VIDEO: George Benson’s Homemade Electric Guitar

At the 2015 Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, CA, Shane Speal had a chance to talk to George Benson about his first guitar. Turns out, George and his father built it themselves out of spare parts! While it didn’t involve a cigar box, this is a great example of a now-famous musician getting his start with homemade/handmade instruments. If you can’t afford one (or even if you can), build your own!

Video: How to Install a P90 “Soap Bar” Pickup in Cigar Box Guitars

In this 10-minute video, Glenn Watt walks you through every step of installing a P90-style soap bar pickup in your neck-through cigar box guitar. P90’s have an almost mythic reputation and a cult-like following for their tone and sound, and they sound absolutely awesome in cigar box guitars.

More good news: you can find inexpensive P90-style pickups at C. B. Gitty Crafter Supply! Click here for the “pickup only” version that you wire yourself, or click here for the pre-wired no-solder pickup harness!

Video: How To Install Fret Markers on your Cigar Box Guitar Fretboard

In this video how-to, Glenn Watt walks you through a great way to add fret position markers your cigar box guitar fretboard using wooden dowels. While a lot of folks are happy with just using a Sharpie or woodburning fret marks into their fretboard, using inset fret markers looks really good and definitely can give a build a more professional look. If you’ve consider it but thought it too hard or too much effort, think again! Glenn shows you just how quickly you can add this great feature to your next build.

Video: How to Install Open-Gear Tuners (C. B. Gitty product #31-001-01) on a Cigar Box Guitar

In this video, CBG craftsman Glenn Watt walks you through installing basic open-gear tuners on a cigar box guitar, such as C. B. Gitty’s economy tuners.

In this video, CBG craftsman Glenn Watt walks you through installing open-gear economy tuners such as C. B. Gitty’s Chrome Open-gear Economy Tuners on your cigar box guitar.

Google

Video: How to Make a Scarf Joint for a Cigar Box Guitar Neck

Glenn Watt recently created a great how-to video walking you through how to create a scarf joint on a cigar box guitar neck. A scarf joint is a special angled cut which, when glued back together, angles the headstock away from the fingerboard surface of the neck at a specified angle (usually about 15 degrees). Having the headstock angled like this makes it easier to get the strings to stay tight against the nut (this is referred to as the “break angle” of the strings).

So check this video out, and give a scarf joint a try on your next build. It does take some care and attention to detail to make one, but it is well worth the effort!

VIDEO: The Essential Canjo – Part 1 – Introduction

This is the first in a four-part video series introducing the Canjo. In this series Ben “C. B. Gitty” Baker will discuss and show you all aspects of the Canjo, from its history and importance, to its construction and makeup, to how to play it.

This video, Part 1, focuses on introducing the canjo and talking about how it is made, its historical origins, and what makes it special.

Part 2 covers more specifics on the anatomy of a canjo, and also discusses the special diatonic fretting method Gitty uses, as well as how to tune it. This part ends with a brief look at the American Canjo Company and its mission to revitalize the instrument.

Parts 3 and 4 cover How to Play the canjo, with Part 3 being more basic techniques, and part 4 showing you more advanced methods you can use to expand your playing.

VIDEO: The Essential Canjo – Part 2 – Anatomy of a Canjo

This is the second in a four-part video series introducing the Canjo. In this series Ben “C. B. Gitty” Baker will go over the various parts of the canjo, the special diatonic fretting method used on American Canjo Company canjos, the special “Blue Note” fret, and much more.

The next video in this series, Part 3, will cover tuning the canjo, reading canjo tablature, and finally show you how to play a could of basic songs.

The final video, part four, will show you more advanced methods you can use to expand your playing.

VIDEO: The Essential Canjo – Part 3 – How to Play, Tune & Read Tablature

In this third part of our four-part video series introducing the Canjo, Ben “C. B. Gitty” Baker will dig into the basics of how to play the instrumennt. He first discusses and shows you how to tune your canjo to the “standard” high D note (your canjo may be tuned to a different note depending on the string you used), then discusses how to read the American Canjo Company tab posted here at CigarBoxGuitar.com, and finally shows you how to play two well-known songs from the tab: Camptown Races and When the Saints Go Marching In. Numerous diagrams help illustrate the how-to concepts being presented.

The final video, part four, will show you more advanced methods you can use to expand your playing.

Video: Two Tenor Tunings for 4-string Cigar Box Guitars

In this excerpt from a Cigar Box Nation TV episode, A. J. Gaither and Ben “Gitty” Baker discuss two great tenor guitar tunings for 4-string cigar box guitars: “Arkansas Tenor” (low E, A, D, G) and “Chicago Tenor” (D, G, B, E). Both allow you to use partial 6-string guitar chords – Ben even shows you how to use 6-string chord forms with both of these tunings.

In this excerpt from a Cigar Box Nation TV episode, A. J. Gaither and Ben “Gitty” Baker discuss two great tenor guitar tunings for 4-string cigar box guitars: “Arkansas Tenor” (low E, A, D, G) and “Chicago Tenor” (D, G, B, E). Both allow you to use partial 6-string guitar chords – Ben even shows you how to use 6-string chord forms with both of these tunings.

Cigar Box Nation TV is a presentation of CigarBoxNation.com, the online home and rallying point of the cigar box guitar revolution. It is sponsored by C. B. Gitty Crafter Supply, the general store for all things cigar box guitar and homemade/handmade music – instruments, kits, parts and gear.