Check out Duca Belintani's latest video, "Walking by Myself." It's a simple little blues shuffle that has him triple tracked with two different cigar box guitars and a Tele.
Sandbox Percussion is an NYC based chamber music group that specializes in percussive compositions played on junk. This quick documentary showcases their cool use of homemade instruments and music.
Here's a wild idea: combine various sized CAJONS into a fully functioning drum set. That's exactly what the folks at German-based Schlagwerk Cajons did at this year's NAMM convention. Cigar Box Nation's owner, Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker filmed this q
Read more…Check out Sergi Estella's dog bowl reso guitar and it's custom wine spout!
Check out this homemade version of a Cymbalum, the traditional hammered dulcimer from Hungary. This one was made with just soup cans and pallet wood.
The most popular discussion this week has been what people don't like added to cigar box guitars. The dogma has been running all over this neighborhood. Somebody get the pooper scooper!
But seriously, I have seen these arguments pop up within the
Read more…A few years back, Cigar Box Nation created a Motorhead Tribute Album. In the wake of Lemmy's passing, we share it again with you here...completely streaming on this Youtube video.
Play. This. Loud.
track listing:
Track 1. No Voices In The Sky Le
Edited and expanded: Dec 22, 2015 by Shane Speal
See the 'plans only' version of the Uncle Enos Banjo here.
This short story first appeared newspapers across the US in the early 1800's and was eventually published in The Book Buyer 1884-1885. It was
Read more…You'll never know what you can find on eBay.
A seller in the UK is auctioning off the factory stockpile from the Dan Armstrong Guitar Company that has remained untouched since 1974.
The auction contains 41 guitars that can be assembled from the b
Read more…This is one of the easiest homemade guitars I've ever built, and it took me only an hour to make.
This lap steel was made from an extra 2x4 I had in my shed, with just a few saw cuts to the wood. I even used a pre-wired acoustic sound hole pickup, s
Read more…The rebak is the father of the violin and was introduced to Europe by the Persians. We have archived these set of plans -- including making the bow -- in a downloadable pdf. RebecFiddle.pdf
Originally published in Sing Out! Magazine - Volume 26/Number6/1978
Transcribed and archived by Shane Speal, Dec 2015.
Shane's notes: These plans are for a traditional Middle Eastern "spike fiddle," also known as a Rebab. It is very similar to the
Read more…In the pantheon of great guitar makers, Ed Stilley’s work stands alone like a castaway on its own musical island. Imperfect, bizarre and some even un-tunable to the modern equal temperament scale, his crudely made stringed instruments would make th
Read more…Musical Instruments from Cigar Boxes
by W. F. Cord Popular Mechanics, September 1923
Cigar boxes, which may generally be obtained for the asking from any tobbacconist - who will be glad to get rid of them - can be used to make very passable violins
Read more…There's a growing movement of people transforming old skateboards into guitars and basses. Like cigar box guitars, there are no rules to these creations and designs vary wildly, from freakish lap slide beast to traditional looking instruments.
One
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2-string Cigar Box Guitar Plans by Michael LydonYou may be thinking that plans published in a guitar mag in 1976 aren’t quite old enough to qualify as “historic”.
These plans are special though, because these are the o
Read more…God bless the writers of science magazines back in the 1960's. Everyone wanted to be a rock star, so they found innovative ways to make the instruments!
We have archived these vintage 2x4 bass plans in a downloadable PDF file for you to print out an
Read more…Youtube star, "SlapMonsterJoel" rocks out on a jerry can bass built by Marcus Reeves. The bass is plugged into a Hartke LH1000 head and a 410 hydrive cab with no effects.
With a little more searching, we've discovered a second gas can bass filmed
Read more…We love vintage plans, especially ones from the Eisenhower Era. Here's another one to drool over and explore: a One-Tube cigar box amp! The plans were first published in Science and Mechanics, Feb. 1954. We've taken a scan of them, cleaned them u
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by Chick Who Tinkers
I use four small piezos straight to jack, no volume or tone. 2 on center under bridge, and one on each side. Super res
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