@Jasson Poirier to be honest i wasnt even know saz mean instrument until i start to learn piano 2 years ago and get into music stuff :D We normally say "enstruman" for "instrument" and many of us already forget "saz" and we start to use "saz" and "baglama" interchangeably
It means "stringed instrument", not just instrument... for example a Zurna, Ney or Kaval are all musical instruments but they are not a Saz because they belong to the woodwind family. A saz can refer to any instrument as long as it has strings.
I am a professional luthier and as such have built a lot of instruments. It has been a long time since I heard an idea that really blew my mind, but I think that you may have come upon one! This opens up a whole world of possibilities for playing bass runs with the thumb. I will be stealing this idea soon.
that is most defineiniely a "Contribution to the art form" can't wait to see it's final iteration - sorry can't think of anything that would improve it's design or manfacture - Cheers Mate
Tim, this thing is not just a novelty it's the real thing. That 4th string makes it unique. You have done it again. I can't wait to see a refined model.
I would add a different pickup for the bass string, something with a warmer perhaps darker tone to help fill out the low end and make it more of a bass string rather than just a string tuned lower, i think it would provide a nice contrast with the bright twangy tone of the normal 3 strings. i'm absolutely in love with this idea, if you ever finalize this and take custom orders i'd buy one in a heartbeat
I'm from the Mississippi Delta so I learned about cigar box guitars in the early 80,s and I have been building them ever since. I'm getting bord with them because now it's about how beautiful you can make them instead of house hold scrap items you can find and actually use your mind to build a instrument
It weirdly sounds like a combination between like a bluegrass style guitar (cigar box, resonator) and a sitar. The design reminds me a bit of some older Baroque style lutes, and I wonder if it wouldn't be useful to take some inspiration from those and put the bass string(s) on an extended scale to get a little more volume out of them. Really neat instrument though, I've never heard anything that sounds exactly like that.
Tim, once again you have inspired me. I’ve been watching your videos for a while now and I find myself trying to approach the problems I encounter the way you do. I don’t want to just solve the problem, I want to create a solution that is innovative and easily accessible by anyone. You are more than a luthier, more than a maker, more than an upcycler, you are a truly masterful problem solver who always has an eye toward improving the world around you. Thank you for your awesome videos and your contagiously positive attitude!
It would be really interesting to see this implemented to a full size electric guitar. I'm thinking a strat but the top half of the body cut of and one or two bass strings attached to the side of the neck
George Lynch once mentioned some guitarist who did this thing where he would tune down the low E string, pop it out of the nut slot and then play it on the side of the neck making it sound like an upright bass. Since you’re probably not interested in bending notes on the side string a whole lot, and given the thickness of that string, you should be able to use smaller fret wire on that part. I mean, it might feel less weird.
Being a big handed man I often fret the top string of the guitar with my thumb anyway, you know Hendrix style, so this would probably feel completely intuitive. Looking forward to future iterations.
@@tungtobak don't even need big hands. I'm a small handed man but I do the thumb over the neck thing. Got my first classical guitar recently after 17 years of playing, and it's pretty damn hard to do it on that because of how thick classical guitar necks are but yeah. I spent years playing only this big old Eko Ranger acoustic from the 60s my dad learnt to play on as I couldn't bring all my guitars and aps to university, so I've gotten very used to big thick necks and wrapping my thumb around anyway. It's too useful a technique to call it "wrong technique" like some do. It's so handy for having that root note to play while doing another thing at the same time with the higher strings
You have some cool ideas all piled together here, and I like it in general. Some things I was looking around for was inspiration for a new design I want to do this fall/winter to play with something besides my cello. One thing that many Eastern forms of ancient luthiers used for metallic threats was simply a sturdy piece of copper wire, pressed and glued into a carved or sawn slot. In the case of round or curved necks, this was really no problem, make the fret slot where you want it, lay in the wire to fit, pressing it into the slow with a strong adhesive, usually hide glue or melted resin. I use 12GA bare wire, lay it in the shallow slot with a little super glue and hold it in place with a piece of tape and a clamp. Dressing the ends is up to your choice of methods. Historically frets were all dressed to height with a long flat abrasive stone, or in our era, rubber cement a piece of sandpaper to a long throwaway section of Formica table top and you have a very fine dressing board. Nuts and bridges can be made in the same way with a larger diameter section of bare copper wire.
It would only be abused by douchetubers. It would lose all meaning, unless there was some sort of limit to how many "double likes" you can give. Even then, people would double-like every video they watch, and it would lose all meaning.
Garbage in beautiful creativity out. Nothing better than a creative builder. You have made my day. I hope you always keep your brain working and sharing. Nice to see your son involved, family is as important building. Thanks for sharing.
Maybe go fretless for the top string. There's limited space for bending, so that would help with that, plus you could get some cool detuned sounds as it seems like your thumb and fingers would naturally want to bend in opposite directions.
I like the idea of taking a set of payable strings on to another usable axis on the neck of the instrument. This never even occurred to me, but now seems so intuitive.
Excellent original thought. This is the fun of this format. What does not work gets put on the fire and warms your toes but the knowledge gained allows the next development to be better. I tread a similar road with ukuleles and when they get too many I have a selective bonfire!
I have seen necks on top before. But you angle yours, that’s a nice twist to the look of your guitar. And that’s a great idea with the string on topside. Love it.
the whole beauty of this cbg, is that, it isn't cookie cutter. It's almost perfect the way it is. Like you said, incorporate a better arm rest so it looks like part of the design.
