In my upcoming book, Poor Man's Guitar, I explore the building techniques and history behind many antique homemade guitars in my collection. One very interesting instrument in the book is a syrup can guitar (circa. 1930's, Portland OR) that has copper wire frets.
I never got to explore the frets in the book, so I've re-created them this week for Cigar Box Nation. In this example, I built a one-string cigar box guitar using barn wood for the neck and an antique cigar box for the body.
The first video shows all the materials needed and how to set up the frets. Scroll down for the second video which features a full demo + a lesson on how to play one-string diddley bow like blues legend, Lonnie Pitchford.
Demo video of completed instrument:
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Wire Coat-hangers if you've got them laying around and a set of good sturdy pliers (Dollar store specials aren't going to hold up) and strong wrists will give you this and a nice bronze color.
oh i like this. very nice
tie wire frets , much the same method as yours Shane
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