So here it goes, a bit of background and then the first steps of building my second cigar box guitar:

So first a little background. Back in their first year Make Magazine ran an article on an electric cigar box guitar. It was strung with masons line and used a piezo element for a pickup. I was intrigued. But I can’t play guitar and don’t have an amp. So it was filed away as something for another day. And sure enough a few issues latter Make ran an article on how to make a cheap amp out of a LM386 audio amplifier chip.

It just so happens I have a handfull of LM386’s laying around. Back in High School and friend and I bought a bunch to build small amplifiers to go with some experiments we were doing with building our own sound cards. (Well, not full sound card’s. Just resistor tree DAC’s hung off a parallel port with the computer doing the hard part.) I even knew right where I had the 386’s. A quick trip to Radio Shack for a few little things I didn’t have on hand, and a trip into the garage to find an old surround speaker without it’s twin followed by an evening on the breadboard and with the soldering iron later:

I had an amp!  I also finally came up with a cigar box and decided it was time to build.  I followed the instructions in Make and came up with:

My first cigar box guitar!  It was strung with masons line as the Make article suggested.  I experimented with nails held on with rubber bands for frets like the article used…but found it easier to play fretless.  Not that I could actually play anything.  I also had a heck of a time trying to get it into any kind of tune and within a few days found a number of online cigar box guitar sites and learned just what was possible.  I ended up replacing the twine with actual guitar strings fairly quickly, then modifying the eye bolt tuners to try and get them to hold the tension of the real strings.  But it just wasn’t working well.  Plus the tension of the strings was starting to warp the neck.

So I never really liked it enough to really learn to play it.  A few friends who already knew how to play guitar did manage to crank out some actual music with it though so I knew the potential was there.  And eventually (this past November) I ended up getting some actual tuning machines for it and suddenly it was playable enough I started to get interested in it again.  I even cut up some cotter pins and made frets for it.  The neck was still warping worse and worse but I was actually able to start learning how to play it successfully for the first time.

And about that same time my friend J mentioned he had an empty cigar box if I wanted to try and build another.  It took awhile for us to get together and to finally get my hands on the box, and at first I wasn’t very hyped about it.  It was very plain, in a reddish brown color that didn’t call out to me, and it was built differently than most cigar boxes.  But it was nice thin real wood, and did ring nicely when I knocked it with my knuckles.   Besides I still had 3 tuners left over and was itching to build!  So on the way hope I stopped and picked up some red oak to make a neck, and a smaller piece to make a fingerboard.  The color of the box was starting to give me ideas.  I also looked through every home improvement store in town looking for little brass hinges or other things that might make a nice tail piece to make mounting the strings easier.  I bought a couple hinges but ended up not using any of them.

My first attempt at using real tuners on the first CBG was very rough and I wasn’t 100% happy with how it came out.  There wasn’t enough break over the nut even with the tuners cut in like that, the tuners weren’t positioned very well at all.  But it did give me ideas and inspiration for another idea on how to do the head.  Not wanting to waste the one chunk of oak I had on hand I decided to test my idea on a piece of cheap pine first.

The idea worked.  And the little chunk of pine strung up with strings I didn’t use on an actual guitar ended up being nice for testing how boxes sound, just touch it to them and give it a strum to get a feel for the tone of a box.  I did cut the lower portion just a hair too thin on this test – but since it was just scrap wood anyway that was no big deal.  It was also good practice to get a feel for how to make the necessary cuts and how to do a better job on the piece of oak.  Thanks to that the oak came out very nice when I did finally put it on the saw

I did burn the oak a little on the blade of the table saw, most of it sanded out but some is still visible.  While waiting for the glue on the head joint to dry I worked on the fingerboard.   The first box had an absurdly long scale length since it was meant to be used with the masons line originally and I never got around to shortening it up.  It also had way too much action making it VERY difficult to play without a slide.  So this time I knew I wanted to have lower string action and a shorter scale.  I figured using a fingerboard on top of the neck would help get better break over the nut and bridge while enabling me to set the action up nice and low.  I also planned on using real frets this time so with a separate fingerboard if I messed up I just had to make a new fingerboard and not a whole new neck.

