The following article is excerpted from the book, Making Poor Man's Guitars by Shane Speal.
Measuring in at 30" (76cm) long, 5" (12 3/4cm) wide and 3" (7 1/2 cm) deep, this two-string cigar box guitar sports a body and neck that were crafted from
Read more…Since the beginning of Cigar Box Nation, we have provided free musical instrument plans to inspire your next build. These plans for building a One-String Japanese Fiddle came from the book, Violins and Other Stringed Instruments - How to Make Them
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SCROLL DOWN FOR THE RULES, BUT FIRST, READ THIS VERY IMPORTANT REMINDER:
and then do this...
THE 2021 THROWBACK HOLIDAY BUILD-OFF!
We want you to use your imagination & creativity to build a stringed instrument that could have been given as a gi
Read more…I've always been fascinated with the sitar. The buzzing, droning and string bending sounds are unlike anything out there. If the Beatles used sitar, I wanna use sitar!
Recently, I replaced the bridge on a cigar box guitar with a real sitar bridge
Read more…Get all the details on Shane's brutal 3-string baritone guitar. Scroll down past the video to see more photos!
Thanks to all who sent in intro videos! Today's episode features Pete Chandler, Kenneth Hope and Vadim D!
Here's the video:
More phot
Read more…Bart Hopkin is one of the greatest modern minds of musical instrument design. His writings & recordings, especially his seminal Experimental Musical Instruments Magazine have influenced everyone from Tom Waits to our own Shane Speal, who says "ther
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This wild instrument was created by Cigar Box Nation member, Miku and was submitted in the Musical Mutant Build-Off Contest. He describes it as a "Human powered, 24 tone polyphony, 16th notes electric kalimba mechanical sequencer plus electric hu
Read more…Discover a wild instrument from Africa and make your own using a tin can! Then keep scrolling to discover other Cigar Box Nation members who have created cigar box versions, too.
Nicolas Bras is a Youtube star who makes instruments out of junk. In
Read more…Cigar Box Nation member, Glenn Kaiser has been making music history for decades, first by practically inventing the Christian hard rock genre with the revolutionary The Resurrection Band (a.k.a. Rez Band) and later with his deep blues solo career. N
The Arkansas Tuning was originally created by cigar box guitarist, AJ Gaither and references his home state. Shane Speal says, "this tuning is pretty simple, but man, does it open some old passageways for me! "
The EADG tuning is identical to the
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Here's a simple way to make sure your bridge is set correctly on your cigar box guitar. (If it's in the wrong place, things are gonna sound out-of-tune.)
-Shane
Read more…Shane Speal is back with a new lesson that tackles the biggest problem with so many beginners: the picking hand! "Your left hand is what you know. Your right hand is who you are."
Follow Speal's suggestions to make your picking hand a "drumstick" t
Read more…All 70 issues of Experimental Musical Instruments Magazine are free to download!
When I came home from the hospital several weeks ago, I couldn't do anything except sit and read. The first thing I reached for was my 70 issue set of Experimental Mu
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Our most outrageous contest yet!
OVERVIEW: Invent & build a new musical instrument that combines elements from at least two other musical instruments. Submissions accepted as photos and/or videos. We will award gift certificate prizes for the ingeni
Read more…I'm always searching for the next unusual sound that can be coaxed from a guitar, so when I saw Kaki King's video for "Bowen Island" featuring a Passerelle Bridge at the 17th fret, I got inspired to make my own.
Using a hand crafted floating bridge,
Read more…In my ongoing quest to find historical instruments similar to our cigar box guitars and diddley bows, I recently stumbled across the Tromba Marina. This one-string, bowed instrument originated in Europe during the 1400's.
According to Wikipedia, "a
Read more…Del Puckett is a one-man tour de force of the cigar box guitar. He's always trying new experiments with his instruments, from unusual fretting options and more.
In this latest video, he shows off a cigar box guitar with Pentatonic Fretting and a co
Read more…Using photos from my collection of instruments, I have been releasing a series of Guitarcheology videos, giving details to some great forgotten instruments. Many are featured in Poor Man's Guide Magazine. Here are some of the latest for you to enjo
Read more…Ok, so it's not a cigar box guitar... but from time to time, I love getting a cheap guitar kit from eBay and putting my own spin on it.
As a lifelong Rush fan, I've always wanted a Steinberger headless guitar or bass ever since I saw Geddy Lee play
Read more…"Hard times make great music." Ain't that th' truth?!
While e'rrybody is stuck at home, we're gonna get y'all building the coolest stringed instruments ever. There's over $1000 in prizes, too!
Unlike our contests of the past, this build-off ha
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