Madurobob's Luthiery
Hillsborough, NC
One Stringers
Single strng instruments are surprisingly versatile. With a range of a few octaves there are very few melodies you cannot play with just one string. Adjust the tension to tune to whatever open note you want, then start playing! If you need a higher or lower range, changing the string to a smaller or larger gauge is a very simple task.
Diddly-Bo
The classic one string guitar. A century ago people would string a piece of screen or fence wire between to nails in a plnk, or sometimes on the side of a barn and play it by tapping with a stick and using a bottle as a slide. Blues legend Bo Diddly took his name from this instrument he first learned to play.
Our Diddly-Bos use a cedar plank, standard guitar tuners and a magnetic pickup to allow you to plug into an amplifier. The sounds you can achieve with this simple set-up are surprising. Jack White constructs one similar to these in his movie "It Might Get Loud" and you can see that video on youtube (here)
The image below shows one complete diddly-bo and several blanks ready for assembly. This is a batch of diddly-bos for a class at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, NC. Customized models are available - click "Contact Us" to the right to start a dialog with us about what you'd like your diddly-bo to look like.
All of our standard diddly-bos are milled from solid Eastern Red Cedar harvested from a huge tree that died standing near an old grist mill site in Orange county, NC. Color and grain vary quite a bit, but all are very handsome.
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- In stock
Madurobob's Luthiery
Hillsborough, NC
