Pick-up Winder Fabrication

Most guitars use magnetic devices known as "Pick-ups" to enhance, or, amplify sound coming from the strings' vibrations. This video shows my father working on a machine with which to fabricate said magnetic devices: a pick-up winder.

Soybean Harvest

This year's soybean crop has been a pill to get out of the field and into the hopper. Rain chances continue on weekly, if not daily, and the crop requires at least a 3 day drying period after a rain to begin harvest. However, here is a bit of video taken last week of one of the few days we've been able to harvest!!!

New Picture Tidbit

These are some color photos that my wife took from our Heifer International jazz auction.

The photograph on the left is of the cigar box that we auctioned, along with the auction sheet, the Cigar Box Amplifier, and a short paragraph telling about guitar.

The photograph on the right is of my father and my self standing behind the guitar/amp.

Soybean Harvest on Luebke Farms!

We finally began cutting soybeans this past Monday, October 19,2009. Here are a few of the picture I took yesterday while servicing the Combine!

2008 CBG Makes Appearance!!!

Hello friends and fans, Ol'Dirty Possum here again showing off a CBG. This video features our 2nd or 3rd CBG ever built. This tasty little bit is tuned like the bottom three strings of a banjo--featuring electric guitar strings, a red oak neck, brass hardware, and cheap wooden bridge and nut--this piezoelectrified jewl screams CBG. This proto-guitar helped us here at LNS Lutherie to get the hang of building, and we wanted to foward this along to you. ENJOY!

Ferocious Four-string Swamp Stick

Hello all loyal viewers! Ol'Dirty Possum is back with a new CBG Video. It's a rainy day on the farm and we just finished our first 4 string CBG. This ferocious piece of sweetness is ready to roar into action, featuring brass hardware, deer antler nut, black walnut bridge and fretboard, and a Punch cigar box. The Ol'Possum plays through a previously mentioned A` Fuente Cigar box amp and lets the tunes make their way. We hope you enjoy and find inspiration in this video of our new Ferocious Four-string Swamp Stick.

Green Beans on Luebke Farms

Green Bean Harvest in Central Arkansas

This is an article published in the Delta Farm Press about last year's Green Bean crop on Luebke Farms! Not exactly Cigar Box Guitar related, but thought you might want to know what the gang has been up to!!!

New LNS Videos at Luebke Farms

Something New at LNS Cigar Box Lutherie!

As most of you know, LNS Lutherie is a subset of Mark D. Luebke Farms. Most of the guitar building and maintanence that goes on happens in our main shop on a modified welding table. Well, now you can all have a chance to see this space and hear more about our guitars, get tips for building your own, and perhaps learn a bit about farm life! New vid blogs and tips/hints vids are being added each week, so keep a look out for LNS Lutherie on Youtube.

It makes us happy to help the Heifer.

This past weekend marked the inaugural "Jazz At Heifer Village" benefit. What a blast! Heavy hors d'oeuvres; live music featuring Rene Koopman, Jane Mages, Jay Payette, Steve Suter, Carl Wolfe, and Joe Vick; and a silent auction benefiting the Heifer International Foundation. The benefit began at 7:00pm, music at 8:00pm and the auction wrapped around 9:30pm.

This was a landmark event for LNS Lutherie, as we were able to donate one of our most decorated guitars and amplifiers to the cause. A three string Arturo Fuente Curly-Head cigar box was the body, the neck construction was Red Oak, feat. a Burled Redwood fretboard--barked ends still intact--with 16 brass frets. The bridge was black walnut, placed immediately at the point where the strings pass through the tailpiece--offering a warm, woody tone. A bubinga nutpiece was used for the three-banjo strings to pass over the neck and down the length of the guitar. Picture will be posted soon of the LNS Staff and their offering to Heifer.

All in all, between the ticketed event and the auction, a large sum of money (non-disclosable amount), was raised for Heifer. We urge all who are able to donate to the Heifer World Fund, as this non-profit org. is able to purchase and send animals to families and communities around the world, increasing the quality of life, and promoting sustainable living. For more information, visit Heifer International.

Stepping up Production Capacity!!!

Yesterday marked a milestone in the production capacity of LNS Cigar Box Lutherie.

We work out of a fairly new farm shop, but, being what it is, it usually contains half-assembled tractors, defunct seed processing equip. and, possibly the most hazardous of all, inconspicuously small oil-slicks from aforementioned tractor re-assembly. Our guitar production work table is nothing more than an old welding table that can be rolled around from location to location. It was small. It was not well lit.

It has undergone metamorphosis.

Our prod. table has been transformed! With prodigious application of 6" angle iron, wire weld, and plywood, this dim, cramped space has been illuminated and expanded. A fluorescent light kit has been installed above the table--suspended between the two ends of an old metal clothes rack that has been braced and welded to the table's edges. Completing the table's real-estate expansion is the addition of one thirty-six-inch-long piece of six-inch-wide angle iron, split down the middle two make two, three-inch-wide pieces that have been welded to either side of the table's west-most end. These two pieces of iron have been bridged by two 16-inch-wide/46-inch-long pieces of 3/4 inch thick plywood--thus making a platform on which to mount our routing table and (soon to be purchased) ban-saw. After two-and-a-half grueling hours of stripping, hauling, plasma-cutting, and welding all modifications were completed. Time to give this new set-up a try, and produce another Cigar Box Guitar!