1. Describe your cbg. (construction, box, strings) which one?..

I play one acoustic 1-string made with a limited edition Partagas which is made so that it still opens to stash picks and strings and slides inside. The neck is a hand carved piece of a wood nick-named "brazilian cherry"

1 electric 1-string with a hand wound single pole pick-up made with a limited reserve Cupido box with a pool cue for the neck

1 resonator with a cone from a vintage National Tri-cone and a hand wound single pole pick-up in a Don Teo Floridian box with a pool cue neck

My newest is a 6-string with double lipstick pick-ups made with a Hoyo de Monterrey box and finished out with parts scavenged from a Danelectro guitar.

2. What have you done to make it "concert ready?"

I build with the best methods I know, using neck and tail blocks to stabilize and leaving the tops free to resonate.I choose the instrument to play based on the size of the room and the size of the audience. Close and personal.....acoustic, large concert forum and /or noisy crowd....all electric. Playing with my band?.......electric, you have to be willing to do whatever you need to, to be heard.

3. Have you had any problems with it live? If so, how have you
dealt with it?

My six-string caused a few problems initially, the plug in jack crackled a little, and I had placed the knobs on the front(or bottom) side due to lack of room on the top...causing me to change pick-ups and volume and tone whenever I bumped knobs and switches with my legs(duh!)...I rechecked the plug in, and found a guard (drawer-pull) to protect the switch and knobs....I may have to redo some of the bracing cause it still wants to wander a little as far as tuning goes

4. Have you become so addicted to the cbg that you have shelved your
other guitars temporarily?

The six-string has taken over for one of my electrics( I usually gig with three to five guitars due to the use of different tunings)

5. Do you have a name for your cbg (such as Johnny Lowe's "Lowebow",
Rollie Tussings "Subverso Fiddle" and Kurt Schoen's "TurboDiddley")?

The 6-string is named "Jezebel", the 1-string electric is named Cupido, and the rest usually retain their original cigar box name....cigar box guitar, one-string, diddley bo, or jitterbug, is already a slang or different term used to designate these instruments so I feel that they already have names. I didn't invent the instrument, I'm only interpreting it, so I don't feel justified in giving it a name....only the individual instruments that I may feel an affinity towards, like B.B. King and his Lucille, Albert King and his Lucy, T-Model and his Black Annie......etc etc etc

Jay Kirgis
email: jaykirgis@yahoo.com