Long Haired Country Boy – On CBG

Hey Cigar Pals and fans of Guitars and Cigars: I just have to tell you about the new Cigar Box Guitar I just picked up and a little about the experience I have had learning about and how to play them.

I am also going to include a video of me playing the great Charlie Daniels hit Long Haired Country Boy on CBG.

The journey so far has been wrought with trials and tribulations, but I believe that with this new Cigar Box, many of those problems have been alleviated and I am looking forward to the future performing with this beautiful instrument.

So Chuck, Tell Us About This New CBG

I have been taking lessons on line from a guy who goes by the moniker of Uncle Mark and he has a beautiful CBG and I just couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t get my guitars to sound even close to the way his sounded.

So I reached out to him and asked him who made his Cigar Box and he gave me the name of a Rob Wrobel down in Destin Florida

I did some research online and got to look at some of Robs Cigar Box Guitars and pretty much became sold right away.

I was at Havana Breeze Cigar Lounge in Dothan, talking to Butch and I mentioned Robs CBGs and asked him if he knew where Destin Florida was, and he said yeah, his wife Daphne goes down there frequently and it was only a couple hours away.

On Friday morning I got up and called Rob and found out that he had just finished a AF Fuente King B and would hold it for me if I was coming down that day.

I said I would be down in a few hours and Deb and I hooked up the trailer to the bike and headed off for Destin.

So Deb and I loaded up the bike and hooked up the trailer. I took one of my CBG’s to see if he could do anything with it and also a soft bag for the new one.

We had a beautiful ride down and found Robs place on a back street in a nice neighborhood in Destin.

Rob has a small shop in his back yard and on first look you wouldn’t think he could build such a finely crafted instrument in such a small space, but it’s just him and he does all the dirty work, like cutting and sanding out on the porch and all the delicate detail stuff inside.

We went into the shop and he handed me the guitar and I knew immediately that this was something I had to have. Just the feel of the neck would have been enough to sell me on it.

The neck is beefy like a regular guitar and everything is smooth, there are no rough edges. The frets are perfectly spaced and rounded off.

The guitar is balanced and everything has a professional look and feel to it. The sound is incredible with perfect intonation.

I have had it for two weeks now and literally do not want to put it down. I have never played an instrument that I enjoyed so much!

I am convinced that this is the instrument for me!

Aren’t They Supposed To Be Rustic

I get it, typically a CBG is a rustic instrument and for most people that will work, but the show that I want to put on for y’all needs to be a cut above the rest.

The CBG’s that I have been playing just don’t have a sound that I can live with, to me they always sound like they are out of tune.

I have heard other boxes that sound pretty decent, but mine just didn’t have what I want.

I am OK with rustic and can reproduce that with this one and still be able to get a nice clean sound when I want it or some bad ass hard rock and mellow country or a little John Prine, all with great sound.

My New Show

I will be taking the time to build an awesome show for Y’all, so we probably won’t be doing many live gigs until the spring.

The show will be broken up into 3 sets, Country, Rock and Blues. I am adding new songs daily right now, but will slow down when I get about 20 to be able to master them. Then I will start adding more and repeat the process.

The video I am including in this is one I made the same day I got the new CBG and I have come a long way on that song in the last couple of weeks.

People Get Ready

I hope y’all will follow in the coming months and as I said when Guitars and Cigars first started, I will keep you up to date on what’s happening and post video’s of how I am coming along on the Cigar Box Guitar.

This really is a whole different experience from playing the six string acoustic, but I am finding that I love the journey and the challenge of creating something with 3 strings, that normally takes 6 strings to do.

I hope you have enjoyed this post Long Haired Country – On CBG and will continue to check us out.

Feel free to ask questions, make comments or suggestions in the comments section below.

Until next time:

Ride Smoke and Jam