New Archtop Player in Tahoe

[TAHOEAGLE]

Hi everyone. I'm an old fart living in Tahoe who enjoys bringing old archtops won on eBay back to life, and building electric Cigar Box guitars.
My goal here is to help guitar players with setup, restoration, building questions if I can.
I want to learn to play jazz guitar. After growing up on jazz guitarists like Montgomery,Szabo, Benson, etc., I'm ready to see if I can learn to play jazz. I've been playing Blues/Rock for a long time. I can bar chord, but need to learn jazz chords, scales, progressions,the fun stuff.
This website looks like I've found a great place to grow from. Now it's up to me and my old archtops.
Here's a picture of my latest restoration. This old Carlo Robelli setneck plays as well as my Gibson ES-135, but sounds better unplugged than the Gibson because there's no sustain block under the top. It has coil tapped humbuckers, gold Grover Sta-tite tuners, fancy headstock and bindings. I made the wood veneer pickguard for it. It's my favorite guitar. Total investment was under $300.00.
Now to see if she has any Jazz in her soul.

[Little Jay]

Welcome to the forum!

Very cool that you formulated your goal for joining the forum! I never did that, formulating my goal..... story of my life by the way.

And I am completely with you in finding those cheap guitars that - after some tweaking - sound and play like much more expensive guitars! But I am Dutch, and as you might know, us Dutch are always on the look for a bargain!

[derek]

Welcome to the group.

[TAHOEAGLE]

Thanks guys. I've often wondered how much better I'd be if I hadn't quit playing for 20 years.
Once you get over the "Headstock Envy" and learn how to setup a guitar, an old beater with good bones brought back to life can be as good or better than a new one costing alot more. And the old guitars really appreciate being played again.
Even my electric Cigar Box guitar's setup's are dialed in so they play as fast and sweet as my Gibson or a Fender, depending on the neck.
Now to teach them jazz.

[JimBobWay]

This is the most eclectic, and least snobbish jazz guitar site I've ever seen. Everyone is eager to help, and there are many here with years of professional playing experience, yet remarkably modest egos and an obvious desire to assist any & all in the art.

And keep up the great work! So many great 'instruments of a certain age' out there in pawn shops, under beds, and literally in the barn or shed...so few willing to restore them to playable condition!

[DonEsteban]

@Tahoeagle: How do you reinforce the cigarboxes, so that they don't crash when you put the strings on them?

[pierre richard]

hey tahoe..

this is the best site on the net for learning jazz..

so many great players that share information and expertise..

you will learn much here..

time on the instrument..pierre

[TAHOEAGLE]

Thanks for the interest. Cigar box guitars of mine have an internal hardwood spine that the neck, box, and hardtail bridge or tailpiece screw to.
You also have to have a box long enough for the string math to work and be able to bolt the neck on. A hard part of the build is getting the neck at the right height above the box top. If you're going to build one, get a new, good neck. Some of my friends love the one of my CBG's that has a $10.00 pickup in it. Thats the one pictured with the Les Paul shaped pickguard, wrap-around tailpiece, one tone/vol pot down low.
Some of my CBG projects can be found at www.keepmusicalive.com search for project cigar box guitars by TAHOEAGLE.
This one's my favorite CBG. It has a Gibson Maestro neck, Seymour Duncan hot humbucker, gold tuners. The toploading hardtail tailpiece allows complete setup control. Partagas cigar box has a gold and blue paper binding, and is weighted to balance the guitar. Tone and volume pots are on top topside of the box, above the pickup. It screams but th picture doesn't seem to be loading.