Handmade Music Factory E-Book

Mike Orr

• Herausgeber: Fox Chapel Publishing
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Seitenzahl: 143

Beschreibung

Learn how to make eight of the most unique and imaginative instruments found anywhere - from a one-string guitar made from a soup can, to a hubcap banjo. Author Mike Orr takes you inside the growing trend of handmade music and shows you how with a little creativity and some salvaged parts, you can create your own arsenal of instruments that look good, sound great, and deliver some foot stompin' fun!

Leseprobe

“What an absolutely brilliant, beautiful piece of work! In the right

hands (or wrong, depending on your perspective) this book could

provide all the tools necessary to turn the homemade instruments

movement into a full-blown revolution!”

— pat mAcdonald (Purgatory Hill)

“Mike Orr shows you how to get back to music’s primal roots...

there’s nothing else that compares to playing a simple guitar

you built with your own hands.”

— Shane Speal,

Cigar Box Nation

“Travel back in time to where it all began. A cigar box, a broom

handle, three strings, two pickups and tuning pegs. Plug it in,

and the primitive meets the industrial age.”

— Lucy Tight and Wayne Waxing (Hymn for Her)

Click below to download a printable PDF containing

the patterns shown in this book.

Mike Orr

© 2011 by Michael Orr and Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc.

Handmade Music Factory

is an original work, first published in 2011 by Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc. The

patterns contained herein are copyrighted by the author. Readers may make copies of these patterns for personal

use. The patterns themselves, however, are not to be duplicated for resale or distribution under any circumstances.

Any such copying is a violation of copyright law.

Published and distributed in North America by Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc., East Petersburg, PA.

ISBN 978-1-56523-559-5

eISBN 978-1-60765-068-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Orr, Michael, guitarist

Handmade music factory / Michael Orr.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-56523-559-5 (alk. paper)

1.

Musical instruments--Construction. 2.

Guitar--Construction. 3.

Washtub bass--Construction.

I. Title.

ML460.O77 2011

787’.19--dc23

2011014757

To learn more about the other great books from Fox Chapel Publishing, or to find a retailer near you,

call toll free 800-457-9112 or visit us at www.FoxChapelPublishing.com.

Acknowledgments

This book is dedicated to my good friend, Paul Scalia, who encouraged me to follow through with this project and

many other endeavors along the way that led to the book.

Brewing Co., Gary Bartlett, John Traynor, Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center, Keith Stouffer, Chris Noble, Matthew Sim,

William E. Orr, Allen Maltman, Christopher Eldridge, Mike's Music of Harrisburg PA, Shane Bordner, Shane Speal,

HEXBELT, Mike Couch, Dann Ottemiller, Brendan McGowan, Neil Kreider, Butchy Sochorow, Toubab Krewe, Monkey

Lion Productions, Nathan Boose, Sandy Hollow Arts and Recreation for the Environment, Daniel Wilt, and Luther

Dickinson. I could not have done this without all of your help.

Thanks to Shane Speal of

www.CigarBoxNation.com

for contributing awesome sidebars throughout the book

(see page 20, 23, 30, 37, 38, 43, 48, 78, 89, 94, 102, 110) as well as the gallery of 100% recycled instruments (10–17).

Thanks to Jen Statler, of Jennifer Statler Photography, for allowing use of the images on pages 5 and 92.

www.jstatlerphotography.photoreflect.com

Thanks to RJ Gibson and Todd V. Wolfson for allowing use of their Purgatory Hill images on page 101.

Thanks to Silver Pop Pop for use of the image of Hymn For Her on page 111.

Thanks to Tricia Perry for use of the image of Homemade Jamz Blues Band on page 117.

Thanks to Sarah Ann Staub for use of the images of Toubab Krewe on page 45.

Thanks to Adam McCullough,

www.AdamMcCullough.com

, for use of the image of Luther Dickinson on page 91.

Thanks to John Byrne Cooke,

www.cookephoto.com

, for use of the image of Fritz Richmond on page 28.

