Cause for Applause

Refurbishing old guitars and handcrafting ‘canjos’ for others to enjoy is a fun way to pay it forward

Iam a musician from Chatham, Ont., and I have been playing music at local venues and benefits for a number of years with my bands, The Boxcars and Yesterday’s Child. My song “Ride Ride That Train,” which I wrote and recorded in 1979, has received airplay on CBC radio. I play guitar, banjo, mandolin, strumstick, mountain dulcimer, monochord, and twoand three-string delta blues lap steel slide, so it’s safe to say I have a real passion for string instruments.

My love for playing live music has evolved over the last few years and now includes another passion of mine—spreading the joy I feel about music to others in a tangible way. I am always on the hunt for old campfire guitars that I pick up at yard sales or even at the side of the road on garbage day. I do my best to bring these old guitars back to life. Usually all it takes is a little loving care. I add new strings, tune them up and give them to kids who want to learn to play but whose parents may not be able to a‡ord a new instrument.

My love for tinkering with these old guitars now has me focusing my e‡orts and spare

time on the making of “canjos.” What is a canjo, you ask? Well, it’s a homemade string instrument made from a wide variety of what most people would call junk. My interest in canjo-making was sparked while watching a Youtube video of a delta blues musician playing a homemade two-string canjo. After a bit of research on the history of string instruments, I was soon making canjos of my own. Friends and family started to pass along items they thought I might be able to use: old cigar boxes, beer cans, cookie tins and other oddball items were soon fashioned into playable string instruments. For example, I have turned an old tennis racket, a hospital bed pan and a license plate into fun, easy-to-play canjos. I designed and built the license plate canjo in honour of the Canada 150 celebrations in 2017. It features a 1962 Ontario license plate, and I inscribed the sides with Canadian-themed words like Dieppe, Terry Fox, Hockey, Canadian whiskey and such. It doesn’t get much more Canadian then that!

Use What Ya Got!

Whether I’m resurrecting an old guitar or fashioning a brand new canjo from scratch, my motto is “Use what ya got!” For canjos, new strings usually come in the form of 30-pound-test fishing line, although sometimes I use steel strings for a richer sound. Tuning pegs are hand-whittled from scrap pieces of wood and most are decorated with whatever odds and ends I can find. No power tools are used in the making of these instruments—a jackknife, hand drill, sandpaper and imagination are the only tools required. When playing the instruments, I use bread bag ties or old, cut-up credit cards for picks, and an old shot glass or jackknife for a slide. It is quite amazing the sound that can be achieved from these homemade creations! It’s just fun trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, or in my case, gathering up whatever I can use to make something that’s fun to look at, play and listen to.

I enjoy making canjos, but what brings me even more pleasure is when one of my instruments finds a home. I have sold my canjos at local markets and they have been purchased by folks all across Ontario, as far away as Nova Scotia and even the Philippines. It’s a fun, easy instrument to play that anyone can pick up and within moments be strumming a tune. Case in point: I once made a Paw Patrol canjo, based on the children’s TV program of the same name, for a two-year-old little boy. He took to it right away and strummed it with a smile—that was a priceless moment for me. Another favourite project was making two canjos for a friend of mine, a real car enthusiast. I created his canjos from a couple of old hub caps. He was very excited when I gave the canjos to him, but he turned out to be a left-handed player, and not a righty as I had thought. It was a quick fix though. Thanks to the real beauty of the canjo—its simplicity—i just had to reverse the strings. It’s too bad other things in life are not as easy to remedy, but at least we will always have music to brighten our mood.

If you would like more details, you can reach Noel by email at noelmarentette@hotmail.com

Counter-clockwise from right: Noel strumming his Canada 150 canjo; a few of the inscriptions on the hand-crafted instrument; Noel on stage with his band, The Boxcars.