I really love your videos, man. You make cool stuff. My dad and I make guitars as a bonding experience and your videos are pretty inspiring to us. Keep doing what you do!
The neck at an angle is inspired, the rolled over fret board is interesting and potentially cool for the right player. If you ever come back around to this, I'd like to see how you would approach a design that uses a bridge on the box top with the neck inside the body (and not glued to the top). CBGs are a great target for this kind of experimentation. Back when I was making the two series I did on them, using a banjo style floating bridge made all the difference in the world for a good sound. Thanks for sharing :)
Thanks for sharing this. You inspire me to make one. I just recently finished building an 8 string cigar box theorbo which came out really nice and is easy to play. Love this craft.
I love the "crooked neck" look and functionality. I have been looking into making a cigar box guitar for a while now and I guarantee you I will be stealing that idea from you. Thanks for the great ideas and great content.
This is very cool! Perhaps on your next version you should try making the side of the neck fretless, it might make for an interesting contrast with the other three strings on frets. Another thought, try making a guitar with a neck that can rotate independently from the body and head with one continuous fret that spirals up and down the neck, maybe through a button that allows it to swivel only when held down?
thw only thing I've seen similar to this is a guy who was making a guitar with two necks that spins like you describe. I almost made it fretless but need the pitch accuracy of frets to compensate for sloppy thumb placement.
@@timsway I think I found the video you're referring to. It's very similar however, I was thinking about something that rotates on the other axis, with one fretboard facing toward the strings and the other facing away. Btw, I like how you include your kid in your work, those are good skills for him to learn, and it adds an air of wholesomness to your videos.
I have to say that I am more impressed with this design than anything I've seen before. At first glance, I thought you had simply used wire all the way around the neck to imitate fret wire. I've seen some CBG's like that. But this is definitely a step above and beyond that. I also really like the idea of the neck being angled upward from the body. Suffice it to say that I'm impressed all the way around to the extent that I'm a new subscriber to your channel. Looking forward to more on this instrument!
Very cool. I can see spending just ton's of hours with a smile on my face finding ways to use that over the top string. Ideas: Why not some resonating strings inside the neck or on the body.
I've seen many CBG builds using springs, like screen-door springs. Problems include being unrepairable if interior strings/springs snap, it can even be dangerous! St/prings inside a drum can work great, over the long run, not so great on a CBG
Tim you are a genius. I have built one guitar from scratch and rebuilt four or five damaged or junk instruments but you take it to a whole new level. I play Spanish guitar (flamenco recently) so I sometimes watch Spanish luthiers at work using very conservative methods but you are so creative! I don't know if you will end up inventing a new instrument that gets established but just watching your woodworking techniques is amazing. Traditional Spanish luthiers don't use anything much more complicated than a chisel and some rabbit glue but what you are doing is amazing. This instrument kind of works first time but looks like it could work eventually.
I never could wrap my thumb around the neck of any guitar. This is absolutely brilliant! Please keep exploring this approach. You may have launched the next evolution of guitar making and musical possibilities for solo guitarist. Thanks for posting this.
so classic! the plywood pieces on the end seem so perfect for what a homemade guitar might be for someone who couldn't afford a real instrument, so they just scrounged the parts to find what they needed to do the job. Every one of these CBGs should be they're own unique thing.
So... for those who always bring up the "opposing thumb" use of the humans as the evidence of being more advanced than the apes... we now finally have this new instrument to prove the point! Congratulations Tim on another great success!
Wow!! The first time you played it!! So cool!! Sounded great very bluesy vibe. You could do something really funky with the string cover indeed. Thank you,really interesting video!
It's a great concept. I think a cutaway at the position would be interesting. You could even have the neck serve as a side of a triangle, that extends to the underside.
I like the angled neck. Simple, but a great idea for an instrument you play sitting in your lounge chair. I’m surprised we don’t see more stringed instruments designed like this.
A cool thing to add would maybe be to add a resonator pickup (idk what theyre called, basically an e-bow pickup) to the bass string, and slide around using it as a pedal tone that slides with wherever you are on the neck. might be a bit to fancy for a cigar box guitar though.
Smart kid "They're kind of easy to find. You wanted to make it didn't you" hahaha Awesome build I might have to make one. You should play The end by the doors if you can.
Well done Tim nice work. I think the quick fix cover you made for the upper string has some possibilities...I was just thinking it reminds me of the chin rest from a violin. Again nicely done Tim.
Innovative , creative and a very good concept. Develop it further and don't forget to patent the idea it could be used in other applications. A violin neck mount would be a good idea for the arm rest you made out of plywood, more organic and a tad traditional
Not to piss on his creation , but it doesn’t really add anything doing it this way , you can still only stretch so far with your thumb so it would make more sense to just have four strings on a regular CBG . And before anyone says WTF does this guy know , I’ve played guitar for 35 years and I have built many home made instruments including a kalimba and a diddly bow combined which I called the kalimbow
I'm not pinning this to get people to yell at you, rather you, albier crudely, raise an interesting point about creativity and invention: Should we try something new if it isn't "better"? Is changing our perspective of a thing prone to unlock synapses and make us rethink what we know? Can we open source our experiments and grow ideas collectively, in real time? Discuss!
tim sway thanks Tim , it’s so easy to just block people and ignore comments now , I couldn’t care less if people want to attack me , it’s only the internet . The place for this kind of thing was google+ we had a pretty crazy instrument building group back when it was alive and we all supported each other and offered constructive criticism, youtube is unfortunately full of people who could not even be bothered to even try to do what you have done , I’ve made many crazy instruments and they were lots of fun . The main thing for me was the excitement of making something make music that I made myself , I made foot drums out of cookie tins full of old scrap metal and bolts with a piezo in them , they sound amazing,I made a sintir because I really wanted one etc , I’m right there with you buddy , I enjoyed the show
I think one functionality thing that may be overlooked at first is being able to use a slide on the front fret board while playing bass notes on the side. Obviously take some tinkering to get the coordination down, but could bring up some new possibilities. Neck angle on box is pretty cool too, first time I've seen that.
