The How-To Repository for the Cigar Box Guitar Movement!
How to Build and Play Cigar Box Guitars and other Homemade Instruments
Fretting directly onto a guitar neck is a great option to showcase the natural beauty of the wood you have chosen for your neck, rather than using a fretboard.
This new knowledgebase article shows you one method of installing a bone nut blank onto your fretted cigar box guitar neck.
Click here or on the image to the right to read the full article!
We’ve just aHave you ever installed a volume pot on a cigar box guitar only to find that it was almost impossible to turn? Shane Speal (shanespeal.com) shows how to use contact cleaner to “break-in” new post, clearing away internal grease that may inhibit rotation.
Musician, Jim Morris recently posted this video at CigarBoxNation.com featuring a duet of himself and Noah Cline on gourd instruments. The five string banjo was built by Cline and the fiddle was crafted by Morris. They are playing the (very appropriate) traditional song, Sugar in the Gourd.
Related link: How to Build a Gourd Banjo
Cigar box guitar builder/performer, Bill Jagitsch (aka Bluesboy Jag) recently visited the Old Statehouse Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas to witness the “True Faith/True Light: The Devotional Art of Ed Stilley” display. (Read about it in our companion piece over at Cigar Box Nation.)
Here is the entire photo gallery of his visit.
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Shane Speal shows his method of woodburning art onto cigar box guitars. The simple setup uses art that was printed out on paper and transferred to the wood using old fashioned carbon paper and pencil tracing.
He demonstrates the technique using a C. B. Gitty “Gittylele” uke kit. (http://cbgitty.com/gittylele).
Shane Speal examines the art of scarcity… reducing the number of notes played in a song for maximum impact. In this video, he uses his 3-string slide cigar box guitar to show how less notes equals more power.
Cigar Box Nation TV takes a tour through the www.CBGitty.com workshop at the height of Black Friday/Cyber Monday preparation! Cigar box guitars are on the bench and instrument kits are being produced via laser CNC machine. Interviews with Farley, Glenn, Nick and Jason, too.
Ben’s ready to mosey into the sunset with a few cowboy songs performed on his cigar box guitar and the Gittylele Kit. Also, Daniel Hulbert of Circuits & Strings gives a full building demo of the Gittylele.
It was another “Friday in Shane’s Shed” episode of Cigar Box Nation TV, this time with Shane Speal showing off his upcoming instruments and playing a little on his test guitar. He showed off the Psycho Knob distortion unit (linl) and the Snake Oil Mini Humbucker Pickup (link), too.
Shane Speal dials in some otherworldly scales and sounds in this cigar box guitar improv. The guitar is tuned in open A (AEA) and is run through quite a few effects. Enjoy!
German avant-garde composer, Hans Reichel created the Daxophone using hardwoods, contact mics and a violin bow for some otherworldly sounds. Shane Speal recreates the concept using a few simple objects including a yardstick, wood clamps and a clip on pickup.
Shane Speal doesn’t just build one cigar box guitar at a time. He makes entire batches of instruments…usually 6 or 12 at a time! In this video, he talks about how it increases quality and even saves money.
Mentioned in this article: Shane Speal’s Essential List of Bulk Guitar Parts: https://www.cbgitty.com/news/shane-speals-essential-list-of-bulk-parts-maximize-your-cigar-box-guitar-production/