The How-To Repository for the Cigar Box Guitar Movement!
How to Build and Play Cigar Box Guitars and other Homemade Instruments
In this video lesson, Dan shows you how to play the old blues song “The Midnight Special”. This was a traditional folk song first popularized by Lead Belly, and has been recorded by many other artists such as Big Bill Broonzy, The Beatles, Burl Ives, Van Morrison, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney.
Continue reading ““The Midnight Special” – Cigar Box Ukulele Lesson from One-hand Dan Russell”
In this video, Ben “C. B. Gitty” Baker demonstrates how easy it is to play the popular song “Wagon Wheel” on an American Canjo Company one-string canjo.
Continue reading ““Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show/Darius Rucker on a One-String Canjo”
We recently received these plans from “Hubcap John” Hayward which were originally featured in Practical Wireless Magazine in London in 1965. The plans feature a lap steel guitar with full schematics. They were scanned from the original and sent in eight different parts. We did our best to match them up into one complete PDF.
Continue reading “1965 Hawaiian Lap Steel Guitar Plans – Full Size PDF Download”
You may be thinking that plans published in a guitar mag in 1976 aren’t quite old enough to qualify as “historic”. These plans are special though, because these are the ones that Shane Speal used to build his first cigar box guitar… and from that first cigar box guitar, he went on to jump-start the entire modern cigar box guitar revival.
Continue reading “2-string Cigar Box Guitar Plans by Michael Lydon – Guitar Player Magazine – 1976”
In this video lesson, Glenn Watt’s fretless cigar box guitar is tuned GDg, and he’s using a ceramic slide.
Are you looking for the right cigar box guitar strings to get tuned GDg?
You’ll find the strings you need here.
Looking for a sweet slide like the one Glenn’s using?
Get a handcrafted ceramic slide here, for your CBG-playing pleasure.
This article on how to build a cigar box ukulele comes from the June, 1917 edition of Popular Mechanics. In it S. H. Samuels walks the reader through the basics of constructing a uke, which in 1917 “was made at a cost of 30 cents, by careful selection of materials from the shop scrap stock.”
Continue reading “A Homemade Hawaiian (Cigar Box) Ukulele – Popular Mechanics June, 1917”
No fancy tools required to make this awesome headstock for your cigar box guitar
By Glenn Watt
Thanks to craftswoman Farley Andresen for the demonstrating the work 
Cigar box is in the name, but the neck is what turns the box into a cigar box guitar.
And the headstock – the part of the neck that anchors your tuning pegs – is a critical component to getting, and keeping, your CBG fully functional. Continue reading “A Step-by-Step Guide On How To Make a Straight Headstock”
Musical styles: Blues, Hillbilly, Honky-tonk, Originals
Handmade instruments played: Cigar Box Guitar, Washtub Bass, Foot Percussion
A. J. Gaither spent the bulk of his young adulthood getting his hands dirty, making a living working on cars. But the southern Arkansas native found a way to keep his hands busy, building and playing handmade musical instruments, while avoiding arrest and living further north in Kansas City.
In this video, Ben “Gitty” Baker and Glenn Watt illustrate how easy it is to increase the versatility of the 2.5 watt amplifier boards that are the heart of their Cigar Box Amplifiers.
Continue reading “Add a Panel-Mount Gain to a C. B. Gitty Amp Board”
Josh Gayou of Smokehouse Guitars created this 179-page guide back in 2010, and decided to give it away for free to the cigar box guitar community. In it, he covers some of the more advanced techniques involved in building a high-end solid-body 6-string electric guitar using a cigar box body.
Continue reading “Advanced Cigar Box Guitar Building guide by Joshua Gayou”
Learn now to play both the melody and chords for Amazing Grace on 3-string Open GDG Cigar Box Guitars.
Continue reading “Amazing Grace – 3-string Open G GDG – Cigar Box Guitar Tablature”
This tablature will show you exactly how to play the melody and chords for the hymn Amazing Grace on 4-string cigar box guitars tuned to Open G GDGB.
Continue reading “Amazing Grace – 4-string Open G GDGB – Cigar Box Guitar Tablature”
This song was first published in 1779 and is known throughout the western world. If you only learn one Christian spiritual, this should probably be it. Thankfully, it is very easy to play on the canjo! View the full text of this entry by clicking the “Read More” link below for the formatted canjo tab…
Learn how to play the melody of Amazing Grace on your one-string Canjo!
The tablature in the PDF link below will show you exactly how to play the bass line for the timeless spiritual tune “Amazing Grace“.
Learn how to play America the Beautiful on your 3-string Open GDG Cigar Box Guitar! Presented here are two versions of the melody, each in a different key, as well as a version that includes chords.
Continue reading “America the Beautiful – 3 String Open GDG Cigar Box Guitar Tab”
The tablature in the PDF link below will show you exactly how to play the popular American patriotic song “America The Beautiful“, the lyrics for which were written by Kathie Lee Bates and music by Samuel Ward.
Continue reading “America The Beautiful 2-String Bass Tablature”
