I was doing a little research and found this great article.
Don't worry - It's not long winded.
In episode four of the show, available on youtube, I made a cigar box guitar. It was my first attempt at making one. A brave venture to do on a a TV show. It turn out to be not bad. I feel a little connected to the folks in the article.
Enjoy.'
'The humble cigar box guitar was a down-home source of uplifting music when times were tough. The earliest known picture of a cigar box instrument was copyrighted in 1876 by Civil War illustrator Edwin Forbes. It shows two soldiers at a campsite, one playing a Figaro cigar box fiddle. Like the banjo, the cigar box guitar’s origins can be traced to the African banjar, a stringed instrument with a gourd body. Banjars were played with a “diddly bow,” a device that some say provided the stage name for guitar master Bo Diddley.
Cigar Box Guitar Museum
Many early artists of rock, soul, and blues first learned to play music on a cigar box guitar. As blues giant Lightnin’ Hopkins relates, “I felt the blues was in me, so I went ahead and made me a guitar. I got me a cigar box, I cut me a round hole in the middle of it…and got me a tune out of it. I kept my tune and I
played from then on.” Rockabilly great Carl Perkins picked his first tunes on a cigar box guitar. Because his family could not afford a real guitar, Carl’s father built one for him from a cigar box and a broomstick.
Too poor to buy new strings, Carl tied his strings in knots when they broke. The knots cut his fingers, so he bent the strings rather than sliding his fingers along them while he played, inventing a twangy new “blue note” in the process.'
I guess mine aren't that rough after all'
As always - Thanks for following.
Best
Don't worry - It's not long winded.
In episode four of the show, available on youtube, I made a cigar box guitar. It was my first attempt at making one. A brave venture to do on a a TV show. It turn out to be not bad. I feel a little connected to the folks in the article.
Enjoy.'
'The humble cigar box guitar was a down-home source of uplifting music when times were tough. The earliest known picture of a cigar box instrument was copyrighted in 1876 by Civil War illustrator Edwin Forbes. It shows two soldiers at a campsite, one playing a Figaro cigar box fiddle. Like the banjo, the cigar box guitar’s origins can be traced to the African banjar, a stringed instrument with a gourd body. Banjars were played with a “diddly bow,” a device that some say provided the stage name for guitar master Bo Diddley.
Cigar Box Guitar Museum
Many early artists of rock, soul, and blues first learned to play music on a cigar box guitar. As blues giant Lightnin’ Hopkins relates, “I felt the blues was in me, so I went ahead and made me a guitar. I got me a cigar box, I cut me a round hole in the middle of it…and got me a tune out of it. I kept my tune and I
played from then on.” Rockabilly great Carl Perkins picked his first tunes on a cigar box guitar. Because his family could not afford a real guitar, Carl’s father built one for him from a cigar box and a broomstick.
Too poor to buy new strings, Carl tied his strings in knots when they broke. The knots cut his fingers, so he bent the strings rather than sliding his fingers along them while he played, inventing a twangy new “blue note” in the process.'
I guess mine aren't that rough after all'
As always - Thanks for following.
Best
Steve
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