CBGitty.com & Cigar Box Nation are looking for the WILDEST, LOUDEST & MOST DIABOLICAL electric cigar box guitar ever built. The more pickups, the more internal effects, the better! We’re looking for insane hot rods that could blow a Marshall stack.
Read more…Hi all, it's Shane Speal. I wanted to give you guys an update about the latest changes for Nation 3.0. This is especially for the 'old guard' members who have taken such good care of Nation 2.0, even with all its glitches and problems.
If you need to get your old content from Cigar Box Nation 2.0, you can still see the old site at https://cigarboxnation.ning.com for the next week or so. We held on to the old site during the transition as we work the bugs out.
-shane
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
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Thank you to Bigg Jim Jones for filming Louie's excellent seminar at the first meeting.
Post comments, links to products he used and questions below.
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…Hi all, it's Shane Speal.
On April 29, 2022, we debuted my mini documentary, The Cigar Box Mandolin Project. I show you how I built a great playing acoustic/electric mandolin from a cigar box and parts from CBGitty.com.
In the documentary, I refer
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…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…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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In the past week, literally thousands of you have held me up in prayer as I struggled in a hospital ICU with COVID.
I felt every single prayer.
I am home now in what i consider a miracle. Staff was expecting me to be there at least 20 days or so.
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
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
Read more…"Build a Hurdy Gurdy" by Bart Brush from Mugwumps Magazine, March 1974
A note from Shane: In researching various obscure musical instruments, I have discovered the treasure trove of information from Mugwumps, a now defunct magazine originally pu
Read more…Instrument builder, Don Peddle first debuted this video back in 2011 and features his tabletop, double strung harp. It has 17 strings each side and uses a cigar box for the soundbox. It also has built in piezo pickups.
Peddle ran Random Sound Music
Read more…After spending months developing the new 2x4 Lap Steel Kit, Ben "Gitty" Baker started to consider other uses for simple 2x4 planks and came up with this very simple strummer guitar.
To make the instrument, Gitty started with a single piece of 2x4
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