Thanks to Mark Bush for use of the images of Chris Anderson (page 53) and Jack Pearson (page 70).

Note to Authors:

We are always looking for talented authors to write new books

in our area of woodworking, design, and related crafts. Please send a brief letter

describing your idea to Acquisition Editor, 1970 Broad Street, East Petersburg, PA 17520.

ePub Version 1.0

Because working with wood and other materials inherently includes the risk of injury and damage, this book cannot guarantee that creating

the projects in this book is safe for everyone. For this reason, this book is sold without warranties or guarantees of any kind, expressed or implied,

and the publisher and the author disclaim any liability for any injuries, losses, or damages caused in any way by the content of this book or the

reader’s use of the tools needed to complete the projects presented here. The publisher and the author urge all woodworkers to thoroughly review

each project and to understand the use of all tools before beginning any project.

About the Author

Mike Orr is a professional flooring installer and owner of Built2Last Guitars.

He has designed, built, and sold hundreds of recycled-material instruments.

The highlight of his career was when guitar legend Luther Dickinson played one

of his guitars in front of a live audience. When he is not in the shop, Mike can

usually be found touring the music festival circuit in his VW van on weekends.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JENNIFER STATLER PHOTOGRAPHY

SHANE SPEAL

Shane Speal is a performing blues/rock songwriter who plays

a primitive guitar made from an empty cigar box and a stick. He

is also the leader of the modern Cigar Box Guitar Revolution, a

growing fan base of cigar box guitar builders and players who

congregate at Speal’s website,

www.CigarBoxNation.com

. Speal

has performed concerts throughout the country and has been

featured in many TV, newspaper, and national magazine features.

He is also the central figure in Max Shores’ documentary on cigar

box guitars,

Songs Inside the Box

.

PHOTO BY JOHN MCELLIGOTT/KM PHOTOGRAPHY.

Foreword

.....................................

8

About this Book

..........................

10

Introduction

...............................

12

Accompaniments

One-String Washtub Bass

.................

20

Soup Can Diddley Bow

.....................

30

Electrified Stomp Box and Washboard

.......

38

Guitars

Three-String Cigar Box Slide Guitar

........

48

Cookie Tin Guitar

........................

66

Fretted Four-String Tenor Guitar

.........

78

Ironing Board Lap Steel Guitar

.............

94

Make it Electric

Electrifying your instruments

.............

106

Upcycled Tape Deck Amp

...................

112

gallery

.......................................

118

Appendix

PATTERNS AND TEMPLATES

.........................

142

RESOURCES

..................................

158

Index

............................................

159

Chapter

1

Chapter

2

Chapter

3

Chapter

4

Chapter

5

Chapter

6

Chapter

7

Chapter

8

Chapter

9

Contents

As a comprehensive nonprofit organization

that protects the legacy and music of

legendary blues artist Robert L. Johnson,

the foundation also encourages those

activities that keep alive the traditions

that formed Johnson’s music.

This book is about one of those traditions:

HOMEMADE INSTRUMENTS.

The state of Mississippi’s mantra is

“The Birthplace of America’s Music.” That

credo places the state in a unique arena

when highlighting the genres of popular

music that have contributed so much to

the world of creative entertainment. The

instruments that were born out of both

creativity and poverty are indicative of the

spirit of America and the “can do” mantra

that shaped the Industrial Revolution.

2011 is the centennial birthday of this icon

force, and this foreword serves as a literary

salute to the “King of Delta Blues” and how

his ingenuity laid a foundation for greatness.

Foreword

BY BRUCE M. CONFORTH PH. D., BEN L. MINNIFIELD, AND DR. TANYA SCOTT

—

ROBERT JOHNSON BLUES FOUNDATION

Blues music has its origin in the work songs sung by

slaves in the southern states of America. During slavery,

Africans adapted to using the leftovers of plantation

owners as mechanisms for survival and entertainment.

They also used their own traditions to transform the

American cultural landscape. The cultural relationship

of slave and slave owner was complex and often a

give-and-take exchange. From foodways (using cast-off

pig intestines to create the delicacy of chitterlings),

to architecture (slaves introduced the “front porch” to

America), to folk medicine and traditions, slave culture

brought much to American life.

