Cigar Box guitars

[paranoid70]

I invited a neighbor to a gig the other night. During a set break he said I should come over and check out the cigar box guitar he made. I have never heard of these before, so I thought he was BSing me, but I guess they have roots back to the 1930s. He is kind of a crafty guy, but doesn't know anything about playing music. He showed me his guitar and I was rather impressed.... it stays in tune better than some cheap ass guitars I have seen at GC. I know there is some room for improvement (i.e. I told him to use nickel frets next time), but I thought it was pretty cool.

The top string is A tuned to pitch. The middle is G tuned to E, and the bottom is a B string also tuned to E. It's basically like open A tuning. Pretty fun to play around with.

The piezo doesn't really work well on the middle string for some reason.

Anyway, here are some pics.

[bluesjuke]

Cool!
I used to have a link to some really cool, wild playing by a guy performing on one and another for a place that makes and sells them.

Would be a blast to have one.

[TonyD]

Saw Richard Johnston when in Memphis. Heard his music a block away and got drawn in. He's playing a cigar box guitar here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=172YV...eature=related

[2leod]

Saw Harry Manx play one 4~5 years back - he played a version of Springsteen's "I'm On Fire" in his Indian influenced blues style he calls "mysticssippi"




I like the whole idea of a cigar box guitar!

[mannish]

Lowebows or however you spell it - I have been offered an electric one by a local maker. I tried it and frankly does not make a bit of sense when you got nice guitars. I hate them myself. Why play a four string thing when I got real guitars. I have enjoyed others playing like R Johnston and others but not my thang.

[Adman103]

I saw a couple of guys opening up for Jonny Lang last year named Moreland & Arbuckle. The guitarist played a four string cigar box guitar for most of their set, and it rocked! He had a dual amp rig- where three of the strings went to a guitar amp, and a fourth string- a bass string!- went to a bass amp. No bass player in the band. Killer blues stuff.

Daddy Mojo makes some cool cigar box guitars.
www.daddy-mojo.com

[scr@tchy]

great thread cheers

[outlawyer]

We made them out of the cardboard HavaTampa boxes and fishing line as kids. No joke. Sounded terrible, even after a few rabbit tobacco handrolls.
We were poor and we LIKED it!

[Trickstaaah]

The CBG trend was going really strong about four or five years ago, but it's died down a bit since then. Back in 2007-2008 it seemed like you couldn't swing a crosseyed cat without hitting a CBG player.

In any case, CBGs, Lowebows, diddley bows and anything else that gets people back in touch with the roots of music are Good Things.