Strumophile: Darren Brown Custom Cigar Box Guitars

Believed to have had their hayday in depression era America the cigar box guitar's (CBGs) origins can be traced back as far as slave culture of the 1700's. Developed out of lack of resources cigar box guitars have a prominent place in blues and folk music. With the recent resurgence of hand made instruments CBGs have made a comeback.
Darren Brown, the owner and creator of D.B. Custom Cigar Box Guitars has taken these basic instruments and turned them into pieces of art. Making sure that each instrument he builds has amazing handcrafted details; from hand wound pickups that provide the perfect tone, to beautifully built hard wood necks that he fashions from driftwood collected from the Bay of Fundy near his home in Canning, Nova Scotia Canada. Truly unique these guitars are amazing tools to make wonderful music. Darren Brown was kind enough to talk to us about his company and instruments. 

BLS: In your spare time, you have been fixing guitars over 30 years and have been building cigar box guitars (CBGs) since 2009. How did you get into building CBGs?

DB: I think I was 12 or 13 working on a farm in the summers. I saved up $ 74.00 for an electric Silvertone. I learned to tune by ear and had to fix that old guitar all the time. Then kids from school would bring me their beat up ones to get fixed. I’d seen Cigar Box Guitars(CBGs) years ago but never thought more about them until 2008, when I saw a rough one go by on the net. I thought I could build a little nicer one. It was rough too, but now 300 CBGs laterI’m still learning and hope I always will.

BLS: You make your career as a finishing carpenter. What advantages do you feel your experience provides when building your instruments?

DB: I do framing as well, but as I got older I found that the younger guys on the construction jobs liked to frame and do all the rough construction. So I got into doing any of the exterior and interior finish work. So over the years I learned how to slow down and think way ahead on what can happen and figure out the best way of getting to that point and of course checking twice and cutting once.

BLS: On your website you have emphasize three different styles of CBGs that you build: The Main Line, Resonators, and the Vintage Series. Can you briefly explain the differences between these styles of instruments?

DB: The web site is run by a friend and I don’t go there as much as I should.

The Main Line series CBGs are built from cigar boxes that I can get a good supply of: Cohiba, Arturo Fuente, and La Gloria Cubana boxes.

For the Resonators I make the boxes myself because cigar boxes are too narrow for the 6 inch resonator cones that go into the wood well.

As for my Vintage series, they’re mostly built with a Cohiba wood box. I have a process where I age and crack the finish and add ware makes on the body and the fret board.

BLS: From hand wound pickups to hardwood that you collected as driftwood and kiln dried; you take a very personal and hands on approach to your instruments? What inspired you to take each of these unique steps as a craftsman?

DB: There’s not a lot around where I live (Canning, Nova Scotia Canada), so I find things that I can use. The driftwood is off the Bay of Fundy and is from all over. I find cherry, ash, oak, walnut, black locust and maples of all kinds. Some of which I’ve never seen before.

As for the pickups, that I got into because of tone; for three strings I build 3 poles and and 4 strings 4 poles wound to certain ohms. They also look nicer than a big, over wound 6 string pickup slapped into one.

BLS: In building your instruments, have you found a favorite brand of cigar box you like to use when building your guitars?

DB: Yes, the boxes I like most are: Cohiba; after I thickness-plane the top thinner. Padron,Las Cobbelas, Dark Sumatras, Arturo Fuente, and the boxes I make myself.


(Manatoba Hal playing one of Darren Brown's License Plate Guitars)

BLS: Besides cigar boxes, you have built instruments out of license plates, Cheese boxes and oil cans. What is the most interesting thing you’ve built an instrument from? Is there anything you would like to build an instrument out of but haven’t yet?

DB: The oil can was tough going. I’ve been eyeing old apple crates that show up here now and then. I’d like to take the label side and build some tele of strat tops out of them. I’d also like to try old wood beer crates.

BLS: In some of your instruments you incorporate both piezo transducers and your db coil pickups that have separate outputs. How does this diversify the playability of the instrument? How does this affect the voice of the instrument?

DB: It allows you a way to run it through one or two amps or I can build blend pots into them and mix the sound that way. It’s endless what you can do with electronics in CBG’s.

BLS: If someone is interested in obtaining one of your instruments how would they go about doing so? What is your typical price point?

DB: They can reach me by e-mail:(darwood at live.com) or phone.

Prices start at $240.00 cap for basic 3 string CBG with piezo pickups.

$350.00 with coil pickups, volume and tone controls.

$525.00 for resonators.

All guitars are tax free, but shipping is extra.

BLS: What artists are currently playing your instruments?

