I've been working hard for our home town craft show, had 10 cigar box guitars, empty cigar boxes, had 12 shirts.
It was my first craft fair ever and I had a blast and it paid off too. I sold 4 cigar box guitars, sold almost all my tshirts, several regular plain guitar boxes and got my name out there and meet lots of people. Meet lots of vendors that gave me pointers and gave me lots of info on other craft fairs they think I would be very successful at. Had fun and I recommend going to one for anyone that wants to sell theirs.
Not only did I get to play on my gittys all day and get to talk about them with others by my 12 year old son was there all day with me playing on one and helped out a lot, got to spend a lot of time with him. At the end of the day he had a big smile on his face.
Thanks everyone for suggestions on the forums and what to do on it.
Replies
Nice! I've grown up around flea markets and swap meets and wish I'd picked this up earlier, I could certainly have made some nice money on nearly any given weekend. Great to hear of your success, it gives me hope :)
Good evening Josh - glad you had success at your show - I too make cigar box guitars with a friend of mine Gary Wooten we are both members of Cigar Box Nation and are located in Oklahoma City. I do several craft shows each year - already seven under my belt this year with about 17 remaining. I did the 4th annual cigar box guitar blues festival in Webster Groves, Missouri where Justin Johnson was the headliner for the fourth year. It was an honor to have him play one of my builds on stage, he signed a couple of mine and one of Gary's and spent time giving me some great pointers and his 2 hour class on building, history, & playing was a blast.
I am doing the Texas Festival in September and between now and then have plans to have cigar box guitars in a gallery in North Oklahoma CIty where Gary and I will also hopefully sell kits and help people get them finished at the gallery. Have a couple three day shows this fall and several two day. I have found personally that the smaller shows such as those held by churches in your area would be a good place for you to participate - those shows usually have people who actually go to buy not just walk around and kick tires so to speak.
You can check for shows all over the country on a site called craftlister/eventlister which is operated by Louis Marquette out of Pennsylvania - he lists probably 50,000 shows throughout the country per year so if you don't mind travelling you can always find a craft show to do through his site.
I viewed a few of your photos and especially like your OSU guitar - nice job. It was cool that you took your son and had him enjoy the show with you - getting him interested at his age is good hopefully one day you and he will be making CBG's together and traveling the circuit. May make a trip to Fairview it is only about 90 miles from OKC just to have the opportunity and privilege to meet you and exchange some ideas.
Respectfully,
Michael Lohrengel
Boxes, Jewelry & Such by Legnerhol
Josh,
How long have you been making cigar box guitars - 32 builds is a lot - my mentor, friend, & business partner Gary Wooten has been building for about two and half years now and has produced around 36 instruments or so - I have been building since late March, early April this year and have done 9 builds on instruments and 8 amplifiers with another 8 instruments in progress. I also get cigar boxes in the city at 3 different stores - would be great to meet up with you - let me know the next time you will be in town and hopefully we could catch lunch and go over some things - have a great evening - and thanks for the friend request - Mike
So do you and Gary do this full time or is this more of a hobby? 17 more shows going to is a lot, I can only imagine going to 1 or 2 more this year because of the amount I need to make to have on hand. I have over 40 cigar boxes right now to make them from and can't wait. Just takes time. I can usually make 1 maybe 2 a week depending on my regular work scedule.
We both use it as supplemental income although I may very soon be doing it as a full time job - I have always enjoyed wood working but when Gary stopped by the workshop where I was a project manager back in January and showed me one of his CBG's I had him build one for a good friend in St. Louis who has been playing for well over 40 years but had never had a CBG - he enjoyed it immensely and with all of the musician friends I have in Missouri and Oklahoma I took to this under Gary's guidance and mentoring like a fish to water and now am getting into doing much higher grade of builds as well as upping the amplifiers. Did a 2 x 4 lap steel from following Shane's video with some personal changes but it came out fine. We have not yet setup a website/store but are considering it very seriously. Right now between Gary and I we have about 16 completed builds for sale and 5 amps but have so much more in the works although we may hit a snag as the workshop where we have been building them is going out of business very soon so we are trying to get as many finished as possible before that occurs.
cool a roo , an good for you ;-)
T Shirts I was selling for $15, and yes those surprised me to. My cigar box guitars sold from $100 to $175 each depend on which one I sold, higher end versions with more electronic inside all piezo pickups. My next versions I'm working on are with humbucker pickups so they'll be a little higher cost probably around $200. I find some people have money to spend around $100 and they don't have problems and others can afford a little more so I wanted to give a wide price range so everyone could afford one.
An no there wasn't any other musical instruments there which was a big plus. I talked to several vendors there and they said they go all over my state in Oklahoma and have never seen cigar box guitars at any of the craft fairs which is good for me, maybe I can get a niche in Oklahoma before anyone else, get my name out there.
I was surprise I had sever people ask who is the woman that goes around and plays them, and of course they were talking about Samantha Fish. One guy knew her and Justin Johnson. Very interesting knowing some people know about cigar box guitars but never seen one in person and other never seen or heard of them ever.
That's great. I would go nuts if I saw them for the first time at a fair or something like that. I've only seen one CBG other than pictures, that I didn't build, in 10 years.
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