Inbetween the two fret boards you could put some plastic / wood binding and scrape it the way that gibson does to make the little binding nibs only on this instrument it'd be on two dimensions so you'd end up bridging the two frets into one curve.
This is a real creative process. You have surpassed big guitar brands in one day. You are giving innovation to music instruments, that is really needed.
What might be neat would be to double the strings on the forward facing fretboard in order to make it like a mandolin (you could take this further by tuning in fifths, for example D+D8v, A+A and E+E). The other string would remain singular, for use in making bass lines and could be tuned to the same note as one of the other strings.
Great build! I love the thumb string idea. I see no need, other than for cosmetics, to have the neck at an angle not perpendicular to he body. My CBG body/box is a typically rectangular type. I play sitting and put the bottom corner of the box between my legs. This puts the neck angle, when being played, at about 45 degrees, much like how the classical players hold their guitars or how a banjo might be played. Mine is a little neck heavy, but in this position it stays put fairly well and I don't have to worry about holding it to my chest and can easily play without a strap.
great idea! those tied frets on instruments like Saz and Sitar are able to individually intonate meaning you can slide them around the tune the notes at the fret, so may be using tied frets would be a cool way to approach this design i think you could still use thumb
That sort of side string was used in many medieval plucked and strummed instruments. It was even implemented on a few bowed instruments for rhythm. A few early model Vielles and most crwths, for example.
I've seen sympathetic strings and heavily radiused necks... can you share a link with info? all I found like this was a guy in the 90s who put basically two guitar necks on a spinning, triangular neck/instrument
@@timsway Heres a selection of vielles for sale at the early music shop. I wouldn't personally recommend them, they're prices are high, and the internals aren't always as simple as they would have been at the time, for example you wouldn't have expected curved tops in a Rebec, but most or all of their Rebecs have them rather than the historical flat top. But as far as I know, the side string was a historical feature. earlymusicshop.com/collections/rebecs-medieval-fiddles/products/lira-medieval-fiddle-by-fabio-chiari-from-liuteria-toscana-workshops earlymusicshop.com/collections/rebecs-medieval-fiddles/products/lira-di-leonardo-da-vinci-medieval-fiddle-by-fabio-chiari-from-liuteria-toscana-workshops earlymusicshop.com/collections/rebecs-medieval-fiddles/products/viella-medieval-fiddle-by-fabio-chiari-from-liuteria-toscana-workshops earlymusicshop.com/collections/rebecs-medieval-fiddles/products/lira-medieval-fiddle-by-roberto-montagna-from-liuteria-toscana-workshops This one here is an early baroque lute called a theorbo, redesigned for opera accompaniment. It's size was to give it the range and volume to compete with an orchestra, as well as a top opera singer. The strings on the side were meant to be played almost like a small lyre alongside the fretted strings. earlymusicshop.com/collections/lutes-and-theorbos/products/theorbo-by-early-music-shop This is the crwth, my personal favorite on the list. It's got by far the most historical clout of any of these, as both the tradition for making them, as well as a few historical models, have survived intact to date. We can confirm their existence since the end of the dark ages, and they likely existed even before that. Because the art has survived intact, if only barely, we can also confirm playing styles Most crwths had a flat bridge, so that a bow could play fully sustained chords, with punctuation form the two (or one depending on the number of strings,) side-mounted strings. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crwth#History I'd wager these instrument's have survived so well because they're both cut from a single piece, aside fomr the otp and fingerboard, and because they have both a conventional neck and hte side pieces supporting what is usually the first failure point. The older versions were also less reliant on the back of the body to resonate, so they were often cut thicker. Very tough, hardy instrument.
@@curvingfyre6810 wow, thanks for all the info. I will look over this more later. I have seen some of these in a book I have but others are new to me. The top strings appear to be more drones than fingered but very exciting to see nonetheless !!
@@curvingfyre6810 I think these instruments are played more like fiddles, no? It looks like that string on the side is bowed as a drone while the other 4 strings are fingered for melody and chords, but I don't think it can be fretted. they're also new instrument recreations - all the old ones must be dust by now. I'm really digging these and finding some inspiration. thanks!
@@timsway Actually, some of them did have frets. They were a surprisingly popular feature of medieval instruments, even bowed ones. Its only lately that they fell out of favor. To be honest, I think thats a real shame that we've got so rigid in which instruments get frets and which donm't. SOme of the best guitar I've ever heard came from a fretless instrument, and it's hard to find brightness of tone in a bowed instrument like oyu cna get form one with frets. As for how they were played, theres a lot of variations and approaches. Since it was a medieval instrument, its likely that all of them were correct for different cultures who got the instrument, or all correct at different times.
