The How-To Repository for the Cigar Box Guitar Movement!
How to Build and Play Cigar Box Guitars and other Homemade Instruments
This story first appeared in The Book Buyer: A Summary of American and Foreign Literature in 1884-1885. It was written by Daniel Carter Beard, who also founded the Boy Scouts of America. It tells the story of a Christmas Eve where the boys Tom, Dick and Harry discover that their beloved Uncle Enos has built himself a banjo out of a cigar box and broomstick. Continue reading “Christmas Eve with Uncle Enos (with Cigar Box Banjo Plans) – by Daniel C. Beard – Circa 1884”
Step-by-step instructions from the early 1900’s, including a detailed diagram, on building a cigar box Ukulele. Continue reading “Cigar Box Ukulele Plans by Charles A. King (circa 1920)”
Here is a short article from the July, 1920 edition of Popular Science Monthly, in which author Frank W. Vroom gives fairly brief instructions for constructing what he calls a “Jazzolin” using a cigar box. This is basically another take on the classic one-string cigar box fiddle. Continue reading “Cigar Box Violin (Jazzolin) – Popular Science Monthly, July 1920”
This clipping from a 1928 newspaper that gives instructions on how to make a one-string violin using a cigar box, a few scraps of wood and a string. Continue reading “Cigar Box Violin Plans – 1928 Newspaper Clipping”