build one and learn to play it before the festival, if you're really into it. I would love to post pics of this thing on the net (also picks of the jungle and the hooch that Stretch and I built) but (I'm ashamed to admit this) I don't know how to post pics. We actually own a digital camera too, but neither my wife nor I knows how to upload images to the net. It's one of those things we're going to get around to learning "one of these days." I know a couple of computer-literate people, so I'll try to find out how to do it, and see if I can't get some pics up on here. Can we post pics on Channel Zero? I thought pics had to go on one of the other sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaBar2 Posted March 29, 2004 Author Share Posted March 29, 2004 Pfffft I have been trying to build banjos out of dumpster-dived stuff for some time now. My original project was to build my own banjo just out of regular wood, using regular techniques. Of course, I had dumpster-dived plenty of stuff over the years, and in the last four or five years, lots of plastic 5-gallon buckets, etc. for the jungle. I also have a banjo in the works made of green PVC sewer pipe, with a tone ring rolled from a piece of 3/8" automobile brake line, and an 11-1/4" Remo Weather King banjo head I got from Elderly Instruments. I made the neck the same way, sawed it out of an oak shipping skid pallet, shaped it with a draw knife and a spoke shave and a combination wood rasp. The hold-up on that one was that I needed a tension hoop to hold down the head (normally, banjo hooks apply tension to the tension hoop, which bears down on the rim of the banjo head, making it tight.) Nobody makes 11-1/4" tension hoops anymore. They must be custom made, although Remo still manufactures a wide range of head diameters, to fit the older, vintage banjos. I bought a "ring roller" from Harbor Freight Tools ($50), and rolled my hoop out of flat bar I got from Lowe's. I tried flat bar of several different sizes before I found the one I liked. I gas welded it with my father's oxy-acetylene torch. So I've been working on building some instruments out of junk and dumpster-dived shit just to get some practice. That's how I built my cookie-tin banjos and how I wound up building banjos out of plastic detergent buckets. I also have been collecting hand-powered tools--planes, scrapers, saws, a mitre box with a backsaw, an "eggbeater" hand-crank drill, a breast drill and a brace-and-bit, so that I could build instruments out of a van or truck without any electricity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pfffffffffft Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 good deal...i never would have thought about something like that.. would love to see some pictures of those things.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveAustin Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 kabar...postin pics is really quite easy. Since you have a digital, I'll just 411 ya on what to do after you have the file on your computer. Go to photobucket.com, create an account. After you have logged in a box will appear at the top that says add picture. Hit the browse button and find the file you want to upload, select it and click open. You will go back to the original screen were you simply click submit. Your file has now been uploaded to photobucket. The picture will be showing below the box, now all you have to do is go to the box that says Img. Click in the box...it should highlight the contents (if not do it yourself), copy the code in the box (selected) and just paste it in your reply here on 12 ounce. So...now you know...so let's see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overtime Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 im building a drawbridge for my dorm room, i dont know why, i just am, ill post pics, then probabyl get made fun of Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suicidebombr Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 Draw bridges kick ass, just don't throw it together. Make it creative.:idea: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overtime Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 Originally posted by suicidebombr Draw bridges kick ass, just don't throw it together. Make it creative.:idea: i have one piece of stolen plywood, ill do what i can Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kr430n5_666 Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 http://www.kak.ru/images/archive/13-14/epica/EP08207.jpg'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfreshsushi Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 drawbridge! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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