3-string Biscuit Tin Guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This 3-stringed biscuit tin guitar is yet another variation on the cigar box guitar theme, and illustrates nicely the spirit of inventiveness.

This seller has been listing such homemade instruments on eBay for several months now and has assembled a number of rustic-looking resonator guitars. It's a pity his eBay listings are let down by a lack of attention to detail in the areas of spelling, grammar, punctuation, use of capital letters (i.e. total disregard for), and even basic sentence construction.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Paul's homemade 3-string slide guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Paul Hammersley has sent us these photos of a 3-string electric slide guitar, built - very much in the tradition of cigar box guitars - from 1/2" alloy plate, P-bass pickup, and a few bits and pieces found in his garage.

I'd love to know how it sounds.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Ron Marr's doubleneck CBG

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Hi.

Since an electric cigar box guitar wasn't quite ridiculous enough, I decided I should build myself a double-neck. Thought you might get a kick out of this.

The bottom neck is a 2-string, longneck slide bass (ala Stig Pederson). The custom nut is a hunk of bolt I hacksawed and spray painted. The tailpiece is a chunk of angle iron.

The top neck is a 3-stringer with a low action ... better for me as I do a lot of finger picking (it really is fast ... and for once I even nailed the intonation). Note the fancy-schmancy tailpiece that began its life as a pie spatula.

The homemade necks (steel reinforced ... and rounded with a bastard file) are bolt ons using helicoil inserts and gobs of JB Weld. Oh ... and lets not forget those hand-carved headstocks. Last but not least, in order to take overkill to new heights, I covered the Punch cigar box with a lacewood veneer

I'm thinking my next project may be an electric harp guitar with a 1-gallon oil can for a body.

Great blog ... I check it out most every day.

Ron Marr


Thanks Ron. As ever we are always pleased to receive photos of readers' self-builds. Funnily enough, only last night I was watching a few YouTube clips of The Presidents of the United States of America, a band known for their minimalistic 2- and 3-string guitars (dubbed the basitar and the guitbass respectively). In one clip, Chris Ballew is seen playing a doubleneck basitar/guitbass with a total of 5 strings on it.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Antique Box/Parlour Guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:
This antique guitar built from a box, in the style of cigar-box guitars, presents us with a wonderful piece of Americana, although little is known of its origins. The seller believe that the box may have originally have been for storing silverware; admittedly it is larger than the average cigar box.

The fingerboard, headstock and top of the body have been inlaid with individually cut pieces of mother of pearl, these describing the hourglass-shaped outline of a parlour guitar on the top of the box.

The seller says that he himself has restored this piece. Apparently, when it first came to him the strings themselves had rusted away leaving lines of rust on the fingerboard. It looks like he's done a great job!

G L Wilson

ADDITIONAL (6 Feb 2010): It's a FAKE. Thanks to Mac Walker for this info.

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Anyone for tennis?

guitarz.blogspot.com:

It's a bit early in the year, but... anyone for tennis?

From the same spirit of mind that creates cigar box guitars, comes the Sonny Daze 2-string Tennis Racquet Guitar.

Note that its creator spells it "racket". Some people unkinder than me would suggest that this is deliberate given the sound it makes, but not I. Obviously you're going to be limited as to what you can play on this, but the following video will give an idea on some of the kind of cigar-boxian slide riffs that are possible.

For an instrument (or "trash art", as its maker calls it) with practically no body mass, it's actually quite impressive. In a diddley bo kinda way.

G L Wilson

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Flightcase Guitar

This Flightcase Guitar from Chickenbone John on eBay is a modern take on the traditional cigarbox guitar. I'm wondering if the flightcase can still be opened. Just think, inside you could have another similar guitar, only smaller, in the fashion of those Russian nesting dolls.

The "Poor Boys Gibson" guitar

This home-made guitar is not a Gibson, of course. Built from a single plank by a maker of cigar box guitars, it is even more rustic than the acoustic we looked at last week.

Montecristo Golf Set Cigar Box Guitar

This oddly-shaped but attractive hollow-bodied electric is actually a
Montecristo Golf Set Cigar Box Guitar - a cigar box guitar with a difference.

Cigar box guitars are usually very basic instruments, but this appears to be a deluxe version! The box itself is from a Montecristo Golf Set and would orignally have contained golf balls and tees alongside the cigars.

The original lid of the cigar box now forms the back of the guitar. It is still hinged and it would seem that you can use this feature as a built-in guitar stand.

Smojo Cigar Box Guitars

I've just added another guitar blog to my blogroll. Smojo Cigar Box Guitars is a fascinating look into the world of cigar box guitars (or CBGs). The blog's author, David, got the CBG bug a couple of years ago when he tried one for the first time. He was then intrigued enough to turn his hand to building his own. His blog documents the CBGs and cigar box amps that he has built and also covers related matters such as playing techniques.

I've not tried a CBG myself but have always found them most appealing. One of these days I'm going to have to dip a toe into the CBG ocean. I admire the whole concept - they are basic raw instruments and are the ultimate recycled guitar.

Also, check out David's CBG videos on YouTube to hear how they sound.

Bedpan guitar

We've all seen that tired old cliché that is the toilet seat guitar (time and time again, yawn...), but as a variation on the theme this four-stringer is a bedpan guitar.

I'm not quite sure what the deal is with the fake bullet holes.