Chords for Robert Johnson Tribute Diddley Bow - One String Slide Guitar

Hey guys coming to you from my front porch again here, and I've got another one of my instruments to show you
This one is my Robert Johnson tribute diddly bow, and I thought you might like to take a look at it
_ _ a
Diddly bow if you're not familiar
Essentially is just a board with a single string on it, and it's typically used for playing slide guitar and that kind of thing
[N] They came about supposedly
you know
when people were
You know to port afford a you know a true guitar
they started by
even on the front of their porch of their house, you know you'd have a porch post and they put a couple nails and
[F#] Run some wire between it and you can strum it
And you know and get some sound out of it and play music on it
And then of course after that they decided well if it worked on the porch post
They would just put it on a plank of wood so they could carry it around
And that's kind of how it came about
Um
This particular one is a tribute to Robert Johnson, and if you're familiar with Robert Johnson's music you've probably heard the legend
about
Robert Johnson's they always said he sold his soul to the devil to become the greatest blues musician and
that's what this kind of deals with and
Hopefully you can see him.
I got some glossy coating on here
So it makes a little difficult to focus, but I've got Robert Johnson there sitting on the tree stump playing his guitar
And he's at the crossroads there and
_ We've got some demons coming up out of the fire here
And they're clawing at the earth trying to come up and you know reclaim his soul basically
and then
behind him here
you've got this hellhound with blood dripping from his teeth, and he's sneaking up behind him and
it's kind of a moonlit you know spooky eerie kind of night and And
You know just trying to stick with that theme basically and
Along the sides here you can see that in this light.
It says hellhound is on my trail and
Robert Johnson because that's one of his famous songs and then on the other side
_ it says
Went down to the crossroads, and it just kind of painted in a sort of folky style.
You know and on the back
It says the name of my business Delta Blues Classics and
The main part of this diddly bow obviously is this resonator, and it's just made from some stuff.
I had laying around
_ this is just a you know copper pan and
Then that's kind of your resonating chamber basically and then you've got this plate that goes under your
Stove burner, and I've used that there flipped upside down and then on top here for a bridge
You can see I used a hinge
And it's just got a groove cut into it for the [A] string and then that's sitting on this perforated
You know [F#] strainer sort of thing [N] there and then for a tailpiece
I use another one of those kitchen cabinet hinges because they they're plenty style and work out really well
And if you kind of see in there
You can see in there actually
But there's even a whole board through the wood there
I thought maybe that would get a little more sound down into the you know resonating chamber
But most of its gonna resonate from this stove plate here
And then you know come back out be reflected out by the pan and it seems to work really well
You'll notice it does have a quarter inch jack in it so you can amplify it
And that's just wired up to a you know cheap little piezo pickup
but that's enough that you can amplify it and makes it kind of fun and
[G#] That also allows you to do and I'll show you here in a minute
But allows you to do not only play the you know [C#] the play it typically
But also you can do some percussive sort of sounds on this thing as well, and I'll show you that in just a moment
Up top here you can see the you know what I'm using for the what they would call the nut on a guitar
I'm just using this piece that I believe came off of a screen door
[F#] It's just a you know this metal tab that I had to bend up
To the height I wanted and everything and then it's got a you know conventional sealed tuner on it
And that works really well
And then I needed to have a cutout for that tuner so you can get to it
And you know still have it in the center where you where I wanted it
So I cut this out and then while I was doing it
I thought you know what I think I'll cut some jagged teeth in there just to give it some interest
And and I painted those up, and then I kind of made this like an eyeball hole and
But this also comes in handy because you can hang it on the wall using that so you know kind of serves a purpose
_ But anyway, I don't know _ how good the [A] artwork will come in
In this light, but you can kind of see I'll just kind of walk walk us up it here
So you can see how it all fits together, but I mean it's a unique instrument
There's definitely [C#] not another one out there like it
[Em] _ And I'll plug it [N] in just show you some of the noises it makes
_ But as I've said in previous videos
I [E] am NOT a diddly bow player at [G] least not yet
And [C#] I haven't really had time to work on [Dm] it if you want to [D#] see somebody playing the diddly blow
[E] Diddly bow amazingly [F] go look up some [F#] of C6 Steve's [G] music
[N] He's got a song.
I think called save me that he plays on there, and it sounds pretty awesome
I mean, it's amazing what you can do with one string, [A#] but I tell you what I'm gonna do
I'm gonna put this on the [G#m] tripod so bear with me
And I'm just gonna play it a little bit for you and show you some of the sound you can get out of [N] it _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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[D#] _ _ _ _ _ [F#] _ _
But anyway, just do it is you know you can [A] take any [F#] slide _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ [F#] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
You
[E] Know and you can play it like any slide instrument
But then also [F#] I've seen guys taking it.
You know mallets.
This is screwdriver and they can _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ [G#] _ _ _ _ _ [F#] _ _
_ You know [N] and so there's various ways that you can use to play it
And it's just kind of interesting instrument in it.
I think it probably would be fun
And I'm gonna try to spend more time learning
[G#] _ Just kind [G] of cool to see what you can do
[F#] _ [F] _
Also
_ _ _ I'll show you some of the percussion noises
_ [B] _ Depending on where you [F#] tap it _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [F] Depending on where you tap it at
_ _ [D#m] _ [E] It's
All [D#m] different sorts of percussive sounds so it's pretty fun [N] to play around with I had it over at a friend of mine's house
He's got a couple little toddlers
_ _ _ _ _ [G#m] So anyway, it's just a fun thing
_ [F] Yeah, I mean honestly I built it more because I wanted to do the you know the tribute artwork [N] to it
And that was kind of fun, and I just thought it was a really unique
_ _ _ Anyway, thanks for looking at it, [Fm] and I appreciate you guys watching my videos and [G] commenting and
[D#] _