Make Some Noise with a Cigar Box Guitar
Although I’ve been playing guitar for many years it is only recently that I have discovered the fun that can be had with a cigar box guitar.
If you have never heard of cigar box guitars I shall explain what they are. A cigar box guitar is, as the name suggests, a guitar made from a cigar box. They tend to be home made instruments that use a cigar box as the resonator in the same way that an acoustic guitar uses its guitar body to amplify the sound from the strings.
Back in the 19th century cigars were far more popular than they are today. They began to be packaged in wooden boxes from around the middle of the 19th century and there are etchings of civil war soldiers sitting at a campsite where one of them is playing a fiddle made from a cigar box.
Turning a cigar box into a guitar like instrument is relatively easy to achieve with a length of wood for the neck and a few tuning pegs. The simplest of cigar box guitars might have only one string, but they are commonly made with three strings and no frets. Fretting the steel strings would be achieved using a bottleneck or a piece of animal bone.
Cigar box based musical instruments are a traditional form of folk instrument that could easily be made using items that would otherwise have been thrown away. In recent years there has been increased interest in these simple instruments with people sharing their building expertise, tips and advice on the internet. And its not essential that you use a cigar box to make home made musical instruments. Many people who build these home made guitars use other boxes for the resonator including oil cans, childrens lunch boxes and even biscuit tins.
So if you’re struggling with augmeted thirteenths on your six string guitar toss it to one side and get yourself a three string cigar box guitar and make some noise.
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