#1 resource for Cigar Box Guitars, Free Plans, How-To, Parts & More!

VIDEO & PHOTOS: Naughty Cigar Box Guitar Has "Peep Show" Window!

One of the wildest concepts I've ever created in cigar box guitar design has to be the Peep Show windows. The idea started when I took a wooden humbucker pickup ring from C. B. Gitty and decided to use it as a sound hole. I've written about these pickup rings before with the "Rust & Scratches" guitar (see full article here).

The heater grate concept was a lot of fun, but then I got the notion that these humbucker rings could be some sort of picture frame. But if it's going to have a picture, what would it be? A beautiful woman!

When I thought about it more, it felt like I was a Peeping Tom! Hmm...one naughty thought inspired another. What if the box was an old Peep Show booth?

The concept is simple... you have a "picture frame" sound hole and a "coin slot" soundhole with an actual slot that fits a nickel! See it in detail in this video:

<span style="font-size: 18pt;"> The girlie photo used in the guitar is Miss Viola Hamilton, performing as Lady Godiva. As you can see in this postcard, she was actually wearing a body suit and not fully nekkid. </span>

In the video, I couldn't remember the model's name. She was Miss Viola Hamilton, an actress who performed as Lady Godiva in a flesh colored bodysuit. Here's her original postcard:

ViolaHamilton.jpg

As I said in the video, my original version had a hand-cut coin slot. You can hand-cut your own. If you'd like a cleaner look, C. B. Gitty has taken my design and created a fantastic laser-etched version for just $8.99.

These guitars are always a hit. Just remember: I never used a totally nude photo! I always chose one that was just naughty enough for a smile or two. :)

2 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Stuart Joseph on October 13, 2018 at 6:03pm

There was a joke that con men would use to fleece admission fees out of the pockets of rubes and hayseeds, which are. Terms for people without to much intelligence who generally lived in the country as opposed to being in the city.

They would advertise a show that was very naughty, in tasting karma and promising to reveal to you something that was only seen by the favoral of Egypt, then when they got all your money you would file into A-tent where the curtains would open and reveal something like a camel with a dress on.

I think would be a hoot to have some cigar Box guitar peepshows that would do something like that and I am planning to do it with some of my cigar Box guitars period of course the beautiful ladies always win out. I just thought that might be neat to wrap up the cigar Box with the gag photo in it in a bag or something and charge people to look at it or get what the picture was if they bought this cigar Box.

Violet, the woman that shame used in his cigar Box guitar, was not actually a burlesque performer. She was in English actress who was performing as lady good diver in a Coventry pageant somewhere around the turn of this century. I have been researching it but I haven't been able to find out the exact dates. I also haven't been able to find out violet's exact dates of her birth and death, there is very little to be found on the Internet. The only thing that I have found is a listing of for film said she appeared in around 1912 on the Internet movie database and the database of the British film institute. But she still is lovely to look at!