Category: Site News

New Cigar Box Guitar How-to Video: Installing a P-90 “Soapbar” Pickup

glennvidFolks have been asking us to show the how-to steps behind installing electric guitar pickups in cigar box guitars for a long time, especially our P90 Soapbar clones. Well, you asked for it and Glenn Watt has delivered it: a well-produced 10-minute vid walking you through every step of installing one of these babies on a neck-through cigar box guitar.

Click the image to the left or this link to got to the video’s entry in our knowledgebase encyclopedia.

Glenn is quickly becoming a leader in the field of creating informative, easy-to-understand and well-produced cigar box guitar how-to videos, and we are proud to be able to feature his work here on CigarBoxGuitar.com. We hope you are able to make great use of this info in building your own cigar box guitars!

New Tablature for Cigar Box Guitars: Buttercup, Royals by Lorde and Camptown Races

Three new tab sheets have been added to the knowledgebase library in the last couple of days, ranging from classic Americana to feel-good classic rock to a popular modern song. All are tabbed for 3-string cigar box guitars tuned to Open G “GDG”. Use the links below to view the posts about each:

Camptown Races by Stephen Foster

Build Me Up Buttercup as Performed by The Foundations

Royals by Lorde

Gitty’s Cigar Box Guitar Jamming Guides Released – The most-used chords from the most common keys

Jamming Guide for 3-string Cigar Box Guitars - Key of GWe’ve just added a great new resource to the knowledgebase: Gitty’s Jamming Guides for 3-string Cigar Box Guitar!

This collection consists of 3 printable sheets that show you all of the chords needed to play most songs written in the keys of C, G and D – majors, minors and sevenths. These were designed with jam sessions in mind – with these on the table in front of you, you’ll rarely be at a loss for how to strum along with most popular songs!

Click the image to the left to go to the knowledgebase page, where you can click to view all 3 printable jamming sheets!

 

3 New Cigar Box Guitar Tabs Added: Auld Lang Syne, Here Comes Santa Claus and O Come All Ye Faithful

We’ve just added 3 new pieces of 3-string cigar box guitar holiday tablature to the library. All three were arranged and tabbed by Glenn Watt, who during the Christmas rush of orders has taken over from Ben/C. B. Gitty as the resident tab-master. Click the links below to check out each – all 3 even include videos by Glenn showing you how to play the songs!

Auld Lang Syne

Here Comes Santa Claus

O Come All Ye Faithful

This is probably the last batch of holiday songs we’ll be adding this year, so we hope you are able to put them to good use, and we also wish all of you a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season.

Christmas Song Tabs to get you ready for the Holidays!

Silent Night Cigar Box Guitar Tablature PDFWe’re busily creating new tablature sheets for popular Christmas and holiday songs and adding them to the tab library here on CigarBoxGuitar.com!

 

While it may be a bit early to start publicly performing Christmas songs, you should start practicing now so that when the season is truly upon us, you’ll be ready!

 

Click here or on the image to the left to see the songs we’ve added so far. There will be more coming in the days ahead, so check back often!

More Cigar Box Guitar Chord Sheets Added

E Chord Forms for Cigar Box Guitar PDFMany more chord form sheets have been added to the knowledgebase here on CigarBoxGuitar.com, completing the initial series for 3-string Open G GDG cigar box guitars. We now have sheets showing all of the most common and useful chord forms (with power chords, major chords, sevenths and minors) for G, A, B-flat, B, C, D, E-flat, E and F!

We have also created a guide to reading and interpreting the chord form sheets, to help you become more familiar with the concepts if you are a new player.

This is the most comprehensive free resource that has ever been compiled for 3-string cigar box guitars, and it is only going to keep getting bigger and better!

Cigar Box Guitar Tablature Library added

We have just created a new section of the knowledgebase here on CigarBoxGuitar.com which will host a growing library of tablature for cigar box guitars, with a focus on the popular Open G “GDG” tuning style.

We have added a few initial pieces of tablature and more will be coming soon. Click the image below to check out what has been added so far!

WagonWheel PDF Image

Final Two Parts of Canjo Video Series Posted

IMG_8350_2Parts 3 and 4 of the video series “The Essential Canjo” by C. B. Gitty have just been posted here on CigarBoxGuitar.com.

These videos dig into the nitty gritty of how to play the canjo: Part 3 shows you tuning and tablature reading, and then moves into playing a couple of songs (Camptown Races and When the Saints Go Marching In) from tablature available on this site. Part 4 then moves into some more advanced playing techniques that you can use to spice up your canjo playing: hammer-ons, pull-offs, vibrato, tremolo and the like.

By the time you’ve finished watching all four of these videos, you should be well on your way to mastery of the canjo!

The Essential Canjo – Part 3 – How to Play, Tune & Read Tablature

The Essential Canjo – Part 4 – Advanced Playing Techniques

Second Part of Canjo Video Series Added

The second part of C. B. Gitty’s video series “The Essential Canjo” has just been added to the Canjos & Diddleybows section of the knowledgebase here on CigarBoxGuitar.com. In this installment, Gitty walks you through the anatomy of a canjo – the various parts and how they are put together, the fretting style, discussion of the “blue note” and more. A number of diagrams and explanatory notes help illustrate the points Gitty is making in the video.

Stay tuned for parts 3 and 4 to be posted in the near future, which will cover tuning, reading tablature, playing simple songs, and making use of more advanced playing techniques.

Check out the Knowledgebase Post for more info and to view the video!

New Video: The Essential Canjo – Part 1

61-013-29 Image 1We’ve just added a new post to the Canjos & Diddleybows section of the knowledgebase here on CigarBoxGuitar.com. The subject is Part One of a 4-part video series by C. B. Gitty on the instrument known as the Canjo. If you have ever wanted to know about these fun little instruments, this video series is for you!

Check out the Knowledgebase Post for more info and to view the video!

New Cigar Box Guitar Tuning Article: Open E “EBE” with sound clips!

C. B. Gitty has just published the third installment in his series of 3-string cigar box guitar tuning how-to articles. This one covers the Open E “EBE” tuning, which is great for the blues! This tuning was used by Shane Speal on his recently released album Holler!, on the tracks Big Leg Woman/Swing the Hammer, specifically because this tuning gives you that raw, growly blues sound.

Click Here to View the Open E EBE Tuning Article

The article gives you the exact pitches and string sizes to achieve this tuning on a cigar box guitar in the range of 24-25″ scale length, and also includes sound clips of Gitty playing each tuning on a cigar box guitar, so you can get a feel for what the sound like.