But it’s time for me to start thinking about making dinner, and this is getting to be a fairly long post so I’m going to leave it hanging here until I get a chance to update again.  It probably won’t be tomorrow night (we’ve got brew night) and it probable won’t be for a few days after that since Kieth is supposed to be in town for a few days starting any day now.  But just like I finally got around to starting this story I promise I will get around to continuing it.  I need to finish it up soon too, CBG #3 and #4 are already under construction and I’d rather be talking about them right now.

But it’s the last day of the contest so I’ve got to try one more entry:

How to build a cigar box guitar – Free Plans at www.cigarboxnation.com.

The solar lights mentioned in my last post have gone from bad to worse…only the two I repaired are now working.  The others are in my office letting their batteries drain.  Though about half of those seem like it may be bad batteries and not just overcharging.  I’ll give them a few more weeks of darkness before putting them back out.

The backyard grass continues to grow and I continue to watch it.  Still not quite grown in well enough for me to post photos…but a HUGE improvement over the bare earth and gravel that was there when we moved in.  I think one more bag of fertalizer and one more bag of seed for the remaining bare spots and it will be looking good enough for photos.  And hopefully by October or so when the weather finally breaks it will be ready for backyard party season!  I’m already getting the itch to start making more pizzas remembering how great the last two experimental “grilled pizzas” came out.

And while I’m bound and determined not to let this disintegrate into a “Coffee blog” that is the reason for the title and what has again inspired me to put my lazy fingers to the keys and bang out an update.  The corpse in question is our local Linens N Things which is one of the stores they’re closing to try and save their hides in the tumbling economy.  Since I am as always about 180 degrees out of sync with the rest of the world bad economy for everyone else means time for me to score some great deals, kind of like we did with our house!

Amy and I were quick to check out the clerance sale at LnT as soon as it started, but at the time the store was still pretty much stocked like normal and the deals weren’t all that great.  Yeah 20% off the entire store was nice…but not outstanding.  We picked up a few odds and ends and I got myself a Bialetti Moka Express stovetop “espresso” pot.

I’d heard good things about these little Italian devices and figured for <$20 it couldn’t be any worse than the steam pressure espresso machine my dad had sent me.  Sure enough it brewed up a drink just as tasty, but which I found somewhat more enjoyable to make.  It was less fussy than the little electric steam machine, easier to clean, and well…more authenticaly Italian.  Plus it works on any heat source, so I can even take it camping.  It’s not really espresso but then again neither was the steam machine.  But it still made for a good strong brew.

Then a few weeks ago we went back once the discounts reached 30% off or more on the entire store.  This time I couldn’t resist buying something a little more extravagent.  It still won’t win much approval from real espresso purists but it does have a 15bar pump, a good heavy solid portafilter and group head, and actually brews something a lot closer to real espresso – a Krups XP4030.  It was the nicest machine they had other than a Breville that was twice as much and didn’t really have anything more going for it – and with the store closing discount I got it for just barely over $100 which was the price I had set for “Might as well try it”.

Please excuse the 4oz glasses on top…they were the smallest glasses left at LnT and for $3 for the two of them at least a double shot doesn’t look super silly in them like it does in a normal coffee cup!  I’ll have some proper demitasse cups sooner or later.

Overall I’m very happy with this little machine.  Yes it does have a pressurized basket which creates fake crema and probably harms real crema production…but apparenly you can pop in the basket from a much more expensive machine and the pump and temperature controls on this little creature are up to the task of making real espresso at that point.  But even with the pressurized basket I’m quite happy with it and it’s a good step up from the steam machine and moka pot.  In fact I sold the steam machine to one of Amy’s co-workers a week after getting this.

Unlike the steam machine the steam wand on this one actually makes enough steam to really froth milk…I haven’t had much luck making proper microfoam yet, but I’ve only tried once or twice.  I’m not really big on milk in my coffee.  Amy will probably use the steam wand for milk chocolate more than I’ll use it for anything.  It’s easy to clean and does what I ask of it just fine – which is my one cup a day of freshly roasted and ground coffee…now a 2oz double shot of espresso instead of a 12oz mug from the french press or moka pot.