DB:

Olds Sleeper

Manitoba Hal

Myles Goodwin of April Wine

Colin Linden of Blakie and the Radio Kings

Morgan Davies

Doc McLean

Terry Whalen

Jim Roberts

Shane Speal

BLS: It might sound like a weird question, but do you play guitar yourself? Of your instruments do you have a favorite?

DB: Yes I do play a bit. I have a 3 string and a 4 string resonator that I play with more though, through an bunch of tube amps that include a ’64 Fender Bandmaster, 38 Gibson 5 watt and ‘69 Traynor YGM 3 to name a few.

Strumophile: ODD Guitars

Based out of Auckland, New Zealand, Odd Guitars is the brainchild of Olaf Diegel, a long-standing Design Engineer with a passion for 3D printing and other state of the art manufacturing technologies.
His line of highly personalize and customizable guitars uses the 3D printing technology of Selective Laser Sintering (SLS). SLS is a process that can be used to create highly detailed 3D objects by layering nylon powder that is fused to create the desired shape. Due to it;s creation as a single piece, these guitars have extremely intricate details incorporated into them without the hassle of assembly. Featuring an inner wooden core that links the neck to the bridge. With the choice of Maple and Mahogany  and several hardware options that allows the musician the ability to customize the tone and sustain to suit their desired sound.
With a price tag ranging between $3000 to $4000 (US) these guitars are certainly at the higher end and most likely out of the price range of your typical musician. But their mix of unique art and comparable sound makes this modern masterpieces the dream of any guitar lover.       

Olaf Diegel was kind enough to take the time and talk to BLS about his amazing guitars.

BLS: So why did you choose guitars to use the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) technology?

OD: I suppose it came about through my life-long interest in music, and the interest I have developed in additive manufacturing over the past 15 years. I was looking for a fun project, just to see if laser sintering had evolved to the level where it could make a real product that needed to withstand quite a bit of force, form the string tension, and would probably lead a relatively rough life on the road. It just seemed a natural link to use a guitar to test the technology, and that worked so well that it spun out into a little side-business.

BLS: Odd Guitars are known for their customization of both design and hardware. Do you personally, have a favorite configuration?

OD: My personal favorite configuration is a pair of TV Jones Classic pickups, probably because of my liking for rockabilly music, and the slightly more aggressive sound they give. For the neck, I have always liked the feel of maple and, because I find you get the best sustain by keeping the neck wood and the body wood the same, I like a maple inner core to the guitar to join the bridge to the neck. There is such a huge range of excellent hardware out there that it’s hard to have a favorite, but I do like the consistent quality I get form Schaller bridges and tuners.
But, for a customer guitar, it’s pretty much whatever they want, as guitars are so individual. And that’s one of the advantages of 3D printing the bodies in that any changes we need to make are done in the digital world, so cost nothing extra,

BLS: What are some of the benefits form a manufacturers and player standpoint both aesthetically and functionally of the guitars built by the SLS process?

OD: The first, and probably biggest, advantage is definitely aesthetic. The more complex a shape, the more 3D printing loves it. Typically, if I was going to make a conventional looking guitar, then there are more cost-effective ways of making them than through 3D printing.
Another big advantage is the ease with which each instrument can be completely customized to the musician. Form the aesthetics, with their name printed into the back of the guitar, or extra scallops for comfort to being able to easily shift the centre of gravity of the guitar to give it the balance they like. So if they like a neck-heavy guitar like an SG, we can shift more weight to the front to give them that weight distribution.



BLS: With the unique design of your instruments how do they hold up to the abuses of playing and the typical physical stresses face by most guitars?

OD: The bodies are made out of nylon, which is about as tough a plastic as you can get. If the body was made out of solid nylon, it would be virtually unbreakable. Of course, in my designs, I include a lot if incredibly fine features and details in the guitar that would be somewhat more fragile but, as I make sure they are always well inside the guitar they are pretty well protected. I have travelled around the world several times with the guitars, just throwing them in a hard-case into the airplane hold and have not had a problem yet.

BLS: You launched Odd Guitar in 2011, what has been some of the highlights your company has experienced since it’s formation?

OD: Though I started the Odd Guitar project in around October 2011, my first big highlight was the first sales in July 2012. It took me over 8 months to get the designs right and I have nice little cemetery of early prototypes at home. But then sales took off and I was selling around 2 guitars a month, which was about as much as I could handle by myself,
So the next big breakthrough came when I partnered with 3D Systems, the world’s leading manufacturer of 3D printers, in around November of 2012 for them to take over the manufacture and sales of the guitars through their Cubify network (www.cubify.com ). This will free me up to concentrate on the design of new models and some innovative new features. At this stage, I am still doing assembly of the guitars, but 3D Systems are training up to take over that side of things, which will give me more time to do the fun stuff.
Another highlight would have been winning a Best in Show award at the NAMM show in Anaheim in February 2013. This was a great recognition of the amazing stuff that 3D printing can achieve.

