In episode four of the show I made a cigar box guitar. They are a blast to make. I've since made a few more. Two of them I installed pickups in to amplify them.
This morning my wife and son and I were rummaging around a flea market when I saw a hand made cigar box guitar. I love these things. They are easily made with a few simple parts and a few hand tools, and they sound great'
I've included some images of the few I've made and the one I saw at the flea market.
If you've never made a CBG ( cigar box guitar ) give it a try, you'll have a blast. You can find instructions on the internet or watch episode four of The garage with Steve Butler on youtube. All of the music featured in episode four is played on a cigar box guitar by musician and cigar box guitar maker Mike Snowden. You'll be amazed at how it sounds.
The closest thing to a genesis event for the cigar box as an invention per se happened between 1863 and 1865. As the Civil War was nearing its end, In 1863 the sale of cigars in boxes and barrels of 1,000 was made illegal.
Second-The Federal Revenue Act passed into law that the number of cigars in a box be restricted to 25, 50, 100. 250 and 500. Primarily these two regulations affected the size and shape of the cigar box – important because it somewhat presciently restricted the cigar box to a size suitable for reuse in a stringed instrument.
Cigar boxes could not be reused to sell goods again once the tax seal was broken. Since they were made primarily out of wood, they earned a place as fuel for burning to warm the house and heat the stove. A few survived to store scraps of paper or sewing items.
In the late 1800’s the cigar box was used as stringed instrument to teach children until they became proficient enough to move to a more advanced instrument. Stringed instruments such as a guitar, banjo, mandolin, ukulele and a violin were all made using cigar boxes. The primary wood used in making a cigar box is mahogany, a perfect wood for instruments because of its acoustic qualities. The advent of big box stores such as Wal-Mart made it feasible for lower income families to afford an instrument. Before stores such as Wal-Mart and Targets lower income and rural families made their own instruments. The cigar box guitar found its way out of being a child’s instrument to being a serious instrument used by blues musicians, a favorite instruments to the early delta blues artist because it actually works and sounds well.
I made these cigar box guitars much like how they were made over 100 a years ago. The only difference is the contemporary tuning pegs. The guitars consist of a guitar box, a 1” x 2” piece of wood for the neck and fretboard and a bolt used for the bridge. There are only three strings on a cigar box guitar. They are tuned to open tunings such as G, A, and D, common blues guitar tunings. I love how resourceful people can be and these guitars are true to that character. I think about how the first person must have felt after he made one of these guitars, strung it up and listened to the sweet sound it made.
They are still used by many delta blues musicians today. They have a unique sound. The three strings are meant to be tuned in an open tuning and played with a slide. The most popular tuning is the open ‘G’ tuning (G, D, and G). Others are ‘A’ (A, E, A), and the Hawaiian A6 tuning (A, E, F#)
As always- Thanks for following.
Best
Steve
