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This week's featured instrument is "The Last Waltz," a stellar 3-string cigar box dobro by Roger Ring of Shawnee, KS.  The guitar features a pewter plate, CBGitty dog bowl reso cone, Humidor Guitars Thinpup pickup, Macacauba neck, Rosewood fret board and bridge.

• SmilingDog1 starts a monthly cigar box guitar meetup in St. Louis.  (We should organize meetups all over the world.  Thoughts?  Email us at gittyfans@cbgitty.com)
• Calim discovers the Madagascar "kabosy" guitar (and posts a video, too).  The instrument is definitely an African connection to the cigar box guitar.
• Tommy Ragan discusses how to keep shipping costs down when mailing cigar box guitars.  Many useful hints.

CIGAR BOX GUITAR FESTIVAL SEASON!!!  Look for the Cigar Box Nation email next week with all the details, videos, cd reviews and more.  We will be especially highlighting next week's Cigar Box Guitar Festival in Huntsville AL and the Handmade Music Extravaganza in Toronto, OH.

NOTE:  THE HUNTSVILLE ALABAMA FESTIVAL IS NEXT WEEK!  May 29-30.  Get tickets here.

If you are planning a cigar box guitar festival in your area, let us know about it:  gittyfans@cbgitty.com

Here's two outstanding videos from the past week. 

C. B. Gitty's Soundhole Contest ends in just nine days.  Get your entries in now.

Let's take the cigar box guitar concept and elevate it even more as an art form. We're looking for the greatest sound holes!

First place - $50 gift certificate from C. B. Gitty

Second place - $25 gift certificate from C. B. Gitty

Contest rules:

1.  Send three (3) jpeg pictures of your entry to gittyfans@cbgitty.com along with a one paragraph description.  Include your name and address.

2.  One entry per person.

3.  Entry must be an instrument you personally built.

4.  Contest runs from Thursday, April 2 through Sunday, May 31, 2015.  Winners to be announced in June 2015.  Any entry received after May 31 will not be eligible. 

5.  Entry into the contest gives us the right to reprint the photos on CBGitty.com, Cigarboxguitar.com and CigarBoxNation.com.

The Poor Man's Resonator Cone!   *As seen in today's Featured Instrument*

C. B. Gitty stainless steel dog bowl - $4.29 ea.

This is a stainless steel pet dish, very much the same as could be bought (at a higher cost) in many pet supply stores. They have a much better use than for providing water to pets, however: they are of a perfect size and temperament for use as resonator cones for cigar box guitars.

These bowls have an outer diameter at the widest point of 15 centimeters (6 inches), and are about 1 5/8 inches in depth. This makes them suitable for use as resonator cones in many cigar boxes (at least 6 1/4" wide by 1 3/4" deep).