Here’s a great shot by our friend Margo taken at Two Goats Brewing In Hector New York on The Fingerlakes Wine Trail. I have been playing the “Bubba” 001 alot lately as i like the old pair of bass pickups we put in it and how they respond with that real down and dirty sound. Thanks to my man Bubba for building that first one for me and thanks to Margo for the sweet photo:)
Browsing Posts in Musical Instruments
Hello – My parent’s won
the cigar box guitar at the Rongo last week and I wanted to let you know
tha…t I’ve been playing it a lot the last few days – it sounds great! -
playing it through my 79 JMP or direct with a delay pedal so far.
the cigar box guitar at the Rongo last week and I wanted to let you know
tha…t I’ve been playing it a lot the last few days – it sounds great! -
playing it through my 79 JMP or direct with a delay pedal so far.
Just wanted to let you know it’s being appreciated out here in Sierra
Madre CA -
best of luck on your future touring and thanks again!
Check out this article on myself and my partners at Vt. Mojo Box by our friends at Seven Days Magazine!
Antonious Stradivarious Cremons Violin spray painted
This instrument was pulled from The Green Mountains of Vermont, resting at the head of the piano of my dear friend, was placed a fine blue spray painted violin gathering dust. I had recently wanted to build a cigar box fiddle, or have a violin I could restore so I could play it for the first time. I did not ask about the item, or if I could could restore it, but Bubba did ask and the items was handed off to the Bubba Smokin' Guitar Workshop.
It traveled back with us from those mountains, down to the Finger Lakes at the southern tip of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca! Or just outside of Ithaca anyway, the item was placed in the rack of "to do's" at the growing shop. We have MANY of those, and everyday the rack flows quite steady with instruments coming in, and MANY instruments going out!
Antonious Stradivarious Cremons Violin paint stripping
On the following Wednesday before shop began, LBJ had begun stripping the instrument with a environmentally friendly paint stripper, that requires application and time to dry, pulling apart the adhesive properties of the paint (it turned to gew!). Several layers during the day and it was set to dry.
Antonious Stradivarious Cremons Violin paint stripping
Now being the middle of the winter, the shop was closed off with a wood stove to heat a rough 30'x10' shop room with all of our tools. This same Wednesday evening, Bubba picked up where it was left off to strip the violin of both the pain and primer to near just the rough wood. While the instrument dried out that evening after shop, it began to dry out too rapidly and the glue at the base of the instrument, which was already coming apart, damaged with cracks in the sidewalls, it separated from the instrument.
Antonious Stradivarious Cremons Violin 90% cleaned
To me this saved time and worry, because I wanted to separate it and re-seam the poor glue remains.this gave us the ability to clean off a decent amount of the paint dust inside the instrument, identify other weaknesses and address them, and suprisingly clean off the old identification paper that was apinted too much to read the print. It was an "Exact Copy of the famous Antonious Stradivarious Cremons Violin" manufactured solely for Slingerland's Correspondence School of Music - Chicago Illinois.
The following weeks, led me to complete the instrument after Bubba ordered the hardware for the piece, ebony hardware, fine tuners, Red Label strings for Orchestra, and we manufactured the sound post and bridge here at the shop. After re-glue of the instrument body, the piece was coated in urethane and hand polished for high grade finish. After the instrument was ready for hardware, Bubba contacted a local Finger Lakes violin repair person to see if he could buy a bow so we could try it out. The next day he showed with the bow, LBJ spent the evening finishing it up and nudged Bubba to construct and place the sound opst for the instrument, and voila!
Antonious Stradivarious Cremons Violin - Restored
A Fine sounding instrument indeed, and has become a common peice for shop "fiddlin"!
Got Mojo?
The Vt. Mojo Tour from The Green Mountains to The Fingerlakes was a great sucess last week! Thanks to Tracy Craig for the radio interview and Matt, Sharon, Bubba and LBJ for getting the word out. Congratulations to Jonathan from Owego who won the 4 string and Alexis from Ithaca who won the Uke from Lil Scrappy’s! Heres a a pic of the one that started it all and a few other pieces from Vt. Mojo Box. 
