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How to Make Your Acoustic Cigar Box Guitar Louder with a Resonator
Have you ever noticed the wooden back piece of a conventional banjo. These are called resonators and their job is to keep the sound...

Shane Speal
Feb 16, 20211 min read
2,073 views
2 comments


How to Build a One-String Vibro Fiddle - 1937
These plans for an experimental diddley bow use an electric door bell clapper as a Dick Dale-style hyper tremolo picker. Fascinating...

Shane Speal
Oct 16, 20202 min read
2,391 views
3 comments


How to Make a Pre-Blues Cigar Box Violin
Before the blues showed up in the 1920's, there were minstrel shows and Vaudeville theater. Central to many of these shows was a...

Shane Speal
Oct 5, 20205 min read
2,330 views
1 comment


How to Make a Simple Diddley Bow Pickup
This is probably the easiest electric diddley bow pickup/bridge combo I've ever seen. It is based on a one-string "diddley bow" guitar...

Shane Speal
Sep 29, 20202 min read
3,606 views
3 comments


How to Build a Super Tub Bass (an improved upright gutbucket bass)
An old time cigar box guitar sometimes needs some accompaniment, so we offer some classic free plans for a hot-rodded washtub bass guitar....

Shane Speal
Sep 25, 20202 min read
9,904 views
4 comments


Virginia's Cigar Box Fiddle, May 3, 1946
Several weeks ago, I received a message from fellow cigar box guitarist, Clint Herriman stating that he had discovered another historic...

Shane Speal
Sep 22, 20202 min read
650 views
2 comments


How to Tie Fret Knots (Fretting Instruments with String)
How to Tie Fret Knots Parts needed: monofilament nylon fishing line (10 to 15lb test). Tools needed: Scissors Small file Fret Calculator....

Shane Speal
Sep 18, 20202 min read
2,444 views
3 comments


Dangerous Electric Cigar Box Guitar Plans from 1919
Don't try this at home! These plans were discovered by cigar box guitar builder and researcher, John "Reddog" McNair. I'm not sure...

Shane Speal
Sep 18, 20201 min read
892 views
2 comments


1886 Cigar Box Guitar Story: Little Boy Musician in Galveston, TX
Imagine digging through countless newspaper articles for any mention of a cigar box guitar and then discovering a full story of a young...

Shane Speal
Sep 18, 20202 min read
586 views
1 comment


How to Make Musical Instruments from Cigar Boxes, 1923
Pictured: A small round box ukulele, circa 1920's. The following plans are less detailed than others in our archives, but they give some...

Shane Speal
Sep 15, 20203 min read
804 views
1 comment


Cigar Box Guitar Heroes: Music legends and their cigar box guitars
The Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band, New Orleans LA, 1899 “So I went ahead and made me a guitar. I got me a cigar box, I cut me a round hole in...

Shane Speal
Sep 14, 20206 min read
2,203 views
0 comments


How to Build a 4-String Cigar Box Guitar
Here's a simple cigar box guitar design I came up with using a shovel handle from Lowes. It's presented here in 'builder's diary' form,...

Shane Speal
Sep 11, 20203 min read
5,366 views
0 comments


How to Build a Cigar Box Banjo (Published 1884)
(Pictured: 5-string cigar box banjo, circa 2005. Unknown builder. The design is similar to the banjo plans featured here.) Shane's note:...

Shane Speal
Sep 10, 20205 min read
5,240 views
1 comment


History of the Cigar Box Guitar
by Shane Speal "On Saturdays, barbers sat their customers in the shade on the porch of the Store, and troubadours on their ceaseless...

Shane Speal
Sep 9, 20207 min read
7,837 views
4 comments


Henry Wood's Cigar Box Violin Story, 1940's
I’d snatch a violin bow and I’d play that one-string fiddle while Mr. Statz would try to make his announcements...

Shane Speal
Sep 4, 20201 min read
207 views
1 comment


Is this the original Hurdy Gurdy Man?
There was a Turk, of a most pompous appearance, who entertained crowds in the street by playing on an instrument of five strings passed over

Shane Speal
Sep 4, 20203 min read
208 views
1 comment


How to Build a 5-String Cigar Box Mandolin (1922)
These historic plans from 1922 show how to build a five-string mandolin from a cigar box.

Shane Speal
Sep 4, 20203 min read
593 views
1 comment


How to Craft a Bottleneck Guitar Slide
This article was taken from the original CigarBoxGuitars.com archives. You’ll need Wine bottle with long neck Glass cutter Masking tape...

Shane Speal
Sep 4, 20202 min read
1,977 views
5 comments
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