Category: Site News

3 New Cigar Box Ukulele Lessons: In the Pines, Midnight Special and Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die

One-hand Dan RussellWe’ve just added three new video how-to lessons for Cigar Box Ukulele to the knowledgebase. Dan walks you through playing these three songs with his usual wit and gusto. Two of them are old traditional songs that have been recorded many times over the years, and the third one is a much more recent composition by none other than Willie Nelson.

Click the links below to see the knowledgebase entries for each of these three lessons:

Photo of Ballet Dancers from 1924 with a Cigar Box Guitar

Here’s a neat old photograph from our Vintage Photos archive. It was originally a black and white and was colorized at some point. The caption on the original read “These are dancers of the National American Ballet in 1924, relaxing with some music in a meadow in their down time.” Notice the girl in the center with the cigar box guitar!

1924 Ballet Troup with Cigar Box Guitar - Colorized

You can see more cool pictures of cigar box guitars and other homemade instruments in the Vintage Photos section of our knowledgebase

Four New Cigar Box Ukulele Lessons Added!

One-hand Dan RussellWe just got done adding four new cigar box ukulele how-to video lessons to the knowledgebase. All four were created by One-hand Dan Russell, our resident ukulele expert.

Here are the links:

Stack-o-Lee – a classic old bluesy song, also known as “Stagger Lee”, which has been sung by a wide range of musicians from Mississippi John Hurt, to Dr. John and many more.

If I Needed You – a beautiful folk/country song written by Townes Van Zandt, that Emmy Lou Harris did an amazing version of.

I Still Miss Someone – One of Johnny Cash’s better-known compositions, this great old song tells a tale of longing… “Oh I never got over those blue eyes…” Emmy Lou Harris, Stevie Nicks and many other musicians have also done versions of this song.

Take a Whiff On Me (Cocaine Habit Blues) – though its subject matter may now be considered taboo in polite company, this is a classic American blues/folk song first documented and published by Alan Lomax in the 1930’s. It has been covered by a wide range of performers from Woodie Guthrie to Jerry Garcia to the Old Crow Medicine Show.

That’s it, so grab your ukes and get to pickin’! 

 

New Free Fret Calculator Just Added

Untitled-1A new free fretting calculator has just been added to the knowledgebase here at CigarBoxGuitar.com. Simply enter in the scale length you want (in either inches or millimeters) and it will show you the distance from the nut to place each fret from the first fret to #36 (you don’t have to use all of them).

The calculator even shows you which frets to skip to end up with a diatonic (dulcimer-style) fretboard!

Click the image to the left or click here to check out the calculator tool.

Learn to play “Cocaine Blues” on the Cigar Box Ukulele

Click the image above to view the ukulele lesson entry in the knowledgebase!
Click the image above to view the ukulele lesson!

The latest video how-to lesson from One-hand Dan walks you through playing the classic blues song “Cocaine Blues”, in the style of Townes Van Zandt. This is the fourth in the series of ukulele how-to play vids Dan has done, and we’re glad to be able to host them here on CigarBoxGuitar.com!

In other cigar box ukulele news, we have been busy adding some new cigar box (and other custom) ukulele models to the lineup of finished instruments over at the C. B. Gitty store. Click here to check them out!

Historical Musical Instruments Patents Series – From game-changing inventions to just-plain-cool oddities

Patent - 1923 - US1446758 - Gibson Truss Rod Screen ShotWe have just posted the first in what will be a lengthy series of historical U. S. musical instrument patents. In this series we will feature historically significant inventions (the innaugral post is what we believe to be the first adjustable guitar truss rod, awarded to Gibson in 1923), as well as other interesting, inspirational or oddball musical inventions from the last 150 or so years.

Our hope is that cigar box guitar builders and other homemade & handmade instrument crafters will find these patents useful and even inspirational. We often find that looking at what has been done in the past can be a great starting point for coming up with new innovations.

We hope you enjoy this new feature of the CigarBoxGuitar.com knowledgebase!

Ho Hey by The Lumineers – New Cigar Box Ukulele lesson from One-hand Dan

60-008-01 Product Image 3In this new video lesson from One-hand Dan Russell, he shows you how to play the popular modern song “Ho Hey” by The Lumineers. Only four basic chords (C, F, Am and G) are needed, so this is a great one to try if you are just getting started on the ukulele.

Click here or on the photo to the left to go to the knowledgebase entry for this great lesson!

New Cigar Box Guitar History Section – Historic Plans

Click on the image above to view the Historic Plans knowledgebase category.
Click on the image above to view the Historic Plans knowledgebase category.

We have created a new knowledgebase category here on the site, specifically dedicated to historic plans for building cigar box guitars, ukuleles and other homemade instruments. These vintage plans from long-forgotten publications helped keep the do-it-yourself instrument hobby alive through the years, and without them who knows if we’d have a modern cigar box guitar revival!

Click here or on the image to the right to check out the category. We will be adding many more entries in the near future, so be sure to check back often. And if you know of any such plans, be sure to let us know!

New Cigar Box Guitar History section – Historic Photos

World War I Homemade InstrumentsWe’ve just added a new category to the Cigar Box Guitar History section of the knowledgebase here on CigarBoxGuitar.com – historic photos! In this section we will archive a range of historic photos and illustrations showing not only cigar box guitars but also other homemade/handmade instruments.

If you have or know of any such photos, be sure to send them to us or send us a link of where we can find them!

You’ve never seen a Cigar Box Guitar quite like this one…

Michael Van Slyke's Aluminum Frame Cigar Box GuitarCigar Box Nation member Michael Van Slyke of Texas recently uploaded this photo of a custom 6-string cigar box guitar he built. Check out that custom-shaped aluminum bar stock outer frame! This is the sort of creative and innovative work is inspiring for builders everywhere.

Click the image to the right to see the full-size photo, or click here to check out Michael’s page on Cigar Box Nation where some of his other creations can be seen. Michael is one of thousands of amazing, innovative folks on Cigar Box Nation creating cigar box guitars and other wacky homemade instruments. If you’re ever short on inspiration for your next build, spend a few minutes browsing through the photos over there and you’ll soon have no shortage of ideas!

 

Great New Cigar Box Guitar (and Ukulele) How-to Articles Added

C - 0 0 0 3After a brief hiatus to attend the NAMM show out in California last week, we’re back at it creating great new content and adding it to the knowledgebase here on CigarBoxGuitar.com. Here is a round-up of the latest additions:

Cigar Box Ukulele Lessons from One-Hand Dan

Click to see the knowledgebase post and view the video.
Click to see the knowledgebase post and view the video.

We’ve been wanting to add some ukulele-specific content to our knowledgebase for a while, but we didn’t have a uke expert in-house so it wasn’t going very well. Enter One-Hand Dan Russell, a performing musician with an awesome unique style and immense musical ability.

We first met Dan down in Huntsville, AL at the Lowe Mill Cigar Box Guitar Festival last May, and ran into him again at the Chicago CBG fest this past November. Dan plays a mean cigar box uke, so it’s a natural fit to feature some of his how-to-play content in our knowledgebase here on CigarBoxGuitar.com!

This first video lesson has Dan walking you through how he plays the song “Hold On” by the Alabama Shakes. We’ll be adding more great videos from Dan as he creates them, so stay tune. Viva la Ukulele!