What a cool idea! It reminds me of a standup bass I saw where the fretboard was flat on the middle two strings and slanted at a 45 degree angle. Bizarre ! Awesome
I played the double bass for a living. The fingerboard is heavily radiused and some have a flattened out edge near the bridge. that's the direction I want to go with it, more of a heavy arc than a separate fingerboard
ok this channel puzzles me to no end because you should have 40 million subscribers , thats the part that puzzles me !! this is the coolest channel i have yet to watch on the youtube , you have crazy skills !!
Thanks. I don't really "play the game," follow analytics, post on Reddit, make fidget spinners and river tables when they're trending, etc. I just do what I do and let people find me. Of course you sharing my work always helps, but you don't have to.
The bass string on the side of the neck is such an awesome idea, I like playing guitar with my thumb over the neck so I'd totally love that feature. What an amazing and unique looking instrument, well done.
That top fretboard for the thumb might be pretty cool Fretless. That way you can play on the main board but have some nice slide too. Also it’s just look cool when you play it
I know this video is over a year old now but something that would be cool is using separate inputs for the picking/thumb necks. That way you could use different effects on different parts of the neck, like a chorus/reverb on the treble strings or an octaver on the bass string to get a fuller sound!
Sounds nice. Need a design where the neck folks in thirds into the sound box for true portability. Carry it like a briefcase, open it up unfold the neck lock the sections in place, tune it and play. I like the string placement on top, seems more natural at least for plucking... strumming kind of requires coplanar string placement.
I just found you and just subscribed. When I saw what you were doing with the bass string I was both excited and a little sad since I have been meaning to get around to doing that for well over 10 years now. There are a few unnamed instruments iv found pictures of, from north Africa that are basically the equivalency of cigar box guitars here. I wonder why... anyways I can totally dig what you have done. Maybe to go along with the build you could make a cigar box amp, with springs or a pot lid to act like a gainy re-verb. I have a cool old rake im planning on using one day for that purpose. Thanks for the video!
I would be really curious about this in regards to an extended range guitar. Adding another dimension of strings as opposed to just widening the neck. Although I think with traditional picking technique could be difficult to have make sense.
Dude, props for originality! As you said numerous times throughout your video, this was a build as you go, but, wow, outstanding achievement! Very cool! Worth refining? It's sure cool having that bass line available with the thumb. I say, hell yeah!
Reckon you could incorporate a trem bar in the arm rest? Got myself a basic Baglama for £20 in Turkey last year. This was an awesome video, best cigar box I ever did see. I always watch build videos, can't wait to make my first instrument.
0:54 "Saz" mean instrument. Baglama what you looking for. Altough not many turkish people know saz mean instrument in turkish.
@Jasson Poirier to be honest i wasnt even know saz mean instrument until i start to learn piano 2 years ago and get into music stuff :D We normally say "enstruman" for "instrument" and many of us already forget "saz" and we start to use "saz" and "baglama" interchangeably
i feel like you should have a slide on your thumb.
It means "stringed instrument", not just instrument... for example a Zurna, Ney or Kaval are all musical instruments but they are not a Saz because they belong to the woodwind family.
A saz can refer to any instrument as long as it has strings.
@@EnderElohim is baglama related to Oud?
I am a professional luthier and as such have built a lot of instruments. It has been a long time since I heard an idea that really blew my mind, but I think that you may have come upon one! This opens up a whole world of possibilities for playing bass runs with the thumb. I will be stealing this idea soon.
1:46 "They're kinda of easy to find... "
Where you hanging out son?
Nice kid, lucky too, he's got a cool dad
HAHAHAHA! He likes to hang at the casino :)
He doesn't sound like he smokes that many cigars.
that is most defineiniely a "Contribution to the art form" can't wait to see it's final iteration - sorry can't think of anything that would improve it's design or manfacture - Cheers Mate
thank you!
Ben Walker
A pair of Humbuckers ?
Tim, this thing is not just a novelty it's the real thing. That 4th string makes it unique. You have done it again. I can't wait to see a refined model.
I would add a different pickup for the bass string, something with a warmer perhaps darker tone to help fill out the low end and make it more of a bass string rather than just a string tuned lower, i think it would provide a nice contrast with the bright twangy tone of the normal 3 strings. i'm absolutely in love with this idea, if you ever finalize this and take custom orders i'd buy one in a heartbeat
I'm from the Mississippi Delta so I learned about cigar box guitars in the early 80,s and I have been building them ever since. I'm getting bord with them because now it's about how beautiful you can make them instead of house hold scrap items you can find and actually use your mind to build a instrument
It weirdly sounds like a combination between like a bluegrass style guitar (cigar box, resonator) and a sitar. The design reminds me a bit of some older Baroque style lutes, and I wonder if it wouldn't be useful to take some inspiration from those and put the bass string(s) on an extended scale to get a little more volume out of them. Really neat instrument though, I've never heard anything that sounds exactly like that.
Thats a spot on observation man
There’s something very northern African/Arabic sounding about this guitar. The possibilities are endless here
Tim, once again you have inspired me. I’ve been watching your videos for a while now and I find myself trying to approach the problems I encounter the way you do. I don’t want to just solve the problem, I want to create a solution that is innovative and easily accessible by anyone. You are more than a luthier, more than a maker, more than an upcycler, you are a truly masterful problem solver who always has an eye toward improving the world around you. Thank you for your awesome videos and your contagiously positive attitude!
Oh wow man, I teared up a little bit reading this!
It would be really interesting to see this implemented to a full size electric guitar. I'm thinking a strat but the top half of the body cut of and one or two bass strings attached to the side of the neck
that is the ultimate goal/direction I'm heading. I started here to simplify and problem solve it first.
