Page 66 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2014

The Inspiration for the

Washtar Gitboard

The WashTar Gitboard
Photo by Peggy DeRose/All Rights Reserved

By Nathan James summer and tried it out at my gigs at night. I was so focused that I
One night while packing up after a solo gig, I was talking to actually missed the day I was supposed to leave for my European
a friend about ideas of what to make a guitar out of. Commenting tour! It was worth all the work though because the “Washtar
how audiences listen with their eyes, I blurted out, “Nowadays you Gitboard” was a hit in Europe, helped sell CDs and gave people
need to have a guitar made out of a washboard or something to something to remember.
get folks to pay attention,” and a light bulb went off in my head. On the way home from overseas, I stopped in Clarksdale,
The next day I went to an antique store and purchased a travel-size Mississippi for a few days before playing the King Biscuit Festival in
Dubl Handi washboard. I took the neck off my Telecaster guitar Helena, Arkansas. I met up with good friend Amanda Gresham who
and mounted it on a scrap 2x4 piece of wood. I then screwed the runs the Delta Music Experience and she called legendary bluesman
washboard to the 2x4 and drilled holes through it to feed the guitar and guitar builder Super Chikan, who lives in Clarksdale. He kindly
strings through and house the electronics. That evening I took it to met us for lunch and then took me to his workshop he calls the
my gig, plugged it in and started playing. Right away I knew there “chicken coop.” I showed him my washboard guitar and asked him
were some adjustments I would need to make, but I realized that how I could wire lights into it, which he had in several of his own
the actual washboard was there waiting to be scratched on by my instruments. He told me to go to an auto parts store and get the LED
metal fingerpicks. This was during the summer of 2010, and I really lights people use to trick out their cars. “Just wire ‘em up to a nine
wanted to have a refined, playable version of my new creation volt battery and then add a switch,” he said.
to bring with me for a month-long tour of Europe coming up in It was an honor to meet Super Chikan and see all of his crazy
September. instruments he was in the process of building, including one out of a
Once I realized the potential of the washboard guitar, I started gas can and even a tractor seat.
carving a custom-made neck and fretboard, using some nice scrap As soon as I returned home from my lengthy tour, I was inspired
wood to incase the electronics behind the washboard and make the to build another instrument. I went to a hardware store looking for
instrument look nice. I worked on the prototype every day during the things that resembled a guitar neck and found a beautiful hickory

64 Blues Festival Guide 2014