cigar box guitars

allthumbs · #1 March 16th, 2005

anyone here have or play one? I toyed with the idea of getting a lowebow which has a bass string and three treble strings. The bass runs through one amp and treble through a second. It's tuned D,D,A,D. The thing growls and howls. My wife says she will shoot me if I get one after hearing some clips of how wild the thing sounds. Oh well.
allthumbs

benjamino · #2 March 17th, 2005

cool i've never heard of those before. sounds like a laugh. you should get one and serenade your wife, she'll not shoot you then. i have an instrument at home that is like a round frame with a wooden bell shape on the bottom and two strings running down the middle. when you pluck the strings and squeeze the frame it stretches them and creates different pitches (sounds kinda like a slide guitar, although pretty limited) but i dunno what its called. its loadsa fun! i got it from a little stall at glastonbury arts and music festival. and a didjeredoo, i love strange instruments.

allthumbs · #3 March 17th, 2005

cigar box guitars wer very popular in the early 1900s. A poor mans guitar. A lot of the old time blues players made these as kids and some played them as adults. Wooden cigar boxes were the best choice for the bodies, hence the name. They could have 1 to usually no more than eight strings. Banjos and fiddles were also made this way. With the revival of CBGs, you can now get them with pickups. One guy has even used a tele neck to make a cigcaster for $700.00 U.S that he sells. Some of the CBG sound horrible and some sound unbelievably good. I have seen them with round bodies so yours might be one. I still may make my own. You can even wind your own pickups and do your own wiring for these. People have used cookie tins,gas cans and one guy used a harley gas tank as the body for a upright bass, cool. You can google for CBGs. There are only about 5 sites for them.
allthumbs

allthumbs · #4 March 18th, 2005

A friend of mine is giving me a beat up accustic so it looks like I will be making my own cigarbox guitar after all. I can't decide if I will make the pickups or just buy them. I can even make a reso out of a paint can lid though I fear it will end up sounding like a banjo if I do that. widh me luck.
allthumbs

benjamino · #5 March 19th, 2005

haha good luck! you'll have to record it, i'd love to hear how that sounds.
i think you should try making your own pick ups and if it doesnt work out then you can always buy them.

allthumbs · #6 April 9th, 2005

I can't believe how hard it is to find cigar boxes up here. I think I will make my first cbg with an old artist paintbox I have had for years. It should make a good accustic.