George Lynch once mentioned some guitarist who did this thing where he would tune down the low E string, pop it out of the nut slot and then play it on the side of the neck making it sound like an upright bass.
Since you’re probably not interested in bending notes on the side string a whole lot, and given the thickness of that string, you should be able to use smaller fret wire on that part. I mean, it might feel less weird.
Being a big handed man I often fret the top string of the guitar with my thumb anyway, you know Hendrix style, so this would probably feel completely intuitive. Looking forward to future iterations.
@@tungtobak don't even need big hands. I'm a small handed man but I do the thumb over the neck thing. Got my first classical guitar recently after 17 years of playing, and it's pretty damn hard to do it on that because of how thick classical guitar necks are but yeah. I spent years playing only this big old Eko Ranger acoustic from the 60s my dad learnt to play on as I couldn't bring all my guitars and aps to university, so I've gotten very used to big thick necks and wrapping my thumb around anyway. It's too useful a technique to call it "wrong technique" like some do. It's so handy for having that root note to play while doing another thing at the same time with the higher strings
You have some cool ideas all piled together here, and I like it in general. Some things I was looking around for was inspiration for a new design I want to do this fall/winter to play with something besides my cello. One thing that many Eastern forms of ancient luthiers used for metallic threats was simply a sturdy piece of copper wire, pressed and glued into a carved or sawn slot. In the case of round or curved necks, this was really no problem, make the fret slot where you want it, lay in the wire to fit, pressing it into the slow with a strong adhesive, usually hide glue or melted resin. I use 12GA bare wire, lay it in the shallow slot with a little super glue and hold it in place with a piece of tape and a clamp. Dressing the ends is up to your choice of methods. Historically frets were all dressed to height with a long flat abrasive stone, or in our era, rubber cement a piece of sandpaper to a long throwaway section of Formica table top and you have a very fine dressing board. Nuts and bridges can be made in the same way with a larger diameter section of bare copper wire.
I keep saying UA-cam needs some kind of 'Double Like' button.
I get the heart on videos I post. that's my double like :)
@@timsway ♥️
It would only be abused by douchetubers. It would lose all meaning, unless there was some sort of limit to how many "double likes" you can give. Even then, people would double-like every video they watch, and it would lose all meaning.
@@davide.9576 valid point. triple likes it is then! lol
@@timsway lmao XD
Pretty cool! I like that bass on top!
Great proto-type build. The angled neck to body, plus rest over the bridge caught my attention ... as well as the fold-over fretboard.
Good stuff.
I like how the nut is a bolt. Amazing video, you’re a true craftsman in many the sense.
Garbage in beautiful creativity out. Nothing better than a creative builder. You have made my day. I hope you always keep your brain working and sharing. Nice to see your son involved, family is as important building. Thanks for sharing.
Maybe go fretless for the top string. There's limited space for bending, so that would help with that, plus you could get some cool detuned sounds as it seems like your thumb and fingers would naturally want to bend in opposite directions.
Fantastic build...loved the footage...well done !!
I like the idea of taking a set of payable strings on to another usable axis on the neck of the instrument. This never even occurred to me, but now seems so intuitive.
Excellent original thought. This is the fun of this format. What does not work gets put on the fire and warms your toes but the knowledge gained allows the next development to be better. I tread a similar road with ukuleles and when they get too many I have a selective bonfire!
Love the raw sound, sounds like a steel guitar. It’s a awesome idea. Thank you for sharing your amazing idea. God bless you and your family.
I found an old brass finger tip slide at a garage sale, polished it up and it's one of my favorite toys. You need one for your thumb.
Finally, a REAL guitar build with innovative and organic attributes.
Do I Love this ?
ABSOLUTESLY ❤️👊🏼❤️
What that guy ^^^^ said 👍
You said lute-sly
chuckomgyahoo, actually, I said Abso - Lutes - Ly
NOT EPICC, ITS A 2 SIDE FRETTED BASS!!!
Slapp like now
I have seen necks on top before. But you angle yours, that’s a nice twist to the look of your guitar. And that’s a great idea with the string on topside. Love it.
the whole beauty of this cbg, is that, it isn't cookie cutter. It's almost perfect the way it is. Like you said, incorporate a better arm rest so it looks like part of the design.
I really love your videos, man. You make cool stuff. My dad and I make guitars as a bonding experience and your videos are pretty inspiring to us. Keep doing what you do!
The neck at an angle is inspired, the rolled over fret board is interesting and potentially cool for the right player. If you ever come back around to this, I'd like to see how you would approach a design that uses a bridge on the box top with the neck inside the body (and not glued to the top). CBGs are a great target for this kind of experimentation. Back when I was making the two series I did on them, using a banjo style floating bridge made all the difference in the world for a good sound. Thanks for sharing :)
Thanks for sharing this. You inspire me to make one. I just recently finished building an 8 string cigar box theorbo which came out really nice and is easy to play. Love this craft.
I love the "crooked neck" look and functionality. I have been looking into making a cigar box guitar for a while now and I guarantee you I will be stealing that idea from you. Thanks for the great ideas and great content.
This is very cool! Perhaps on your next version you should try making the side of the neck fretless, it might make for an interesting contrast with the other three strings on frets. Another thought, try making a guitar with a neck that can rotate independently from the body and head with one continuous fret that spirals up and down the neck, maybe through a button that allows it to swivel only when held down?
thw only thing I've seen similar to this is a guy who was making a guitar with two necks that spins like you describe. I almost made it fretless but need the pitch accuracy of frets to compensate for sloppy thumb placement.
