Brag Site!

Warning - the following is a self indulgent brag site. I've had a win and I'm putting it on the web.

Bob Brozman likes my guitar!

Friday 8th September 2006...

I've been listening to Bob Brozman for a long time. I attended a workshop with him in Brisbane two and a half years ago and he taught us how to count in 2 and 3 at the same time and he told us that it was a pity that there are not enough guitars to go around.

Bob inspired me and as I sat in the dark listening to his music, a design for a guitar formed in my mind, a guitar that I would be able to make for myself with cheap or free materials with normal handtools and normal manual skills and not take too long about it. I told Bob that night that I would email him the design when I got it working. He said "Great!" and promptly forgot about it. Just another keen fan, spaced out by the music, spouting well meaning fancy.

It was a tough two and a half years but last night at a gig in Brisbane, I showed him the guitar and he said it was good.

This is me with the guitar, getting ready to go to the gig.

This is Bob with the guitar at the gig.

This is me after the gig. I'm pretty happy at this point.

Now, a little about the guitar itself. It's called the Uncle Bob which is a tribute to Maestro Brozman and also a reference to the Australian vernacular for something easy to do. With this guitar, Bob's your Uncle.

The guitar is designed to be manufacturable by anyone anywhere. It requires;

Total cost to set up a guitar factory and make 100 guitars - $1000 and 10 weeks (two people working). I reserve the right to update this estimate when I've acutally made 100 of them, but I'm pretty confident.

I would like to get this design out to as many people as possible so that anyone who wants a guitar can have one. I've got a few ideas for doing that which I'll post soon and I'm keen to talk to anyone who wants to help.

Here are some close ups of the prototype...

The tuning tailpiece, this is the steel string version. I'll post the nylon version once I've got it working.

Detail of the frets and the zero fret.

The back of the neck. The texture of the nylon does not impede the playability of the instrument, it sort of gives you a feel for where you are on the neck.

The body join.

The whole guitar just by itself.

And finally, that message from Bob once again.

Saturday 9th September 2006....

Okay I know what you're thinking. "So what does it actually sound like?" Fair enough, this is what it sounds like when I play it but we'll have to wait to hear what it really sounds like.

My Morning Finger Picking exercise

The neck is too narrow and the strings are too close to the edge but the next one should work better.

Some gentle strumming

The tone needs to be stronger especially in the bass we'll see what we can do.

Barr Chords

Quite a satisfying rattle.

Well there you go. I'd like to conclude by acknowledging the loving support of;

my Muse Ralph;

and my shed mate Tim.

Thanks Guys.

Charles Neville.