How to Build a Simple Cigar Box Guitar, Start to Finish – by Glenn Watt

Click the photo above to browse over to the article on Glenn’s site.

Glenn has been working hard creating great content and posting it on his blog over at GlennWatt.com, and this latest contribution definitely raises the bar. In this post, Glenn walks you through building a simple 3-string cigar box guitar from start to finish, with clear instructions and photos for every step of the way.

Topics covered in this walk-through include:

  • The tools and parts you’ll need (with suggestions on where to get them)
  • Marking and cutting the cigar box
  • Forming and fitting the neck
  • Installing hardware
  • Stringing and tuning

Glenn has a very low-key, approachable teaching style and way of explaining things that may seem complex at first. So if you have been thinking about building your first cigar box guitar, check these plans out and you’ll be well on your way. While you’re there, be sure to look at some of the other how-to resources Glenn has, including other how-to-build articles and videos, and also a growing library of how-to-play resources as well.

Screening the Sound Holes Gives Your Cigar Box Guitar a Clean Look

screened

There are many different designs and ideas for sound holes in cigar box guitars, but the simple process of adding window screen mesh can greatly clean up the look and give the instrument a Dobro attitude.  Shane Speal shows you the simple process in the video below.

Tools needed:

  • Scroll Saw or coping saw
  • Hot glue gun and glue sticks
  • Optional: Linseed oil and Q-Tips (see extra tip below video)


EXTRA TIP: Using Q-tips, apply linseed oil to the cut edges of the hole. It darkens and seals the wood. It gets rid of the “cut out” look.

 

TAB: Play “Friend of the Devil” by the Grateful Dead on 3-String Cigar Box Guitar

dead

Pulling away from typical blues lessons, Glenn Watt has taken the classic Grateful Dead song, “Friend of the Devil” and transcribed the entire thing for a 3-string cigar box guitar.  The results are a great lesson that helps you open up your fretboard to more than just I  IV  V chord progressions.

The entire TAB has been saved as a downloadable PDF:

Shane Speal Debuts CBG-TV: Cigar Box Guitar Television

cbgtv

In the next step to advance the Cigar Box Guitar Revolution, Shane Speal has teamed up with C. B. Gitty and Facebook to develop CBG-TV: Cigar Box Guitar Television. 

The concept is simple:  Live video broadcasts featuring lessons, concerts, DIY tips and more.  Viewers can ask questions in real time, too!  Speal and C. B. Gitty plan to also include interviews and reports from cigar box guitar festivals.

See the previous broadcasts and subscribe for future ones at Facebook.com/CigarBoxGuitar

Using Four (!) Piezos in a Cigar Box Guitar for Percussion Effect

four piezos

Cigar box guitar builders go to great lengths to reduce tapping noises in their acoustic pickups.  However, an ingenius builder/performer from Australia, known as “Chick Who Tinkers” has taken the opposite approach.  She has wired her cigar box guitar with four individual piezos to enhance tapping, rhythm and thumps as she plays.

Her design uses four small piezo pickups that are connected straight to a guitar jack.  No volume or tone pots are used.  This allows 100% signal to go to the jack.

Here’s how she wires it up: Continue reading “Using Four (!) Piezos in a Cigar Box Guitar for Percussion Effect”

WWI Cigar Box Fiddler Became a Star

Here’s another great cigar box fiddle (violin, mini cello…) story!  Private Jack Tender of Passaic NJ made his own ragtime violin while in Base Hospital 120 before the armistice and as a result, found himself doing big time on the A.E.F. circuit (aka DoughBoys) after the war was over.

Here’s the entire article for you to enjoy!

source:  Middletown Times Press, September 3, 1919

Middletown_Times_Press_Wed__Sep_3__1919_

Double Neck Cigar Box Guitars (Pt. 3)

Darren Dukes’ double neck is a fantastic use of a La Flor Dominicana cigar box which features a huge trapezoid shape.  Dukes worked with the shape to fit one neck with a reso cone and the other neck for straight acoustic.  Both necks are four strings.

This guitar is currently on display at the Cigar Box Guitar Museum at Speal’s Tavern in New Alexandria PA.

L. B. Brown Makes Cigar Box Fiddle in 1914, Gets Story in Louisville KY Newspaper

cigar box fiddle newspaper

This little newspaper clipping proves that even the smallest mention of cigar box instruments can give us a glimpse into the past.  Lige B. Brown (possibly “Elijah” B. Brown?), a musician who created his own cigar box fiddle, was so proud of his creation that he had to visit the local newspaper office to show off his axe.  Now that’s a cool little glimpse.

For even more historical info, check out these archived plans from 1928 on how to build your own cigar box violin.

This piece of history is part of the bigger C. B. Gitty/Cigar Box Nation Historical Research and Preservation Initiative, a movement to explore and document the history of cigar box guitars and related instruments.

Archived by Shane Speal, Feb 24, 2016

 

James Brown Didn’t Invent Soul – 1929 Newspaper Champions Cigar Box Banjo

soul 1929

You never know what you’ll discover when tracing the history of cigar box guitars, banjos and other homemade instruments.  This little clipping comes from a parenting advice column from 1929 and when I found it, my smile was as wide as the Mississippi.

As modern musicians, we tend to ‘poo-poo’ yesteryear’s ways of teaching.  However, this little clip shows that our forefathers knew what real soul and real music was.

So here’s to the music and the passion behind it.  May we never lose sight of the true soul which is speaking.

Archived on February 19, 2016 by Shane Speal