It's not a cigar box guitar, but it sure is strange enough for us to study... In 1963, Frank Zappa appeared on the Steve Allen show to perform a completely avant garde music on various parts of a bicycle, including using a violin bow on the spokes.
Read more…So this just totally happened last week... Cigar Box Nation member, Christopher Ameruoso joined guitar legend, Jose Feliciano on stage to rock out some Elvis. And of course, Ameruoso brought along one of his trusty cigar box guitars. Here's just a
Read more…Historic Instrument Plans: originally published in Practical Wireless Magazine, June 1965.
A special thanks to Hubcap John for scanning these plans and donating them to Cigar Box Nation.
PDF download: 1965 Hawaiian Guitar Plans
There's been many discussions about the best tools to use when making cigar box guitars, but this video is guaranteed to humble any builder. Filmed in 2012, the video, Guitar Maker at Dzalaka Refugee Camp, Malawi shows refugees making great, playabl
Read more…A photo of Billy Gibbons playing cigar box guitar has been traveling around the interwebs for years. However, have you ever heard the music he was playing?
The photo and audio below in the Youtube video come from The Howard Stern Show, November 11,
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You probably have seen Shelley Rickey's cigar box uke video before. Now she's back with a plastic bucket washtub bass in the band, The Mourning Glories. This Rotterdam trio delivers some pure voodoo 3-part vocals and Deep South sound (Rickey is
Read more…This old archtop guitar is like a cat with nine lives and it mixes so many legends into one tale. From being the most sought-after archtop brand to getting lost in the back of an old Cadillac, the future songs still waiting inside its soundholes mu
Read more…Originally published in 1886, these cigar box banjo plans are some of the earliest ever discovered. They bear a striking resemblance to the Daniel Carter Beard plans originally published two years prior. John Richards plans, as printed below, utili
One of the ways I get better as a cigar box guitar player is to study other slide guitarists. I first saw this video pop up on my Facebook timeline a couple months ago and my mind was blown. Appearing here is Nicolle Brown, a.k.a. Nikki D of Nikki
Read more…What's weirder than a cigar box guitar? The Pallet Harp Guitar!
Legendary guitar builder, Steve Klein is known for his innovative designs and ergonomic shapes. However, there comes a time when a man must throw all the rules out the window and creat
Read more…Here's a chestnut from 2014 that we recently discovered. Johnny Depp plays a beautiful dobro a (which provides the soundtrack to the short video) along with his Matty Baratto CigFiddle Cigar Box Guitar.
I'm fascinated by acoustic properties. If it makes a sound, I'm interested. So when the news came across my Facebook timeline that an inventor made a guitar amp that increases sound levels of an electric guitar by 12 decibels...without using electr
Kids Rock Cigar Box Ukuleles at New Orleans Fest
It was all child's play at the First Annual New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar Fest when local students from Encore Academy took the stage with ukuleles and gave a command performance. Eight of the instru
Read more…It was all child's play at the First Annual New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar Fest when local students from Encore Academy took the stage with ukuleles and gave a command performance. Eight of the instruments used were cigar box ukuleles, built by the cl
Read more…Shane Speal delivered this speech in 2015, highlighting how the cigar box guitar changed his life. It was part of the York (PA) Crafted speech series.
The presentation was limited to 7 minutes with 20 slides in a "Pechakucha" style of delivery.
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Ok, first thing's first... I love the Electro Harmonix Pitchfork Pedal. It allows you to change the pitch of your guitar or even add octaves to it. I personally use mine to add just a tiny bit of low and high octave (barely noticeable) to my elect
Read more…When it comes to Seattle busking legend, Artis the Spoonman, Pete Seeger said he was "the best spoonplayer in the universe." After watching the video below, we agree.
Artis the Spoonman has been playing spoons as an art form since 1972, many years
Read more…Check out this great old video of the Hoosier Hot Shots performing 'She Broke My Heart in Three Places." It prominantly shows washboard/slide whistle virtuoso Hezzie Treitsch going at it on his Wabash Washboard.
Here's a video that's been going around the interwebs for quite a while now. It's a New Orleans street busker that made a "Fotdella" foot bass piano out of a junked upright bass.
This isn't the first one man band that has used a foot piano. The g
Read more…It was one of those magical things that could only happen at the NAMM Musical Instrument Convention in California: Sacred Steel legend, Robert Randolph passes by the booth of FunGuy Mojo Cigar Box Guitars and is smitten by their 2x4 lap steel (a des
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