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 ingenious as well as the bizarre. Deadline is April Fool's Day, April 1, 2021. All details are listed below.
Intro: Countless inventors have sought to combine elements from different instruments into a new, revolutionary creation. The harp guitar is an example of a successful invention. It mixes an acoustic guitar with low (and sometimes high) harp strings to extend the range of the sonic palate for the player. Muriel Anderson is one of many who has popularized the harp guitar, such as in the Youtube video below.
While the harp guitar is an example of a groundbreaking "mutant" instrument, the US Patent Office is filled with less successful ideas, such as the 1936 Cigar Box Pitchfork Fiddle-Drum, a wacky one-man band creation as seen below. The inventor attempted to mix a one-string cello-like instrument and a bass drum pedal, connecting both to a single resonator barrel. ( Get a reprint poster of the insane patent for just $5.00 at CBGitty.com)
We want to see you make your own mutant! Make a zither-guitar hybrid. Utilize parts from another instrument to craft something else. (Shane Speal has done this with wooden pipe organ pipes, turning them into lap steel guitars.) Brass instruments mixed with drums? Sure!!!
We will also accept the following:
- Double-neck instruments, if they include two different types of stringed instruments (guitar/uke hybrids, etc).
- Multi-instrument one-man-band setups, especially if they're unique and groundbreaking.
- Stumpf fiddles, devil sticks, pogo cellos and bumbasses. (Google 'em. Seriously...)
- Percussion attachments that fit onto other instruments.
- Stringed attachments that fit onto other instruments.
This build-off has no limits on whether it's a stringed instrument, percussion, brass, plosive aerophone... or a mixture of these. You must be the builder of the instrument.
Pictured above: Two examples of the Ukelin, a mutant instrument that mixed a bowed psaltry concept with a chorded zither. Thousands and thousands of these were sold door-to-door in the early part of the 20th Century, but very few people ever mastered playing one! See our Ukelin Patent Poster here.
CONTEST DETAILS, RULES & SUBMISSION INFORMATION:
Contest runs February 4 - April 1, 2021
Prizes:
- GRAND PRIZE - Best Overall Instrument - $300 C. B. Gitty Gift Certificate - This will be awarded to the instrument that wowed us the most. We're looking for creativity, ingenuity and something that breaks new ground in the musical instrument world
- TWO RUNNERS-UP - $100 C. B. Gitty Gift Certificate to two runners-up. Like the grand prize, we're looking for the wow factor.
- MOST ABSURD/FUNNY - $100 C. B. Gitty Gift Certificate awarded to the instrument that makes us laugh the most!
- MACGYVER AWARD - $100 gift certificate from C. B. Gitty for the best instrument made from 100% recycled materials
- INSTAGRAM - Two random winners who enter via Instagram will be selected to win a $50 gift certificate from C. B. Gitty (See entry details below)
- FACEBOOK - Two random winners who enter via the Friends of C. B. Gitty Group on Facebook will be selected to win a $50 gift certificate from C. B. Gitty (See entry details below)
- CIGAR BOX NATION - Two random winners who enter via Cigar Box Nation will be selected to win a $50 gift certificate from C. B. Gitty. (See entry details below)
Pictured above: Tambourine jingles embedded into a ukulele headstock.
How to Enter Via CigarBoxNation.com:
1. Post up to three (3) photos and one (1) video link of your entry in the comments section below.
2. You must use the following method to post photos. Entries that are posted via the "paper clip" icon will be ineligible.
We are experiencing periodic glitches in photo posting on Cigar Box Nation. If you cannot add your entry to the comment section below, we recommend you submit your entry via Instagram or Facebook. To learn about those options, click here.
NOTE: IN ALL SUBMISSIONS, INSTRUMENTS THAT WON PREVIOUS CIGAR BOX NATION CONTESTS ARE INELIGIBLE.
By entering the contest, you give Cigar Box Nation, C. B. Gitty Crafter Supply and their social media accounts the permission to reprint your photos, descriptions and videos.
One more bit of inspiration: The Drumbone: a percussion instrument that was inspired by a slide trombone! (This is seen in many Blue Man Group shows)
Replies
Improvised washboard / guitar .
Mini "Washboard" is actually off the front of a sewing machine head . and perfectly ribbed for a pick or your nails to easily scratch out a beat . there is a switchable pieso under the plate . works great . just ask buggy ;-)
How do you . "feeeeeeel"" a bout a Poo plunger talk box / diddly bow / amp, talking guitar ?
Amped speaker under plunger connected to mouth tube for some framton fun , With diddly bow actuator , all on a cheese board base
And here's another one . hybrid bass reverse whamola / 3 string guitar .
By request for something weird / wild and bass in a lap hybrid .
I made a reverse whamola as a separate neck . to have all kinds of weird ass wowey , droning ,accelerator, groaning , bass yumyums on . ;-)
Check out “ whamola” on youtube if you are not familiar with them .
.. it ain’t a stand up , it’s a lap , and the arm is reversed .. you can whack it with a stick and control the arm .. , or use the stick as a slide while controlling the arm . or lock it into place with the lil pin and holes behind the arm . and finger fret it or use a slide , even play it with a bow .. .. ; endless possibilities . ;-)
The guitar part is the regular 3 stringer .. slide
The switch
Up = guitar on high / bass off
Middle = guitar on low / bass on
Bottom = both on regular .
Both necks have mini humbuckers covered in burlap.
The Polynesian art designs are all hand done with oil pen .. lol I was up till 6 am doing it one night .
Then I heat transferred his 3 bird logo on the switch plate .
She’s 5 feet long :-o……… and tons of fun .
Ok . I guess I'll get this party started with the guitar / kalimba swamp witch “DEAR JOHN “ guitar . A piezo powered Typewriter / Dear john letter / Service member theme witch , with a kalimba , with typewriter key heads as the kalimba tines . (They worked surprisingly well ) and since I don’t like piezos too much (but this guitar needed one ), I installed a caramel resister cap.
Top mounted neck ,
Typewriter / Dear john letter / Service member theme . (DEEP PHOTO ON BACK)
Typewriter parts.
Proceeds of this went to "SIX STRING HEROES" . a charity that provides service members suffering from PTSD free music lessons and free store bought guitars .healing through music .
Here's some inspiration to get you going... The Top 5 Weirdest Musical Mutant Instruments
