After waking up unable to walk, one man found new purpose in building box guitars

JASON London was in his late 40s when he began thinking about what he could do to help reduce cognitive decline.

He had always loved the sound of the banjo, so he bought a second-hand one and started teaching himself to play.

“I was getting older and they say when you reach 50 to start using the other side of your brain, so I thought I may as well learn a musical instrument,” he said.

One night, while watching a YouTube tutorial, London fell asleep. When he woke up, the video had switched to a tutorial on how to build a box guitar.

“I thought I’d have a crack at one,” he said. “In America most of them are made of cigar boxes but because we don’t have them in Australia, we make them out of things like Anzac biscuit tins.”

Knowing little about music, London contacted local musician and instrument maker “Hubcap Stan” Ceglinkski to test the instrument out. Once it received the tick of approval, London was hooked by both the joy the instruments brought and their raw, rustic sound.

But a few months after he started making them, London woke one morning unable to walk.

He was diagnosed with cauda equina syndrome – a rare and life-altering surgical emergency caused by severe compression of nerve roots at the base of the spinal cord that required surgery.

“When I was in hospital all I wanted to do was get out and build another one,” London said. “That’s what got me out. I have been building them ever since. Now I’m on a mobility scooter and a walking stick I can’t go back to driving trucks.”

While he sells the instruments once a month at the Pottsville Beach Markets, London said it is a niche market. So he decided to found a festival to bring together makers, performers and fans from around the country to showcase the instruments and the people behind them.

The inaugural BilliBoxFest, to be held at the Billinudgel Hotel on 13 and 14 June, will feature fellow builders, local musicians such as Ceglinkski and slide guitar player Lachlan Jacques, as well as artists travelling from other parts of Australia.

“Stan’s doing a workshop with the kids and a couple of other artists are doing workshops with slide guitars,” London said.

After losing his mother to Motor Neuron Disease, London decided profits from the festival would go to MND Australia, which is dedicated to advocacy, education and funding research to find a cure.

Tickets to BilliBoxFest cost $15 per day or $25 for a weekend pass.

For more information and tickets, visit billiboxfest.com