Need Mojo?stringtrader@gmail.com
Bubba 06 Bass
Constructed from laminated purple heart and other quality wood grain, this instrument is one of a kind. The neck which extends into the laminated body as one solid piece, is part of the semi-hollow solid body design. An Ebony fret board and black finished tuning machines and hardware accent the strings and frets silver shine.
The finished body was hand polished to deliver a glass like finish. A shoulder strap made from recycled tires, continues the dark black appearance in hardware.
More will follow when we can have time to write.......
Luvbus VTMojoboxes!
VTMojobox!
Welcome to Vermont Mojo Box!
From way down in the farthest reaches of your soul you can feel the baritone growling of a lost voice hidden deep inside of yourself.
A SOUND SO PRIMITIVE and Tribal that its a serious challenge
for one to sit still as it wails it’s tune.
True Grit, Sweat and Determination come ringing out of strings that start hypnotizing and Mesmerizing you with oodles and oodles of real live Mojo.
This Vermont Mojo harkens from the Green Mountains of Vermont to The African Continent and back up from the Southern Plantations on through The Great Depression.
It favors no race, color or creed and shares only suffering, resolution & a strong fight in the face of advesrity..
Now as we sit in the midst of yet another historic and challenging moment in our own part of American History the artform of the “Poor Mans Guitar” is celebrating a rebirth.
Go on and hear it now!
Press This>>> Slinky Blues
The EPC box used here is what first intrigued LBJ to start crafting with Bubba. The thought was to allow the box to slide open for different tones acoustically. Made from oak and purple heart neck, this tenor has held strength over time in rough conditions.
The tenor was built rough and with haste from being anxious, however came out to play exceptionally well. Head stock design came from LBJ with use of a simple item, this head stock design marks BSG LBJ made instruments.
The string nut was an idea found over the internet to use a fret for the nut and use of the truss rod cover to channel the strings properly spaced across the fret board. The bridge also uses a fret wire, mounted to hardwood floating under the strings, the spacing on the bridge comes through from the home made tail piece used from a heavy weight picture hangar.
There are cosmetic flaws LBJ wanted improved before this guitar ran on to performance, however a musicians love for the sound it produced and a quick install for electric plugins by Bubba, the EPC LBJ has taken flight to perform.
This six string guitar was a several month ongoing project, the primary reason for such a long project was obtaining the rare clam shell shaped LaFlor Dominica Special Edition Cigar Box (only 300 made). This box contained 50 $30usd cigars with only 300 boxes made available, months passed with trips daily to a local cigar shop in Ithaca, NY to check in and see how many cigars were left before the box could be obtained. After the guitar made its first performance, it was considered one of the finest instruments to leave the shop. After weeks of musical performances using the guitar, some small flaws were found, and the guitar was returned to the shop with descriptions of the symptoms.
The guitar was dis-assembled and went through luthier surgery from Bubba. While doing the corrective surgery, other sound and appearance enhancing changes were performed to have 0002 a common play part of the BSG Workshop still today.
Unfortunately few constructive images exist for this Bubba made model. Some have been found and will be added over time.
Guitar Specifications:
Six string
25.5″ scale
full 24 “Jumbo” frets with copper indicators
Groover Tuners
Red Oak and Purple Heart Laminated neck
Walnut Fret Board
1 Volume and 1 Tone
Pickup Selector Toggle Front, Rear, both
2 Humbucker Pickups
Hammered Copper Pickup Rings
Abalone topped controls
LaFlor Dominica Special Edition Cigar Box (only 300 made)
DR Extra strings
Hand made round body box from spalted maple work shop wood scraps. This guitar is fabricated from a six string neck that was prepared for a cigar box guitar, but once the round box was built on a whim, it was decided to use the curly maple neck with truss-rod in this spalted maple box built here in the BSG Workshop. The guitar went through several revisions and still is in need of re-fret to the fingerboard, but is frequently played in the workshop until, when we have that “free” time, it gains a new fret job.
Prior to this look, the guitar was completed with complications as YinYang with a face stain job that displayed the yin-yang, with the two small sound holes as part of the visual yin-yang appearance. It was then transformed from the image below into the images to the right.
Head stock design came from LBJ with use of a simple item, this head stock design marks BSG LBJ made instruments. Teflon string nut and machined brass bridge with peizo pick-up.
![Thumbnail](http://davidmlane.zenfolio.com/img/s9/v0/p911337566-3.jpg")
