Moonshine Crooks, 2 for 5 cents

Dudes, what's up?!

Full Screen-Shot
of this month's
Jumping Flea Mail.
Look at all those events!

Good grief, my last post was mid August?! Dang. That's pathetic. Blogs are like diaries, when things get going really good, you just don't have time to write it down. Ashame really. Now i feel the need to catch up but if i do that, this post won't get written either. I do hope to sit down one day and recap the summer. It was an eventful one.

What's up now? Lots. Start of the cultural season which means way too many events in one month. Kind of irritating really. There are months that are really horrible for creatives then suddenly, there's so much work you have to turn down stuff because it's all falling on the same dates. DAMN. Anyway, it's good we're busy now. Let's hope we can sustain this momentum.

Besides the varied engagements out and about we are also very busy with upcoming events in The Flea and we've got some pretty damn cool ones, including a Soul-Food Dinner on the 2nd of October -  which i am to cook in a kitchen which we haven't quite finished building yet. YIKES-O-RAMA. I'm sure we'll pull it off in time but man, why do we do these things?! The adrenaline running through me the last few weeks could light up a small village. Oh wait, i know why we did it, because it would force us to finally get the damn thing done. Yep, i see my reasoning now. It was probably a smart decision.. Yep.

More importantly, the main reason we want the Flea to be extra swell is because we have two legendary musicians coming... Del Rey and Steve James. Masters, both of them. Steve James gave a Master Class (Acoustic Finger-Picking Style Blues Guitar) on the 25th which was exceptional and Del Rey is coming next week to give a Master Class (Memphis Jug Band just for Ukes) on the 1st of October and a day later on the 2nd she's playing a parlour concert in the shop while i whip up a classic Soul Food Dinner.

Along with the events we have two ukulele classes starting up, one for beginners and one for intermediates. So, that's the scoop. Oh, one other cool thing...


The 'Maritza', My 3-string Cigar Box Guitar got the white-glove treatment at an art auction by Galerie de Aanschouw during the Wereld van de Witte de With Festival. SOLD! (Awww, Look how sad the handler is to see it go. : ) Me too.

We're off to Burning Uke II in Ghent!

Marko and i will have The Jumping Flea Market set up there at the DOK in Ghent and will be doing some live Cigar-Box Ukulele building. The finished uke will be raffled off later in the evening. We will also be selling these awesome Kits with which you can build your own ukulele. There will be plenty of awesome performers there at the Fest like Ukulele Uff & Lonesome Dave from Liverpool whom we ADORE! And, there will be workshops, funky stuff, weird shit, great food and cold beer. Oh, and of course, the ritual burning of the ukulele. Looking forward to seeing y'all there. BURN, BABY, BURN!

Pictured Below 6 of the 7 CigarBox Ukulele Kits i designed for Burning Uke II this weekend. Pictured Below That: The dude that saved my ass by building them while i was in bed being a grumpy, fevery, flu-y, snotty mess. Which explains why he is threatening me with the drill. Aaargghhh, he's so damn CUTE when i drive him to madness! 

Cigar Box Ephemera

Turning a new page...

Our new shop, The Jumping Flea Market, has it's own Facebook Page. We hope that you will 'Like' it.

'The Jumping Flea Market' In the Metro!

The Metro is a free newspaper in Holland which is mainly distributed at the Bus, Street Car & Subway stations. Today there was an awesome article in it about our shop, 'The Jumping Flea Market'....
Click on the image to ZOOM!

BIG NEWS!

I've never been busier in my life. That's why i haven't posted anything in such a long time. We've been working on sometheing really special. Something i've dreamt of for a long time and it's nearly a reality...

OUR NEW SHOP,
The Jumping Flea Market
Mostly Musical Wonders & Curiosities We'll be opening up for the first time tomorrow at 1pm and will be open everyday until Christmas Eve. If you are close to Rotterdam Noord, stop by. If you're not, i promise lots of photographs and stories about our new place. Well, got to go. Whole hell of a lot to do before opening time. We may pass out upon completion. We were passed exhausted about two weeks ago. But all is good. It was worth it. Let's say we actually do pass out, we ask you to kindly step over us and continue shopping. : )

Get In That Kitchen & Rattle Those Pots & Pans

Ukulelezaza playing my Baritone Cigar Box Ukulele...

Last Friday at the 15th Ukulele Jamboree during Route du Nord at Rotabs Style Center i raffled off one of my Cigarbox Ukes. Amazingly, Ukulelezaza won it! When he got home he made a video of himself playing it. So wonderful to hear my instrument played by one of the best. WAAAA! This is so FAB...

The Le Hoyo Cigarbox Amp

Marko & i made this tiny amp in a Le Hoyo Cigar Box.
2 1/2 Watts of Awesomeness!

More about the 15th Edition of the Ukulele Jamboree!