@@timsway I think I found the video you're referring to. It's very similar however, I was thinking about something that rotates on the other axis, with one fretboard facing toward the strings and the other facing away. Btw, I like how you include your kid in your work, those are good skills for him to learn, and it adds an air of wholesomness to your videos.
I have to say that I am more impressed with this design than anything I've seen before. At first glance, I thought you had simply used wire all the way around the neck to imitate fret wire. I've seen some CBG's like that. But this is definitely a step above and beyond that. I also really like the idea of the neck being angled upward from the body. Suffice it to say that I'm impressed all the way around to the extent that I'm a new subscriber to your channel. Looking forward to more on this instrument!
I can see someone like Seasick Steve playing the living daylights out of this, with a big cheesy grin on his face the whole time. It’s fantastic!
every time I turn on your channel I'm reminded of my brother and I worshiping at Dad's altar. Cool video, cool Dad, cool kid.
Very cool. I can see spending just ton's of hours with a smile on my face finding ways to use that over the top string.
Ideas: Why not some resonating strings inside the neck or on the body.
I've seen many CBG builds using springs, like screen-door springs. Problems include being unrepairable if interior strings/springs snap, it can even be dangerous! St/prings inside a drum can work great, over the long run, not so great on a CBG
Tim you are a genius. I have built one guitar from scratch and rebuilt four or five damaged or junk instruments but you take it to a whole new level. I play Spanish guitar (flamenco recently) so I sometimes watch Spanish luthiers at work using very conservative methods but you are so creative! I don't know if you will end up inventing a new instrument that gets established but just watching your woodworking techniques is amazing. Traditional Spanish luthiers don't use anything much more complicated than a chisel and some rabbit glue but what you are doing is amazing. This instrument kind of works first time but looks like it could work eventually.
there is nothing traditional about the way I work :)
I really enjoyed this one Tim, I hope you'll make more projects like this, keep up the great job
thanks!
I never could wrap my thumb around the neck of any guitar. This is absolutely brilliant! Please keep exploring this approach. You may have launched the next evolution of guitar making and musical possibilities for solo guitarist. Thanks for posting this.
isn’t that just fun. Once again Tim your creativity has shined
thanks!
BRILLIANT idea and realization! Interesting how it incorporates touch style hammer on with strumming and picking.
What a great idea! I think it’d be great if the top string was fretless with just the lines inlayed
so classic! the plywood pieces on the end seem so perfect for what a homemade guitar might be for someone who couldn't afford a real instrument, so they just scrounged the parts to find what they needed to do the job. Every one of these CBGs should be they're own unique thing.
So... for those who always bring up the "opposing thumb" use of the humans as the evidence of being more advanced than the apes... we now finally have this new instrument to prove the point! Congratulations Tim on another great success!
@@que6025 They can't play guitar though...
@@que6025 They can't play instruments though...
@@que6025 So? Is there a video? I bet not.
I think I like this method of neck mounting. Much easier than going through stuff. The angle is good too. Well done.
maybe just for looks.. but would a circular sound "box" work also ?
like a slice out of some wooden barrel or a slice out of a wooden bucket ?
Essentially a banjo so i would assume yes
Wow!! The first time you played it!! So cool!! Sounded great very bluesy vibe. You could do something really funky with the string cover indeed. Thank you,really interesting video!
After seeing some of the instruments Justin Johnson plays, I've no problem with calling this 'done'. Pretty slick 👍
It's a great concept. I think a cutaway at the position would be interesting. You could even have the neck serve as a side of a triangle, that extends to the underside.
That kid is wise beyond his years. : )
That kid gas a grey beard.
Love the sound! Cool work!
Yeah! Love how cigar box guitars sound. LOL! Your boy cracked me up!
he's sharp as a tack
I like the angled neck. Simple, but a great idea for an instrument you play sitting in your lounge chair. I’m surprised we don’t see more stringed instruments designed like this.
It would be awesome to see you make a cello with hollow core doors
oh geez, the bass wasn't enough?
@@timsway Imagine though :D
I think it’s beautiful. I built a CBG a year ago and kept popping strings trying to tune it. This makes me want to dig it out and give it another try
This expanded my mind. If you started selling I would definitely buy one.
that's a way of thinking outside the box. great video btw
1:40 the conversation every builder has to have.
Snot bad. Awesome unending possibilities.
Sweet build. You could strum with your left hand the bass note for sure.
This may be a breakthrough in guitars as we know it. By Tim sway!
thanks man!
A cool thing to add would maybe be to add a resonator pickup (idk what theyre called, basically an e-bow pickup) to the bass string, and slide around using it as a pedal tone that slides with wherever you are on the neck. might be a bit to fancy for a cigar box guitar though.
Hi Tim! That looks like such a cool guitar! I’m still waiting to watch it. I’m not up at midnight, so I can’t watch the premiere.
Right on. I forgot I set it as a premier. Kind of an accident . Lol
Okay
She,s a beauty .... Kind of an acoustic "Trashcaster" . Love it . Thanks for sharing
Smart kid
"They're kind of easy to find. You wanted to make it didn't you" hahaha
Awesome build I might have to make one. You should play The end by the doors if you can.
Well done Tim nice work.
I think the quick fix cover you made for the upper string has some possibilities...I was just thinking it reminds me of the chin rest from a violin.