Music was a particularly interesting area of exchange.

Although slave owners often encouraged musical

expression among their slaves, believing a misguided

rationale that a singing slave was a happy slave, they

also felt instruments could be used to communicate

secret messages that would lead to rebellion. The 1739

South Carolina slave codes, for instance, were the first

to ban drumming among slaves for fear that the rhythms

would foment insurrection. However, the African musical

tradition slaves brought to the New World included much

more than just drums. There was a rich African tradition

of stringed instruments, from the one-string fiddle to the

multi-stringed kora. Perhaps the most important of these

African retentions was the banjar, which would morph

into the banjo

—

oddly enough, an instrument that would

become associated with Anglo-American folk music and

ultimately one of the signature sounds of the proto-typical

white roots music “bluegrass.”

After slavery, though still under the oppression of

Jim Crow and segregation, the power of song and

music provided a base for inspiration and entertainment.

America’s earliest documentation of songs from this era

is found in Allen, Ware, and Garrison’s 1867 book,

Slave

Songs of the United States.

In this seminal text, we see

work and secular songs, as well as the spiritual roots that

would eventually form the blues. This early documentation

speaks to music used to open the core of a person’s soul

through verse and instrumentation, and explore the pain

and pleasure of living. This is the basis of the blues.

“If the blues tell stories about life experiences

revolving around race, love, and social class,

then these instruments provide the background

upon which those stories were sung.”

8

Handmade Music FactorY

It is no accident that at the same time African

Americans were creating the lyrical and musical roots

for the blues, they were also creating their own ad hoc

musical instruments. The earliest extant examples of cigar

box guitars, for example, stem from this period (although

reported history dates them to just before the Civil War).

By the 1880s, plans to build simple cigar box banjoes

were appearing in print. While there were, of course, white

children who also built their own homemade instruments,

the particular poverty of the southern Black made such

creations more of a necessity than a social curiosity. If you

were a young southern Black growing up on a plantation,

and you wanted to learn to play guitar, it was almost a

given that you’d have to make one yourself. And this is

precisely what Robert Johnson, and so many before and

after him, did.

Johnson’s childhood friends recall how he took three

strings of baling wire and nailed them to the side of the

sharecropping shack he shared with his mother, Julia,

and stepfather, Dusty Willis, in Commerce, Mississippi.

Johnson slid two bottles under the wires to increase the

tension, and then picked out tunes on his homemade

diddley bow. And while those same friends said they

couldn’t make any sense out of what he was playing, no

doubt to the young Robert it was pure music. It wasn’t

long after that that Robert got his first guitar, but the roots

of his music had been laid on the homemade diddley bow.

The great slide-guitar evangelist Blind Willie Johnson

began on a one-string cigar box guitar. Big Bill Broonzy,

Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and so many others did likewise.

It’s not stretching the point too far to wonder whether the

blues would have developed as they did had it not been for

these homemade instruments. Mike Orr does a wonderful

job of relating this tradition to a new generation of America,

updating some plans to include electric pickups, while still

remaining true to the underlying impulses that gave birth

to the instruments and the music played on them. This

book deftly takes us through the creation of these

instruments so we can find our own connection with these

musical roots.

If the blues tell stories about life experiences revolving

around race, love, and social class, then these instruments

provide the background upon which those stories

were sung.

Robert Johnson’s musical acumen came as a result

of creating his own instrument to simulate the sound

of a guitar. It was that zeal to find solace in music that

comforted his soul as he lived a very transient lifestyle in

rural Mississippi. It is that same zeal that can be shared

through this book.

From L to R

Standing:

Steven Johnson, grandson

of Robert Johnson & VP;

Michael Johnson, grandson

of Robert Johnson &

Treasurer. Seated: Ben

L. Minnifield, VP Global

Marketing & Media; Dr.