I realized that i had posted the flyer for The Ukulele Jamboree without any further information, which isn't handy unless you speak Dutch. So, let me elaborate, because this is going to be One Hell Of A Show!...
24th of June
Friday 7pm
ROTABS StyleCenter
Rotterdam, Nederland
The Uke Box will present it’s 15th Edition of the Ukulele Jamboree. Additionally, we’ll be celebrating the opening night of ‘Route du Nord’, the art route of Rotterdam Noord. In lieu of this special occasion we've got some very super-duper-extra-special things planned...

STARS! Award-winning Uni & Her Ukulele from California will be performing! Yes, Uni is on her way to Rotterdam! (I can't wait to meet Uni. SO Talented and i LOVE her style. And, I so hope that she'll let me play the washtub bass & the singing saw with her.)


PRIZES!
We’ll be raffeling off this beautiful hand-crafted Cigarbox Ukulele. (Made by Me!) Make a donation to The Uke Box and hopefully we'll pull your lucky number from the hat and you can walk away with this one-of-a-kind, folk-art instrument. Click on the image to ZOOM!

Plus Extreme Uke Madness, DJ Hokum, Dancing & Good Food! Also during the night there will be a Ukulele- Workshop, Performances, Open Mic, Expo & Market. Plus, DJ Hokum will be spinning his 78’s, The Oyster Shucker will be there and ROTABS will be serving up Soup, Tortillas and HOTDOGS before and during the show! After the Ukulele Jamboree the party will continue on deep into the night with DJ’s, Dancing & Fun! See you there!

My Cigarbox Ukulele Plans available via BUST magazine!

I wrote a DIY Cigarbox Ukulele article for BUST magazine's June/July Music edition. (Sneak preview here). In the magazine is a short version of the instructions but the complete instructions, with photographs of the building process, are available for download via BUST Magazine website. These instructions will enable you to build the cigarbox ukulele that you see here which i built for less than 20 bucks! Happy Building!

I AM SO BUST-ed!

I wrote a DIY Cigar Box Ukulele article for the Music Edition of BUST Magazine and it's finally out. Woohoo! I haven't actually seen it but i do have these images from the sneak-peek edition on Issuu.

To any BUST readers visiting my website...WELCOME! Oh, and should you actually make the ukulele in the article, I would absolutely love to see it so be sure to tell me about it. Many Thanks to Lisa Butterworth for asking me to write the article. It was truly an ever-lovin', pain-in-the-ass to write, (you ever tried to write instructions?...DANG.) but worth every cussing minute of it!

The 'Castella Matic' Amp, 1 Watt of Awesomeness!

This is Marko and i's first building collaboration. I designed it, he built it. I'm pretty sure this is the cutest damn amplifier in the history of amplifiers. I love it! Which is a problem. I love the Amps and the Slide Guitars which we are building so much that i don't want to sell them, which is what we built them for. CRAP! Video coming soon of the 'Maritza' and the 'Hugin' Lassie' being played through the 'Castella Matic' Amp!

The 'Hugin' Lassie'

This is my latest 3-string Cigarbox Slide Guitar. It actually got off to a real bad start when i was cutting the headstock. Look at that cut (picture to the right). Pathetic. But in the end, the 'bad cut' actually resulted in a great headstock with an unusual but wonderful organic form. The 'mistake' actually gave it a lot of character.

Like my other instruments, i tried to assemble this guitar with found or reclaimed materials. The cigarbox was picked up at the Cigar Store for free & the hardwood for the neck was found on the street. The 'Lassie' figure at the top as well as the 'Hugin' emblem on the neck and the skeleton key at the bridge were bought at the flea market for a few cents a piece. My buddy Tjeert who works at a music store close by gave me a bunch of used tuners. (Thanks Tjeert!)

Lastly, this guitar, like the 'Maritza', can be plugged in thanks to Marko's wiring abilities. Video coming soon!

Cigar Box Fiddle & A Branch Bow

Image courtesy of Red Dog Guitars

The Maritza, 3-string Cigar Box Guitar

I have recently completed this 3-string slide guitar and i am VERY HAPPY with it indeed. Pretty damn elegant for a cigarbox i'd say. Sounds great too. Big smooching thank you to Marko. His slide playing expertise were very helpful in fine tuning the design. Oh, and his soldering technique helped me electrify it. You can plug this sucker in! Video coming soon...

Cigarbox Ukulele Inspiration

You know how you look up something on Google and wind up finding something completely different but amazing. I was looking at different F-Hole forms on Google Images for my next cigarbox ukulele and came across these two nifty items on Etsy.

F-Hole Belt by Contrived to Charm
Cigarband Ring at BrightSmith

Cigarbox Guitars in the LA Times

An excellent article was published in the LA Times today about Cigarbox Guitars written by reporter and music critic Randy Lewis. Also, there is an additional blog post on the LA Times website. On it, i came across this video of 3-string cigarbox player Pinecone Fletcher who became one of the grand finalists in last year's national “King of the Blues” competition sponsored by Guitar Center. Whoa Daddy-O...

Headstock Sketches

for 3-string Cigarbox Guitars