Blues Legend, Scrapper Blackwell Recalls His Cigar Box Guitar

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So many great musicians started out on cigar box guitar when they couldn’t afford a real guitar. Sometimes all they needed was a stick, a box and a few strings to get those magical sounds.

In the hierarchy of blues, Francis Hillman “Scrapper” Blackwell is one of the true originators.  Among his many hits in the 1920’s and 1930’s, he wrote and recorded Kokomo Blues, the song that was transformed into “Old Kokomo Blues” by Kokomo Arnold before being redone as “Sweet Home Chicago” by Robert Johnson.

Scrapper Blackwell also started out on a homemade cigar box guitar.  In a 1960 interview with Jazz Monthly magazine, Blackwell retraces his origins and describes his first guitar: Continue reading “Blues Legend, Scrapper Blackwell Recalls His Cigar Box Guitar”

Pistol-Shaped Headstock On Lone Ranger Cigar Box Guitar

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Cigar Box Nation member, “Keith” recently created a cigar box guitar using a Lone Ranger lunchbox as the body.  One of the most striking details was the pistol-shaped headstock (pictured above).  Not only was he able to give a realistic silhouette of the gun, but he also maintained a mostly-straight string pull from the nut.

To see the entire guitar, check out “Lone Ranger Guitar on Cigar Box Nation.”

The Art of the Double Neck Cigar Box Guitar (Pt. 2)

If one neck is awesome, two necks are even better!  We continue our weekly double-neck cigar box guitar feature with this great build from 2010 by Cigar Box Nation member, Phil Delpierre.  It features a diddley bow neck that was made with two dowel rods (similar to John Lowe’s Lowebow cigar box guitars) and a three string neck on the other.  Note the curled forks which serve as trapese tailpieces.  Continue reading “The Art of the Double Neck Cigar Box Guitar (Pt. 2)”

How to Install a Pre-wired Single-coil Pickup Harness in Cigar Box Guitars

54-020-01 How-to Guide Pages
Click the image above to view the PDF how-to document.

This new how-to guide, written by Glenn Watt, walks you through installing one of C. B. Gitty’s Pre-wired 4-pole and 6-pole Magnetic Pickup Harnesses.

This guide has a lot of photos, and shows you what size holes to cut and drill, how to deal with neck-through builds, considerations for where to put volume and tone knobs, and more. Glenn’s