Tanya Scott, VP Global

Business Development;

Claud Johnson, son of

Robert Johnson & founder;

Vasti Jackson, Artist &

Musical Director. Painting

by artist Earl Klatzel.

9

String Holes

Resonator

Bridge

Sound Holes

Tone Knob

Volume Knob

About this Book

Anyone can make a musical instrument and play it

—

all

it takes is some basic instruction (which you’re holding

in your hands), some inspiration (I think you’ve already

got that, or you wouldn’t be here!), some simple tools

(you’ve probably got ’em already), and materials (you

can find these at yard sales, swap meets, and even in

the garbage). This book specializes primarily in stringed

instruments, but there are some percussion pieces as

well

—

in fact, there’s everything you need in these pages

to create enough instruments for an entire band!

I’d suggest starting out with the simpler accompaniment

instruments

—

the One-String Washtub Bass (page 20) and

Soup Can Diddley Bow (page 30) are quick and easy

to build, and don’t require many materials at all. The

chapter on stomp and scrub percussion (page 38) will

show you how to make an electrified washboard and

stompbox. After you’ve got those down, venture into

guitar territory

—

use a cigar box or cookie tin to create an

easy-build slide version (page 48, 66). Then, when you’re

comfortable with all the ins and outs of guitar building,

take a crack at creating a more complex fretted guitar

(page 78) or lap steel guitar (page 94). Be sure to visit

the chapter on Electrifying Your Instruments (page 106)

for detailed instructions on adding electricity to the

10

Handmade Music FactorY

Fret Length

Frets

Nut

Tuning Pegs

Headstock

Neck

Wires

projects

—

and don’t forget to make your own amp by

upcycling an old tape deck (page 112).

Along the way, you’ll discover lots of interesting

music tidbits, scattered on the bottoms of the pages and

throughout as sidebars. Keep your eye out for photos of

professional musicians jamming on their own handmade

instruments, info about other simple instruments you can

cobble together, and who knows what else? The King of

the Cigar Box Guitar, Shane Speal, chips in periodically

with fascinating historical information and other rubber-

meets-the-road experiences with the instruments. Don’t

forget to flip through the amazing galleries of handmade

music instruments near the front (page 10) and the

back (page 118)

—

there’s plenty of inspiration to get you

going! Before you dive in, take a moment to familiarize

yourself with the Anatomy of a Guitar, below

—

it’ll help

you keep your bearings when you get into the thick of

building. Let’s get started

—

and remember, there are

no rules! Build it ’til you like it.

11

Introduction

You may not have realized it, but there is a revolution

unfolding right now in the world of music. For many years,

it seemed that music was a thing to be purchased

—

a thing

that came in shiny packages, ensconced in CD sleeves

and mass-produced guitar cases. Music was something

other people did, or something you created on instruments

strangers made. The revolution happening right now is

taking music off its pedestal and making it accessible to

everyone and anyone who is willing to spend a little time

with their hands, simple tools, and approachable materials.

No longer must you go out to a store to buy your music

makers

—

you can create them right in your own home.

This innovative movement grows in numbers every day,

as people across the world

—

hobbyists and professional

musicians alike

—

reconsider their conceptions about music

and embark into the world of handmade instruments.

Amazing work is happening, as you’ll see when you flip

through the following pages

—

each instrument you’ll see

in this introduction was created for the MacGyver building

contest on

cigarboxnation.com

, where the sole rule

was that only 100% recycled materials could be used.

Handmade music builders are creative and ingenious.

They know that just because standard factory-made guitars

have six strings doesn’t mean their guitar can’t have three,

or four, or seven. Instruments can be crafted from old cigar

boxes, cookie tins, bedpans, and whatever else you can

think of. While today’s subversive music makers are blazing

a new trail forward, they’re also hearkening back to their

roots. Before it was common for the average person to be

able to afford a manufactured guitar, musicians built their

own creations, scraping together whatever they could find

to squeeze a note out of. Many famous blues musicians

got their starts stretching a screen door wire between

two nails hammered into the side of a barn, or on a guitar

fashioned from a cigar box and a broomstick handle. So,