Cigar Box Guitars...Who here can help?

I bumped into Cigar Box guitars on the net tonight and I have been mesmerized by them it seems. I watched a few videos on the tube and they can sound amazing in the hands of a good player. Slow slide blues though an old tweed amp...Mmm, mmm, tasty! I love the blues and am thinking I need to get one of these little critters and learn some real delta blues. I am not much of a wood worker, so making my own is not something I am interested in. Does anyone know a good reputable source for one? I want an electric pick up. 3 or 4 string I suppose. Something along these lines as played here in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLC8D1AAA1C83B7D53&v=RbcDlHPQprc&feature=player_detailpage


Where should I get one? I know next to nothing about them. Being from up here in Canada, I don't think I've ever seen or heard one played in person. The Blues or the CBG is certainly not part of our culture up here, but I love it. I gotta gits me one. I have a tweed deluxe and a tweed princeton, I am betting a CBG and a slide would be very very nice. Any advice appreciated.

I bumped into Cigar Box guitars on the net tonight and I have been mesmerized by them it seems. I watched a few videos on the tube and they can sound amazing in the hands of a good player. Slow slide blues though an old tweed amp...Mmm, mmm, tasty! I love the blues and am thinking I need to get one of these little critters and learn some real delta blues. I am not much of a wood worker, so making my own is not something I am interested in. Does anyone know a good reputable source for one? I want an electric pick up. 3 or 4 string I suppose. Something along these lines as played here in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLC8D1AAA1C83B7D53&v=RbcDlHPQprc&feature=player_detailpage


Where should I get one? I know next to nothing about them. Being from up here in Canada, I don't think I've ever seen or heard one played in person. The Blues or the CBG is certainly not part of our culture up here, but I love it. I gotta gits me one. I have a tweed deluxe and a tweed princeton, I am betting a CBG and a slide would be very very nice. Any advice appreciated.

I was at a get-together with a friend who's really into cigar box guitars and brought one with him. He was thinking that something was wrong with it and asked us if we could check it out and see if we could tell what was. I told him "I'll tell you what's wrong with it. It's a cigar box guitar!"

I should add, I'd like something decent. A quality neck, tuning pegs and electrics for plugging in. Tell me these doesn't sound good? ;-)

Go to www.cigarboxnation.com and contact my friend, Shane Spiel, the self-appointed King of the Cigar Box Guitar, from York, PA. He has his own website too. Shane is the man. He can help you out. I have two CBG's, one of which Shane and I built in about a half hour. I also have an electric diddley bow Shane built, a one-stringer.

There's a company in Canada that builds CBGs also, but the one I tried was a lot of money and not very well made.

Go to www.cigarboxnation.com and contact my friend, Shane Spiel, the self-appointed King of the Cigar Box Guitar, from York, PA. He has his own website too. Shane is the man. He can help you out. I have two CBG's, one of which Shane and I built in about a half hour. I also have an electric diddley bow Shane built, a one-stringer.

There's a company in Canada that builds CBGs also, but the one I tried was a lot of money and not very well made.

Dude, you are right, Shane is the man when it comes to cigar-box guitars. I've known Shane for years and he's a great musician and a good guy and real evangelist for cigar-box guitars. By the way, his last name is spelled Speal.
I also an the proud owner of one of his creations and it rocks.

CBG's are awsome! I made a couple of them several years ago. very basic, the only guitar parts I actually used were the tuners (my old guitar teacher was a tech and was really cool because he gave me a whole bunch of funky tuners some klusons, a couple fender "f" tuners, and two or three big bass tuners) the bridge and the nut were just bolts. The bridge was a big floating eye bolt that worked surprisingly well. Unfortunately one was given to a friend who left it leaning up against the garage wall all winter long and the neck warped and the box got wet somehow and molded, the second one I fell on and broke the neck, and the third i gave to one of my junior high teachers who played delta blues (I think he still has his but i haven't talked to him in years)

Well, the best resources have already been mentioned.

I have an old Tesco Mustang copy neck that I've been thinking about using on a cigar box guitar. This thread my just push me to it. Would that be cheating?

Good luck. CBG's are way cool.

Here's mine.
I've since learned to play it a bit more in tune.
Good thing!:wink:

-OzuTa6Eeik

I think the essence of CBG is to build your own. The first one won't be great, but you gotta start somewhere.

I discovered them late last year. Made a fretless one first for my brother for Christmas. He's been playing the heck out of it ever since. I've made a total of five now. The last four have frets which I learned how to do from reading all the build threads in the TDPRI build challenge. It's not hard. Mine have all have piezo pickups and volume control. I use guitar tuners to achieve a balance between being too crude and being too highly refined. It is a folk instrument after all. Too bad I don't have time to learn how to play it.

St Blues in Memphis makes them. They make quality stuff, so while I have never held one, I have to think they are nice. Maybe MIA, like their current guitars?

St Blues, cigar box guitar, made in USA, $275.

Daddy Mojo makes CBGs. They are in Canada. Very nice quality stuff. Lots of options and models. Reasonable prices.

Www.Daddy-Mojo.com

I think the essence of CBG is to build your own. The first one won't be great, but you gotta start somewhere.

Or in my case, the 6th one wont be great either!

Sooner or later, I'll get one that plays AND looks good!

Hi Keith B7 and everyone else. I'm new to this and I see that you've already go plenty of leads. About a month ago I decided to buy one, after not building one with the cigar boxes, poplar plank, hardware etc I have had hanging aroung for the past year. I purchased mine on eBay from a seller calleds Jburdog (581*). I paid about $235,00 just based on rhe photo and a short clip of him playing one of his cbg's. I am very happy with it. It's got a piezo and mini humbuker, real frets and a spartan but very nicely made neck. Its 4 string and sounds like what you are looking for when paired with my old silverface champ. I am going to try toput the photo up, but I am not sure if it is going to work. I'm very happy with my purchase. Good Luck http://www.ebay.com/itm/221018952137?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2648

I would either contact Fuzzy- from the link you posted or John McNair through 3-stringguitar.com. John McNair has really cool vids on Youtube and makes the Red Dog guitars- one of which Shane Speal demos and raves about. I built my first recently and agree that building your own is the way to go. However, if I was looking to buy one, John McNair would be 1st on my list.

Paying $235 for a CBG just ain't right- if the desire is there to have one that should be the motivation to build one for yourself. There are no rules so you can't screw it up. Mine got better the more I made & started putting frets & hand wound pickups into them- the peizo's can be pretty harsh. Some pics of mine(most have been gifted) and a short clip of how good these can sound-Brian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBux3ugcIeQ&feature=related

Dude, you are right, Shane is the man when it comes to cigar-box guitars. I've known Shane for years and he's a great musician and a good guy and real evangelist for cigar-box guitars. By the way, his last name is spelled Speal.
I also an the proud owner of one of his creations and it rocks.

You're right. Sorry! How could I have done that? I have known Shane for about four years now.

Daddy Mojo makes CBGs. They are in Canada. Very nice quality stuff. Lots of options and models. Reasonable prices.

Www.Daddy-Mojo.com

I reviewed one of their CBGs for Premier Guitar (never was published) and didn't like it. It didn't really play well, wouldn't stay in tune, and cost about $800! CBGs should never cost that much, but they should play better than this one did. See my first post.

These look pretty good:

http://www.vintage47amps.com/files/index.php?id=59

My grand daddy always said, "Son...never pay for catfish, nor a cee-gar box gee-tar."