The How-To Repository for the Cigar Box Guitar Movement!
How to Build and Play Cigar Box Guitars and other Homemade Instruments
Guitar pickups can be such fickle beasts. You wire them up, close the cigar box, plug them in and then… *ZZZT!* You got the dreaded hum.
We’ve put together a quick tutorial on how to eliminate the humming in your setups, whether in cigar box guitar building or standard guitars.
This freak of nature belongs to the “King of the Cigar Box Guitar,” Shane Speal. According to Speal, it has been heavily modified twice since he built it two years ago.
“I originally built this as a simple neck-thru electric cigar box guitar with a Foundry Tone P90 pickup. I realized afterward that the narrow box felt odd on my lap as I would play in concert, so I only used it as a backup guitar. It also became my ‘travel guitar’ for the 2014 Musack Charity Concert in LA [as evidenced by the autographs by Rancid’s Tim Armstrong, The Minutemen’s Mike Watt and The Specials’ Sir Horace Gentlemen].”
Speal continues, “as the tour season rolled along in late 2014, I broke my main cigar box guitar after throwing it across a dive bar. That meant I had to bring this one back out as a main player again. 
“In order to make it feel more comfortable, I added an arm rest and bottom cutaway that were cut from a junk Epiphone SG body.” What was added for comfort also made the instrument look like something from The Island of Dr. Moreau.
After performing with this setup for most of 2015, Speal recently added a Hard Tail bridge, replacing the bolt that served as a floating bridge. “The Hard Tail just give the guitar more stability, sustain and less string breakage. I’m starting to replace bridges on my other guitars with Hard Tails, too. I love ’em.”
Shane Speal will be headlining the New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar Festival on January 16.
The DIY ethos has wormed itself so deep into the cigar box guitar movement that now people are making their own guitar picks. First, there was the Guitar Pick Maker ($23.99 at C. B. Gitty) which allowed you to punch out traditional style picks from old credit cards.
Now, builders are taking their wood scraps and painstakingly crafting wooden plectrums in their wood shops. Cigar Box Nation member, Paul Renato documented his entire process which includes sanding belts, thickness planers and coats of polyurethane.
Making Wood Plectrums by Paul Renato
sponsor:
Ok, so he didn’t spell Garfunkel right, but he did get Led Zeppelin correct.
So what would the equivalent for “Cigar Box Guitar Lessons?” Let us know in the comments.
Need to know where those frets go on your next cigar box guitar. We’ve created a free calculator so you can do it right!
See the CigarBoxGuitar.com Fret Calculator here.
The art of the junkyard pick…
The beauty of rusty things…
These make up some of the most exciting parts of cigar box guitar building. It’s not just about putting a stick through a box. No, it can be a lot more, especially when you challenge yourself to use as many discarded materials as possible.
Ben Baker has spent a lot of time combing the junk shops and strange alleyways, looking for inspiration. He’s written a great two-part series on junking and guitar building:
Gitty’s Guide to Junkin’ and Pickin’ for Cigar Box Guitar Building
The quick glance: This book is chock-full of new and exciting instrument plans. The homemade microphone (plastic cup + piezo disk + Slinky toy) blew my mind. Buy this for a teenager instead of a video game. Cigar box guitar builders will love this.
The full review:
David Erik Nelson is back with his latest geeky projects book…and this one’s a winner. Junkyard Jam Band features sixteen different musical instrument projects and each one is thoughtfully presented in a very easy-to-follow writing style. Here’s the official trailer for the book:
Let me first say that I own a LOT of how-to books for musical instruments. I devour them and love to get inspired. Nelson’s book is different than most, though because he’s making the ‘geeky’ type of instruments… circuit bent toys, ‘glitch’ instruments and even a “Scratchbox’ that’s made from old tape decks. It’s wonderfully bizarre stuff.
My biggest thrill about this book is how Nelson makes electronics so understandable to luddites like myself. He wants everyone to be able to wield a soldering iron like a pro and he’s gonna take the necessary steps to show us how. This book inspired me to go out and purchase a nicer Radio Shack soldering iron and really get into making my own circuits. I never thought I’d be doing this…but here I am.
Oh…before I forget: this is an awesome book to buy for a teenager. Nelson is a former teacher who knows how to explain the physics behind each project without boring us.
Highly recommended. 4 stars.
Junkyard Jam Band by David Erik Nelson (2015 No Starch Press) $24.99
Personally, I would make mine turn off obnoxious bar TV screens as I’m trying to play a gig. Or ‘Intergalactic Cigar Box Guitar Lead Transmogrifier?’
Or maybe just keep the lead singer’s ego in check…
How about you?
The inventor of this patent referred to the instrument as a zither, however, this is clearly related to the dulcimer family. The rectangle shape hearkens to the “Tennessee Music Box” style of primitive Appalachian dulcimers. See the full patent here.
Cigar box amp kits, inspiring books and a basic electric guitar kit are included in this unusual list.
Shane Speal has just posted his 2015 Gift Guide for Guitar World Magazine. Instead of just cigar box guitars and cigar box guitar kits, he’s suggested an amp kit and a few other unexpected items. Check it out.
by Cigar Box Nation member, “AL”
A quick making of: The Neck Pickup,
After building a new neck and glueing the fretboard I had to cut of some inches and thought about using the scrap piece as a neck pickup housing for my current three string project. Continue reading “How to Build a Relay Coil Pickup”
Give your kazoo more power! Shane Speal shows you how in this quick video.
Parts needed: Continue reading “How to Build an Electric Kazoo [EASY project]”