Cigar box guitar

Generally, the strings are connected to the end of a broomstick or a 1×2 inch wood slat and to the cigar box resonator.

In addition to the etching, plans for a cigar box banjo were published by Daniel Carter Beard, co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America, in 1884 as part of Christmas Eve with Uncle Enos.

[5] These plans omitted the story but still showed a step-by-step description of a playable five-string fretless banjo made from a cigar box.

Using these, along with the washtub bass (similar to the cigar box guitar), jug, washboard, and harmonica, black musicians performed blues at social events.

A modern revival of these instruments has been gathering momentum with an increase in the number of cigar box guitar builders and performers.

[6] The modern revival is partly due to interest in the DIY culture, as a cigar box is inexpensive in comparison with other factors, such as strings and construction time.

Many modern cigar box guitar makers can be seen as practitioners of a type of lutherie and implement various personal touches, such as the addition of pickups and resonator cones.

In the mid-to-late 1990’s, Jay Kirgis, a musician and sculptor in Oxford, Mississippi, created playable, sculptural cigarbox and biscuit tin instruments using pool cues as necks.