Again nicely done Tim.
exactly! It can be done attractively and I think it could be an ornate feature
"Kind like this guy he know a little bit about guitar." and its Jimmy Hendrix!!!!
Innovative , creative and a very good concept. Develop it further and don't forget to patent the idea it could be used in other applications. A violin neck mount would be a good idea for the arm rest you made out of plywood, more organic and a tad traditional
I’m not a guitarist, but it looks a fun instrument!
Looks perfect, my pointer finger has always been a bit to Short to play well. I get away with the thumb when I can and this looks comfy.
Putting the E on the side of the neck would make song like John Mayer’s “Neon” easier to play for small 🖐🏻 people like me.
having big hands and double jointed thumbs this would probably be harder for me :P
Love the bass on the side for the thumb. Awesome!
Not to piss on his creation , but it doesn’t really add anything doing it this way , you can still only stretch so far with your thumb so it would make more sense to just have four strings on a regular CBG . And before anyone says WTF does this guy know , I’ve played guitar for 35 years and I have built many home made instruments including a kalimba and a diddly bow combined which I called the kalimbow
I'm not pinning this to get people to yell at you, rather you, albier crudely, raise an interesting point about creativity and invention: Should we try something new if it isn't "better"? Is changing our perspective of a thing prone to unlock synapses and make us rethink what we know? Can we open source our experiments and grow ideas collectively, in real time? Discuss!
And note I said "discuss", not fight or name call. There are plenty of other places to do that on the web. This is a friendly and supportive space.
tim sway thanks Tim , it’s so easy to just block people and ignore comments now , I couldn’t care less if people want to attack me , it’s only the internet . The place for this kind of thing was google+ we had a pretty crazy instrument building group back when it was alive and we all supported each other and offered constructive criticism, youtube is unfortunately full of people who could not even be bothered to even try to do what you have done , I’ve made many crazy instruments and they were lots of fun . The main thing for me was the excitement of making something make music that I made myself , I made foot drums out of cookie tins full of old scrap metal and bolts with a piezo in them , they sound amazing,I made a sintir because I really wanted one etc , I’m right there with you buddy , I enjoyed the show
@@valley_robot cheers. I never pretend to have all the ideas or answers. I like the dialogue and constructive criticism. If it's polite.
I think one functionality thing that may be overlooked at first is being able to use a slide on the front fret board while playing bass notes on the side. Obviously take some tinkering to get the coordination down, but could bring up some new possibilities. Neck angle on box is pretty cool too, first time I've seen that.
Inbetween the two fret boards you could put some plastic / wood binding and scrape it the way that gibson does to make the little binding nibs only on this instrument it'd be on two dimensions so you'd end up bridging the two frets into one curve.
“I like to do things the hard way...”
This is a real creative process. You have surpassed big guitar brands in one day. You are giving innovation to music instruments, that is really needed.
wow, thanks!
LOL! "They are kinda easy to find..."
The oblique position of the neck is a great innovation.
You're a pretty decent musician. Have you thought of joining a band?
No
Much amazing.
Such awesome.
Words Hard.
Want version 2.0 ASAP
What might be neat would be to double the strings on the forward facing fretboard in order to make it like a mandolin (you could take this further by tuning in fifths, for example D+D8v, A+A and E+E).
The other string would remain singular, for use in making bass lines and could be tuned to the same note as one of the other strings.
Great build!!!! I like the idea and I am eagerly awaiting the final iteration!!!
I rarely share video's... this is one of those rarities... Totally love this instrument.
I like it the way you put the neck on a angle. Great for when you sit down !!!!!!!!
Great build! I love the thumb string idea.
I see no need, other than for cosmetics, to have the neck at an angle not perpendicular to he body. My CBG body/box is a typically rectangular type. I play sitting and put the bottom corner of the box between my legs. This puts the neck angle, when being played, at about 45 degrees, much like how the classical players hold their guitars or how a banjo might be played. Mine is a little neck heavy, but in this position it stays put fairly well and I don't have to worry about holding it to my chest and can easily play without a strap.
I love it and hope we see more of this. This might be the new evolution of the guitar.
Really pleasing tone. It's warm and friendly with that "genuine" backyard- kid-with-no-money stringing-up-a-cigar-box charm.
that is a nice tone IMO. something so unjaded about it.
@@timsway that's a great description. Unjaded.
great idea! those tied frets on instruments like Saz and Sitar are able to individually intonate meaning you can slide them around the tune the notes at the fret, so may be using tied frets would be a cool way to approach this design i think you could still use thumb
That sort of side string was used in many medieval plucked and strummed instruments. It was even implemented on a few bowed instruments for rhythm. A few early model Vielles and most crwths, for example.