BLS: Where do you see Odd Guitars in the next 5 years?

OD: I’ll probably keep bringing out around 2 new designs a year. This year we’ve already had the Americana and, in a few weeks, I should have the first prototype of my new Steampunk guitar, a Telecaster inspired guitar full of moving gears and pistons.
But the big thing will be trying to develop Odd Guitars into a recognized brand for high-quality custom instruments


 BLS: Are there any artists currently playing Odd Guitars?

OD: The guitars have been played by a few well-known artists including several who used them in live shows at NAMM. These included the guys from great White, and the guys from Boston. They have also been played by Steve Stevens, the guitarist for Billy Idol, and I recently did a 5 string bass for Kenny Lee Lewis form the Steve Miller Band.

BLS: You also create bass guitars, are there additional design elements you have to take in account when dealing with the bass tones?

OD: The biggest challenge with a bass is the added tension of the bass strings and keeping everything rigid enough to not affect the basses sustain. But a nice maple or mahogany inner core takes care of that nicely.















BLS: Currently, the price tag of for one of your instruments runs around $3,000. This puts it out of the price range of the average player. As technology becomes more affordable do you foresee making a more economical model?

OD: It’s a bit of a catch 22… The price is largely driven by the high quality components that make it up. Typically, just a good quality neck and good hardware/pickups/etc. can cost anywhere between $1000 to $1500. Add to that the cost of the body, paint, assembly, etc. and it can add up to an instrument that is expensive to make. So, if we want the instruments to remain ‘high-quality’ then they are unlikely to ever be cheap. When thinking of fully custom instruments, tailor made to the musicians exact specifications, it’s actually not an unreasonable price.
But, technically, as prices of 3D printing technologies come down, there is no reason why we couldn’t make much more economical instruments by using lower cost hardware. But that will be a decision we need to make in terms of whether we are better of remaining a high-quality boutique brand, or a more mass-market brand (or both).

BLS: As a design engineer and professor of mechatronics, you are privy to innovative technologies like SLS. What developing technologies do you feel will be the next to directly affect the musical world?

OD: I think the metal 3D printing technologies have got the potential to make some incredible metal hardware for musical instruments. I also think some of the work going on with 3D printed electronics will also have some interesting musical applications.
But, to me, it’s less about the technologies than about new applications for the technologies. One idea I want to play with this year is for some innovative wind instruments. Because, with 3D printing, you can make shapes that wouldn’t have previously been possible, I want to try making a wind instrument in which I send the air over cavities of different shapes to create unique sounds, and even chords. My first iteration will probably be a flute that can play chords at the same time as the melody.

Letter From the Editor

Kate Nash - Photo By Mark Lawrence IV

Dear Faithful follower and one time visitors,

Photo By Mark Lawrence IV

I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your support of By the Light of the Stereo. I might have the passion but if no ones reading the site, then it would be pointless. I want to thanks those who have provided posts for the site including my daughter, and long time friend Bob Bemrose. Even the occasional post that I don't have to worry about makes the difference in having the energy to keep this thing going. Finally,  I want to thank all the bands, artists and industry people that have been kind enough to respond to my inquires, provided me with review materials, put me on the list for their shows and have taken their precious time to answered my interview questions. I acknowledge the sacrifices and work that it can entail and I want you to know that I appreciate it.

Photo By Mark Lawrence IV

2013 has gotten off to an awesome start with an overall increase of both posted articles and traffic to the site. We have already surpassed the total number of post for 2011 and have Except for a few hicups we have been able to consistently bring you weekly installments of our Cure for the Mondays and the Tuesday Double Features. We have also had the opportunity to cover some great shows through our About Last Night feature. As the year continues I'm excited about the chances to build  on the great work we have already started.      
In addition to the features we are already running I'm proud to present the first installment of BLS's Strumophile column, a new feature that will profile some unique tools of the musical world. Starting with the amazing guitars created by Odd Guitars the winner of one of this years NAMM Best In Show Awards. Enjoy and I hope that it gets you excited for future installments of Sturmophile.
Thanks again and please continue to visit us at BLS and see all the great things ahead for us.

Sincerely,

Mark Lawrence IV
BLS Creator and  Editor.