How to Build and Play Cigar Box Guitars and other Homemade Instruments
Don’t forget that we have a library of free Christmas and Holiday tablature for cigar box guitars here on CigarBoxGuitar.com!
Here are a few of the highlights:
And quite a few more!
Spasm bands were a big part of New Orleans’ turn-of-the-century music scene. Cigar box guitars, fiddles and washtub basses all made regular appearances in the pool halls and on the street corners of the city, and played a role in the development of Jazz music! In fact, the first known use of the term “jazzy” to describe a musical performance was printed in reference to one of these spasm bands!
Homemade drum kits, like the one shown in this video, laid down the rhythmic backbones of these rag-tag groups. This video shows a young man, thought to be Kokomo Joe (a long-time street performer in the French Quarter), giving his homemade kit quite a workout.
Music always finds a way to come out!
Cigar box amp kits, inspiring books and a basic electric guitar kit are included in this unusual list.
Shane Speal has just posted his 2015 Gift Guide for Guitar World Magazine. Instead of just cigar box guitars and cigar box guitar kits, he’s suggested an amp kit and a few other unexpected items. Check it out.
by Cigar Box Nation member, “AL”
A quick making of: The Neck Pickup,
After building a new neck and glueing the fretboard I had to cut of some inches and thought about using the scrap piece as a neck pickup housing for my current three string project. Continue reading “How to Build a Relay Coil Pickup”
Give your kazoo more power! Shane Speal shows you how in this quick video.
Parts needed: Continue reading “How to Build an Electric Kazoo [EASY project]”
In the pantheon of great guitar makers, Ed Stilley’s work stands alone like a castaway on its own musical island. Imperfect, bizarre and some even un-tunable to the modern equal temperament scale, his crudely made stringed instruments would make the most adventurous guitar collector shudder. Continue reading “The Fascinating World of Ed Stilley’s Guitars”
This is one of the easiest homemade guitars I’ve ever built, and it took me only an hour to make.
This lap steel was made from an extra 2×4 I had in my shed, with just a few saw cuts to the wood. I even used a pre-wired acoustic sound hole pickup, so there was no wiring needed. Anybody can build this lap steel guitar! Continue reading “Make a 2×4 Lap Steel Guitar [EASY project]”
We just added a few more entries to our growing “Who’s Who” list of actively touring musicians who regularly feature cigar box guitars and other homemade/handmade instruments in their shows. Here are the most recent entries:
We’re now up to 21 entries in our roster, with more to come!
Did you know that you can convert conventional 6-string guitar tab into 3-string tab, for playing on a cigar box guitar? It’s true! Check out this post on CigarBoxNation.com from Cigar Box Guitar teacher Pat Curley, which explains how.