The How-To Repository for the Cigar Box Guitar Movement!
How to Build and Play Cigar Box Guitars and other Homemade Instruments
When it comes to learning to play the cigar box guitar, you can’d do better than going to the King of the Cigar Box Guitar, Shane Speal. Here is the second of Shane’s series of how-to-play videos.
For more info about Shane Speal, visit his site: www.ShaneSpeal.com.
When it comes to learning to play the cigar box guitar, you can’d do better than going to the King of the Cigar Box Guitar, Shane Speal. Here is the third of Shane’s series of how-to-play videos.
For more info about Shane Speal, visit his site: www.ShaneSpeal.com.
When it comes to learning to play the cigar box guitar, you can’d do better than going to the King of the Cigar Box Guitar, Shane Speal. Here is the first of Shane’s series of how-to-play videos.
For more info about Shane Speal, visit his site: <a href=”http://www.shanespeal.com” target=”_blank”>www.ShaneSpeal.com</a>.
If you have ever wanted to learn how to easily play some of the most famous and recognizable blues riffs and turnarounds on your cigar box guitar, this video series is for you! Shane Speal sits down with his video camera and a 3-string cigar box guitar (tuned to Open G GDG), and walks you through five of the best-known blues riffs that we’ve all heard hundreds of times. Each lesson is just a few minutes long – you’ll be belting out the blues in no time!
Lesson 1: The Classic Blues Lick
Lesson 2: Variations on the Classic Blues Lick
Lesson 3: The Peach Rundown
Lesson 4: The Nasty Pull-off Lick
Lesson 5: The Grinding Lick
In this video, Glenn Watt walks you through making your first fretboard for a cigar box guitar. Of course you could always buy one of C. B. Gitty’s Pre-made CBG Fretboards, but why not have a go at making your own? You can find most of the supplies you’ll need here.
At the 2015 Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, CA, Shane Speal had a chance to talk to George Benson about his first guitar. Turns out, George and his father built it themselves out of spare parts! While it didn’t involve a cigar box, this is a great example of a now-famous musician getting his start with homemade/handmade instruments. If you can’t afford one (or even if you can), build your own!
In this 10-minute video, Glenn Watt walks you through every step of installing a P90-style soap bar pickup in your neck-through cigar box guitar. P90’s have an almost mythic reputation and a cult-like following for their tone and sound, and they sound absolutely awesome in cigar box guitars.
More good news: you can find inexpensive P90-style pickups at C. B. Gitty Crafter Supply! Click here for the “pickup only” version that you wire yourself, or click here for the pre-wired no-solder pickup harness!
In this video, CBG craftsman Glenn Watt shows us how to install a basic pre-wired piezo & jack harness (such as C. B. Gitty’s product #50-014-01) in your cigar box guitar. It really is that easy to electrify your homemade instrument!
In this video how-to, Glenn Watt walks you through a great way to add fret position markers your cigar box guitar fretboard using wooden dowels. While a lot of folks are happy with just using a Sharpie or woodburning fret marks into their fretboard, using inset fret markers looks really good and definitely can give a build a more professional look. If you’ve consider it but thought it too hard or too much effort, think again! Glenn shows you just how quickly you can add this great feature to your next build.
In this video, CBG craftsman Glenn Watt walks you through installing basic open-gear tuners on a cigar box guitar, such as C. B. Gitty’s economy tuners.
In this video, CBG craftsman Glenn Watt walks you through installing open-gear economy tuners such as C. B. Gitty’s Chrome Open-gear Economy Tuners on your cigar box guitar.
Glenn Watt recently created a great how-to video walking you through how to create a scarf joint on a cigar box guitar neck. A scarf joint is a special angled cut which, when glued back together, angles the headstock away from the fingerboard surface of the neck at a specified angle (usually about 15 degrees). Having the headstock angled like this makes it easier to get the strings to stay tight against the nut (this is referred to as the “break angle” of the strings).
So check this video out, and give a scarf joint a try on your next build. It does take some care and attention to detail to make one, but it is well worth the effort!
This video by cigar box guitar craftsman Glenn Watt shows you a good way to notch your cigar box so that the neck will fit into it, for a standard neck-through style cigar box guitar.
In this video, Glenn Watt walks you through notching/recessing a neck so it will fit properly into a cigar box guitar.
Here’s a video lesson for you, where the King himself Mr. Shane Speal walks you through how to tune your guitar and play it like Seasick Steve!
In this video, Glenn Watt walks you through reading the style of tablature he creates for 3-string cigar box guitars. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of tablature and want to get started playing the songs in our CBG tablature library here at CigarBoxGuitar.com, this video is for you!
This is the first in a four-part video series introducing the Canjo. In this series Ben “C. B. Gitty” Baker will discuss and show you all aspects of the Canjo, from its history and importance, to its construction and makeup, to how to play it.
This video, Part 1, focuses on introducing the canjo and talking about how it is made, its historical origins, and what makes it special.
Part 2 covers more specifics on the anatomy of a canjo, and also discusses the special diatonic fretting method Gitty uses, as well as how to tune it. This part ends with a brief look at the American Canjo Company and its mission to revitalize the instrument.
Parts 3 and 4 cover How to Play the canjo, with Part 3 being more basic techniques, and part 4 showing you more advanced methods you can use to expand your playing.