How to Build and Play Cigar Box Guitars and other Homemade Instruments
We love vintage plans, especially ones from the Eisenhower Era. Here’s another one to drool over and explore: a One-Tube cigar box amp! The plans were first published in Science and Mechanics, Feb. 1954. We’ve taken a scan of them, cleaned them up and put it all together in one downloadable .pdf file below.
Continue reading “Build a One-Tube Cigar Box Amplifier (Vintage Plans from 1954)”
The C. B. Gitty Gold Foil acoustic pickup is one of the most versatile and easiest magnetic pickups to mod for cigar box guitars. At only $14 each, they’re deliciously cheap and I always have a half dozen of them in my woodshop at any time. (It should be noted that these suckers have such a gloriously trashy 1960’s vibe to them, just like Hound Dog Taylor’s guitars.)
I recently used a Gold Foil in a cigar box guitar and I radically modded it to look like a rusty old Harmony/Teisco top-mount pickup. Here’s how I did it. Continue reading “How to Transform a Gold Foil Pickup into a Vintage Top Mounted Pickup”
From A Sawdust Heart: My Vaudeville Life in Medicine and Tent Shows – by Henry Wood as told to Michael Fedo:
Near the end of the book, Henry Wood talks about performing in the famous WLS Barn Dance in Wisconsin back in the 1940’s. As master at the musical saw, Wood went on to describe the act he created for the Barn Dance:
“Sometimes Mr. Statz would tell the audience that I’d taken over everything in the barn — cowbells, pitchforks, tin cans, milk pails, saws and chains to make music with, and there were no tools left for work. He said he fixed me. He’d lock them all up.
Well, I’d go into the audience and see if anybody had a cigar box. We’d have a plant there ho did, and I’d borrow the box and cut a hole in the top. I’d get a broom handle and attach it, then string a wire across the whole. I’d snatch a violin bow from one of the fellows int he band, and I’d play that one-string fiddle while Mr. Statz would try to make his announcements.
It always brought down the house, or more accurately, the tent or barn. When he’d grab my fiddle and break it, the band would start in and I’d still have the stage, doing a comic jig or buck-and-wing dance. ”
Check out the review of this amazing album by cigar box guitar virtuoso Captain Nemoff. If features a range of Classical-style instrumental songs arranged for and performed on cigar box guitars and other homemade instruments. Shane Speal has this to say in his review: “ In my honest opinion, this is one of the greatest cigar box guitar albums in the history of the modern movement. Not only is Nemoff an incredible guitarist with one foot in the classical tradition, but he’s also got one foot firmly in the cigar box guitar ethos… mixing lo-fi acoustic and electric tones brilliantly in each piece. My heart is overjoyed as I listen to this album.”
Click here or on the image above to read the full review on CigarBoxNation.com and get the direct CDBaby preview/purchase link. This album needs to be in your cigar box guitar library!
If you have been wanting to try your hand at a four-string, these videos are for you! These two lessons from Shane Speal walk you through getting started playing sweet, sweet music on a 4-string cigar box guitar tuned G D G B (open G).
Click here or on the image to the left to see the full post on CigarBoxNation.com!
Sally Struthers stopped by C. B. Gitty headquarters a while back to check out the operations and pick up a cigar box guitar for a good friend.
The vivacious star of “All in the Family”, “Gibson Girls” and hundreds of on-stage performances was good enough to pose here with one of Gitty’s custom models.
Check out our Celebrity Cigar Box Guitars gallery here on CigarBoxGuitar.com to see more photos of celebrities with our favorite homemade instrument!
These free plans, originally written by Ivan Sucharsky and recently updated, have been the starting point for thousands of new cigar box guitar builders. Based on the original cigar box guitar plans formulated by Shane Speal, they have been edited to bring them up to date and re-published on CigarBoxNation.com.
CigarBoxNation.com is the home of the cigar box guitar and homemade/handmade music movement on the Internet, and if you haven’t checked it out (or haven’t visited for a while), you should click on over and give it a look. Also the Cigar Box Nation Facebook Page is the premier news magazine for all things CBG and homemade instrument related, with multiple news items, articles and features every day!
We have been busy compiling the definitive database of performing musicians from around the world who regularly incorporate Cigar Box Guitars and other homemade/handmade instruments into their stage acts. Check out the first 13 entries here!
This is a work in progress and we have more artists to add, so don’t panic if you don’t see your favorite CBG musician yet! Also please note that this list is limited to musicians who are actively touring or frequently performing public shows in front of live audiences (including busking).
The new album “Self Medication” from One Hand Dan Russell on C. B. Gitty Records is a rich collection of deep, swampy blues steeped in the mud and heat of the Mississippi delta. Dan joined up with a seasoned group of musicians to create this studio album, laying down his unique, energetic vocal style over their solid and smooth bluesy backup. Dan added his own instrumental flare as well, playing a range of handmade and homemade instruments, including cigar box guitars and license plate guitars.
You can listen to sample tracks and buy the album in MP3 form on CDBaby.com via this link. It is also available from iTunes, Spotify and many other digital music providers.
You can learn more about Dan and his unique story from his entry in our Who’s Who of Cigar Box Guitar Performers.
Cigar Box Nation recently broke the story about legendary Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood trying his hand at a cigar box guitar. Turns out it was a Daddy Mojo built by our friend Lenny Robert. Get the full details from the feature article over at CigarBoxNation.com!