And today I tried a new experiment with it.  I ordered some ESE pods from Pod Merchant after an exhaustive search of every store in town failed to provide me with a local source.  (Well, I didn’t try the big new starbucks…but it’s not like they’d have much selection anyway.)  I didn’t expect much from the pods…but since they’re individually sealed I figured they’d be a nice “emergency” stash to have on hand for when I forget to roast up fresh beans.  Since they arrived today I had to pop one of the Illy medium roast pods in immediately.  I was actually quite impressed.  I’ve had quite a hard time getting a “proper” shot with my own coffee – usually despite the pressurized basket I end up with closer to 3-4 oz. in 20 seconds rather than the 2oz I should get in 25-30 seconds.  I’ve tried tamping harder and grinding finer…but I suspect my blade grinder is the limiting factor here.  With the pod it took a full 28 seconds to pull 1oz, and had a decent bit of creama (though that’s probably mostly due to the pressurized basket again.)  So the pods were not at all a dissapointment – but are not about to become my regular source of coffee joy.  They do have me starting to dream about a nicer burr grinder even more though.

Back off the coffee topic I’ll update to say I haven’t had much time to get my chops back with the cornet…but the other day Amy did comment that my attempt to make it through the first section of one of my old solo pieces was “much improved” and almost sounding musical again   Were our backroom not unbearably hot right now and me to cheap to turn on the A/C back there I’m sure I’d be progressing quicker.  Perhaps once the weather cools down again the horn will make more apperances in the blog.

And speaking of A/C I discovered a bit of an issue with ours.  The house has been surprisingly humid as was my office.  I had a friend who is learning A/C repair take a look at it and while he was able to clean out the house unit and get it running more efficiently – he defered to his boss, our friend Mark, for the full diagnosis.  My office unit I discovered on my own that the previous owner of the house had blocked off the condensate drain!  Once I removed that plug and it was able to start draining it’s condensate the humidity in my office went down considerably.  I still need to fix the angle of the A/C a bit better to help it drain the rest of the way but it’s a big improvement.

And Mark took one look at the drain on our house unit and determined that it has a similar issue.  The drain is not draining properly and that’s contribuiting to the humidity in our house.  He further suggested some changes to the thermostat settings as well as a change to the main air register which will further improve the efficiency…and come winter we will likely be running some new ducts and extending the main unit to the addition as well as improving airflow in the living room and kitchen.  Of course I’ll try and blog about those when they happen as well!

We’ve also been working on painting the living room again…well finishing painting it as well as repainting it.  The last of the salmon color from the previous owner has finally be eradicated from the living room and hallway.  The bright red wall has been redone in a more neutral tan, and the green wall behind the TV has been painted to match the blue wall behind the TV.  Once we finalize our color choices for the trim and get it repainted one last time I’ll post some photos.  But given how long it took us to pick up the brushes and start painting last time it could be awhile yet before we’re done!

So yeah, guess I have had a lot to update about.  I need to get better about lots of little updates instead of one big one every now and then like this.  I’d say that I’m going to try and aim for at least a post a week…but I know myself and know that if I said that I’d never pull it off.  So instead let’s just hope that I can start posting more often.  And that maybe next time Amy posts a comment she’ll make sure I’m logged out first so it doesn’t look like I’m replying to myself

Like I said, it’s hard a hard life.  The connection between the bell and the valves is broken so I had duct taped the bell and entry tube together to keep it from vibrating.  My dad took the tape off, but couldn’t get the residue off so it picked up a bunch of fuzz from the case.

The bell is bent both down and in, and while it’s kind of hard to see in the photos that first tube looks like a snake it’s been bent in so many directions.  One of the valve caps is a mismatch, and the 3rd valve slide has been wired into place (I seem to remember it was a little loose and for marching band perfect pitch wasn’t as important as not loosing bits of your instrument!)  It’s sure not much to look at…but it does still play.  I was surprised to find that all three valves still worked – though not very smoothly after 10 years of sitting in a closet!

The mouthpiece included was my 1-1/2C.  Not exactly a beginners piece, I may have to hit up a local music store and see if I can find a 3C to start out with until I get my lip back.  My mom was going to try and dig up my old music books – but apparently didn’t have any luck as they weren’t included in the box.  I’ll have to dig up some drills to practice on as well I guess.  Need to hit the music store anyway for a bore brush, some valve oil and slide lube since none of that was still with it either and I’d really like to give it a good cleaning.

Even so I gave it a blow and found that I still remember a few things.  I got through a few scales and even remembered the opening of our high school fight song.  But my lip is way out of shape and it will be awhile before I feel confident enough in my playing to subject anyone other than Amy to my attempts at playing!  Thankfully our backroom is very well insulated so I can practice back there and hopefully not upset anyone!