Chickenbone John's Guitars

09/06/2026

Tonight, 8.00pm at Henry's Blueshouse, Snobs, Broad Street Birmingham - Chickenbone Blues feat. Ricky Cool on harmonica

07/06/2026

I've been somewhat busy over the past month rebuilding the workshop, that's why I haven't been posting much on here...or making guitars to be frank. It's been a heavy job for sure, involving lots of digging, concrete, carpentry and electrical work, but we are nearly finished and will be getting back to proper production next week.

I've been busy over the past few weeks sorting out the workshop, so...

30/04/2026

If I've been a bit quiet on the guitar making side of things recently, that's because I'm busy doing some repair and improvement works on the workshop. A couple of months ago the floor was flooded due to a drainage problem (sorted out very quickly at no cost to us by Severn Trent Water), and this spurred me on to get the workshop sorted out properly, as the floor at the front of the workshop has always been problematical with it being uneven and with water ingress during really heavy downpours. Getting it sorted has involved putting new footings under the front section and replacing part of the floor...with a tonne of concrete all mixed and placed by hand by me. Whilst at it I've made a new part-glazed wall on one side with a Japanese-style external screen, started putting in a new ceiling and also framing-out and boarding one of the walls. Sound insulation and new electrics are going in, and we'll be re-arranging out workspace and putting in new benches. Anne has been taking care of business whilst I've been occupied doing this and I can see some progress at last!

21/04/2026

I was asked by a customer if we could set up a guitar in a lower EBE tuning, so here it is in comparison to a regular GDG tuned guitar. He decided on the strength of this demo that he liked the sound so he bought it! We may put together some sets of strings for this tuning.

12 likes, 1 comment. "Cigar Box Guitar- GDG tuning compared to EBE tuning."

19/04/2026

At Northampton Guitar Show, all set up and ready to go.

18/04/2026

Here's an acoustic guitar that I'm doing a neck re-set on at the moment. I've got my own way of steaming the neck joint, by steaming though the neck block from inside the guitar rather than through the fretboard. I find it hard to believe that nobody else seems to do it this way as it is much easier and neater than the conventional method.

Pulling the neck from an acoustic guitar - why everyone else does it the wrong way!

09/04/2026

Goodness me..this just came up on my feed..I did a spot at the Mojo Bar in Copenhagen several years back. Very cool place to play, open every evening until dawn..and very smokey!

We were on holiday in Copenhagen, and I noticed the local blues bar had a jam night...so we dropped by... here's some of what went down...old school blues ba...

30/03/2026

Yesterday at Noise Maker Market.