I've seen sympathetic strings and heavily radiused necks... can you share a link with info? all I found like this was a guy in the 90s who put basically two guitar necks on a spinning, triangular neck/instrument
@@timsway Heres a selection of vielles for sale at the early music shop. I wouldn't personally recommend them, they're prices are high, and the internals aren't always as simple as they would have been at the time, for example you wouldn't have expected curved tops in a Rebec, but most or all of their Rebecs have them rather than the historical flat top. But as far as I know, the side string was a historical feature.
earlymusicshop.com/collections/rebecs-medieval-fiddles/products/lira-medieval-fiddle-by-fabio-chiari-from-liuteria-toscana-workshops
earlymusicshop.com/collections/rebecs-medieval-fiddles/products/lira-di-leonardo-da-vinci-medieval-fiddle-by-fabio-chiari-from-liuteria-toscana-workshops
earlymusicshop.com/collections/rebecs-medieval-fiddles/products/viella-medieval-fiddle-by-fabio-chiari-from-liuteria-toscana-workshops
earlymusicshop.com/collections/rebecs-medieval-fiddles/products/lira-medieval-fiddle-by-roberto-montagna-from-liuteria-toscana-workshops
This one here is an early baroque lute called a theorbo, redesigned for opera accompaniment. It's size was to give it the range and volume to compete with an orchestra, as well as a top opera singer. The strings on the side were meant to be played almost like a small lyre alongside the fretted strings.
earlymusicshop.com/collections/lutes-and-theorbos/products/theorbo-by-early-music-shop
This is the crwth, my personal favorite on the list. It's got by far the most historical clout of any of these, as both the tradition for making them, as well as a few historical models, have survived intact to date. We can confirm their existence since the end of the dark ages, and they likely existed even before that. Because the art has survived intact, if only barely, we can also confirm playing styles Most crwths had a flat bridge, so that a bow could play fully sustained chords, with punctuation form the two (or one depending on the number of strings,) side-mounted strings.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crwth#History
I'd wager these instrument's have survived so well because they're both cut from a single piece, aside fomr the otp and fingerboard, and because they have both a conventional neck and hte side pieces supporting what is usually the first failure point. The older versions were also less reliant on the back of the body to resonate, so they were often cut thicker. Very tough, hardy instrument.
@@curvingfyre6810 wow, thanks for all the info. I will look over this more later. I have seen some of these in a book I have but others are new to me. The top strings appear to be more drones than fingered but very exciting to see nonetheless !!
@@curvingfyre6810 I think these instruments are played more like fiddles, no? It looks like that string on the side is bowed as a drone while the other 4 strings are fingered for melody and chords, but I don't think it can be fretted. they're also new instrument recreations - all the old ones must be dust by now. I'm really digging these and finding some inspiration. thanks!
@@timsway Actually, some of them did have frets. They were a surprisingly popular feature of medieval instruments, even bowed ones. Its only lately that they fell out of favor. To be honest, I think thats a real shame that we've got so rigid in which instruments get frets and which donm't. SOme of the best guitar I've ever heard came from a fretless instrument, and it's hard to find brightness of tone in a bowed instrument like oyu cna get form one with frets. As for how they were played, theres a lot of variations and approaches. Since it was a medieval instrument, its likely that all of them were correct for different cultures who got the instrument, or all correct at different times.
What a cool idea! It reminds me of a standup bass I saw where the fretboard was flat on the middle two strings and slanted at a 45 degree angle. Bizarre ! Awesome
I played the double bass for a living. The fingerboard is heavily radiused and some have a flattened out edge near the bridge. that's the direction I want to go with it, more of a heavy arc than a separate fingerboard
ok this channel puzzles me to no end because you should have 40 million subscribers , thats the part that puzzles me !! this is the coolest channel i have yet to watch on the youtube , you have crazy skills !!
Thanks. I don't really "play the game," follow analytics, post on Reddit, make fidget spinners and river tables when they're trending, etc. I just do what I do and let people find me. Of course you sharing my work always helps, but you don't have to.
The bass string on the side of the neck is such an awesome idea, I like playing guitar with my thumb over the neck so I'd totally love that feature. What an amazing and unique looking instrument, well done.
That top fretboard for the thumb might be pretty cool Fretless. That way you can play on the main board but have some nice slide too. Also it’s just look cool when you play it
I know this video is over a year old now but something that would be cool is using separate inputs for the picking/thumb necks. That way you could use different effects on different parts of the neck, like a chorus/reverb on the treble strings or an octaver on the bass string to get a fuller sound!
that angled neck is a great idea!! I'm definitely going to need to try that. The extra string also has a lot of promise
Sounds nice. Need a design where the neck folks in thirds into the sound box for true portability. Carry it like a briefcase, open it up unfold the neck lock the sections in place, tune it and play. I like the string placement on top, seems more natural at least for plucking... strumming kind of requires coplanar string placement.
I just found you and just subscribed. When I saw what you were doing with the bass string I was both excited and a little sad since I have been meaning to get around to doing that for well over 10 years now. There are a few unnamed instruments iv found pictures of, from north Africa that are basically the equivalency of cigar box guitars here. I wonder why... anyways I can totally dig what you have done. Maybe to go along with the build you could make a cigar box amp, with springs or a pot lid to act like a gainy re-verb. I have a cool old rake im planning on using one day for that purpose. Thanks for the video!
I would be really curious about this in regards to an extended range guitar. Adding another dimension of strings as opposed to just widening the neck. Although I think with traditional picking technique could be difficult to have make sense.
This is the first video of yours I've seen. The sheer creativity of it is definitely worth a subscribe. Great job.
Welcome! Lots more of this type of stuff here.
Dude, props for originality!
As you said numerous times throughout your video, this was a build as you go, but, wow, outstanding achievement!
Very cool!
Worth refining?
It's sure cool having that bass line available with the thumb.
I say, hell yeah!
Printing an 18 inch guitar scale and gluing it to the fret board honestly blew my mind. What a clever ideal man just wow.
That sounds fantastic and love the idea of the slant neck
Reckon you could incorporate a trem bar in the arm rest?
Got myself a basic Baglama for £20 in Turkey last year.
This was an awesome video, best cigar box I ever did see.
I always watch build videos, can't wait to make my first instrument.