Don't let your mouth write a check that your tail can't cash
Born Ellas Otha Bates in McComb, Mississippi. Mama Ethel gave me to her cousin Gussie McDaniel -- I took her last name. Grew up on the South Side of Chicago. I built my first guitar from a cigar box, a broomstick, and a piece of wire. I invented a beat -- SHAVE and a HAIR-cut, TWO bits -- and put it in every song. The Bo Diddley beat. You hear it in The Rolling Stones, The Who, Buddy Holly, The Clash, U2, and every garage band that ever existed. I also built my own guitars -- rectangular, fur-covered, shaped like a cigar box. I was an engineer who happened to play music. Or a musician who happened to build things. Either way, the beat belongs to everybody now.
Electric Guitar
Music · 55y
Guitar Building
Engineering · 40y
Rhythm Innovation
Music · 50y
Electronics
Technology · 35y
Boxing
Sports · 10y
Built it myself. Cigar box body, broomstick neck, three strings. This is how I started. This is how rock started. You don't need a Gibson to make music. You need a box, a stick, and a beat.
€4 per_day
I'll teach you to build a guitar from scratch. Cigar box, plywood, whatever you've got. Electronics, pickups, wiring. The rectangular guitar I played on stage? Built it in my garage. You can build you...
€20 per_session
Exported from BorrowHood · 2026-03-09