Category: How-to Info

Using Four (!) Piezos in a Cigar Box Guitar for Percussion Effect

four piezos

Cigar box guitar builders go to great lengths to reduce tapping noises in their acoustic pickups.  However, an ingenius builder/performer from Australia, known as “Chick Who Tinkers” has taken the opposite approach.  She has wired her cigar box guitar with four individual piezos to enhance tapping, rhythm and thumps as she plays.

Her design uses four small piezo pickups that are connected straight to a guitar jack.  No volume or tone pots are used.  This allows 100% signal to go to the jack.

Here’s how she wires it up: Continue reading “Using Four (!) Piezos in a Cigar Box Guitar for Percussion Effect”

How to Install a Pre-wired Single-coil Pickup Harness in Cigar Box Guitars

54-020-01 How-to Guide Pages
Click the image above to view the PDF how-to document.

This new how-to guide, written by Glenn Watt, walks you through installing one of C. B. Gitty’s Pre-wired 4-pole and 6-pole Magnetic Pickup Harnesses.

This guide has a lot of photos, and shows you what size holes to cut and drill, how to deal with neck-through builds, considerations for where to put volume and tone knobs, and more. Glenn’s

How to Build an Uncle Enos Banjo [historic cigar box banjo / banjar plans]

uncle enos header

 

by Daniel Carter Beard  

Originally published as Christmas Eve with Uncle Enos in newspapers in the early 1800’s.  First book appearance in 1884, as printed in The Book Buyer 1884-1885.  These plans would eventually be published in Beard’s American Boys Handy Book in 1882.

Edited and expanded: December 22, 2015 by Shane Speal. Continue reading “How to Build an Uncle Enos Banjo [historic cigar box banjo / banjar plans]”

Junk Pickin’ and Dumpster Diving for Cigar Box Guitar Parts

junkin

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