The How-To Repository for the Cigar Box Guitar Movement!
How to Build and Play Cigar Box Guitars and other Homemade Instruments
Most folks are familiar, at least by sight, with the six-string guitar – whether an acoustic guitar like a Martin or an electric guitar like a Fender Stratocaster™. So it is natural that when people think of frets, or a fretboard, they think of a guitar fretboard – an evenly distributed collection of frets that get closer together the further you go up the neck towards the guitar body.
Continue reading “Diatonic (Dulcimer-Style) Fretting – What it is, How and Why to Use It”
When it comes to electrifying a cigar box guitar (or really any stringed instrument, for that matter), there are two basic options: either a piezo pickup (sometimes called a contact pickup), or a magnetic pickup. Well, really there is a third option – a microphone – but we’ll not cover that here. So, what are the main differences between a piezo element pickup and a magnetic pickup?
A piezoelectric element is a very simple, yet remarkable device. In its most simple form, it consists of a disk of brass or other conductive metal, on which a very thin disk of ceramic is adhered. Continue reading “Differences between Piezos and Magnetic Pickups”
