How to Build and Play Cigar Box Guitars and other Homemade Instruments
Check out author and CBG parts manufacturer Charles Atchison playing Led Zeppelin’s classic “Stairway to Heaven” on his 3-string cigar box guitar.
Watch the video and learn more about Charles’ work here:
http://www.cbgitty.com/news/stairway-to-heaven-on-a-3string-cigar-box-guitar/
Every week, the guys over at CigarBoxNation.com put together a newsletter featuring the best stuff from CBN – instruments of the day, the best discussions and forum posts, videos and more. This week’s newsletter is extra special, as it announces the winners of the Halloween Build Contest! Browse on over and check it out.
If you are new to Cigar Box Nation, consider signing up! CBN is the online home and nerve center of the cigar box guitar and homemade/handmade music movements, and a repository of almost 7 years’ worth of how-to info, uploaded photos and videos and other great content.
Open G “GDG” is the de facto standard tuning for 3-string cigar box guitars, but a lot of first-time builders have trouble figuring out how best to achieve it. In this article from our how-to library, Ben “Gitty” Baker walks you through different ways to get an Open G “GDG” tuning on your 3-string cigar box guitar. He covers 4 different configurations from a low, growling bassy setup to a higher pitched, more banjo-like treble configuration. There are even sound clips so you can sound what each setup sounds like.
There are also similar articles for a number of other popular tunings, so dive on in and become a Open G expert!
Here’s some great tips by Kalmario. Continue reading “Bolt-On Cigar Box Guitar Neck + Other Tips”
Hi, just saw Shane Speal’s feature article on the 1957 tube driven tremolo plans. Pretty cool! But frankly, high voltage stuff scares the bejeezus out of me… that and my brain can only handle super simple electronics circuits. Other wise it becomes a fog of confusion.
More my speed is a simple little stomp box circuit I found on diystompboxes.com called “The Tiny Trem”: Continue reading “Build-Your-Own Tremolo…for Scaredy Cats!”
by Shane Speal
I’m an electronics idiot. There, I said it! I suck when it comes to soldering and breadboards and all that crap. I couldn’t wire my way out of a paper bag, if the truth be told.
…But then C. B. Gitty came out with a pre-wired cigar box amp kit and I just had to dive in and try one out. And then another and another.
The Gitty amp kit a simple 2.5 watt amp that delivers living room volume in a tiny package. Most of their pictures show a standard cigar box with a hole cut in the middle and a speaker with some sort of grill or cover.
I figured if I was going to build cigar box amps, I might as well use as much found-object stuff on them to make them look otherworldly, just like some of my best cigar box guitars. Here’s three examples that used the standard Gitty kit and the parts I used to mod them: Continue reading “Cool Cigar Box Amplifier Mods!”
JUST ADDED TO THE ARCHIVES:
The Strat and Les Paul were only several years old when Mechanix Illustrated magazine published these plans, penned by Captain America creator and artist, C. C. Beck in their September 1959 issue.
Like many how-to articles from this era, the article is somewhat vague in carving and building techniques and instead puts most of its weight into the diagrams with measurements.
Continue reading “How to Build an Electric Guitar – Historic 1959 Plans (Free Download)”
From the archives,
Build Your Own Vibrato
Make like Elvis with an “electronic” throbbing guitar
These vibrato (actually tremolo) plans were first printed in the Popular Electronics December 1957 issue. We’ve taken all text and re-typed it and provided good resolution scans of all schematics. Everything is compiled in one PDF document below. Download and print out.
Continue reading “Build a “Throbbing” Tube-Driven Vibrato – Vintage plans from 1957″
