Cigar-Box-Guitar-O-Rama

What inspired me to start trying to cobble together these kinds of instruments? Simple... Sometimes you (I) just go sorting through your guitar parts bin from years of playing and working on guitars, and you end up finding all these extra parts. Then you think to yourself how much of a shame it is they aren't being used. Well, that's not happening here anymore. I dug up several bridges, pickups, guitar necks pulled from thrift-store buys and random bits and pieces, stumbled upon some real wood cigar boxes and some scrap lumber, and decided to challenge myself. In the spirit of our forefathers, I grabbed a bunch of hand tools and started working. I began to make several of these at once, and they all had their own character. Some were very basic, while others are fancier. Some were straight-to-the-point, while others had more versatility and unique features one normally doesn't find on a CBG. What sets these apart from what most people build out of cigar boxes is that for on...

As a musician myself, I am shocked how many other guitarists---even those older than myself---have never heard of a "cigar box guitar". When I started wanting to experiment with my strange "hybrid" cigar box guitar builds about a year ago, I was somewhat familiar with what a cigar box guitar ("CBG") was, but in its more raw "OG" forms, like the "stick-through-a-box" 3/4-string short-scale rustic homemade instruments meant to be tuned to a chord and played with a slide. Also I recalled about 10 years ago having seen some cat on eBay listing a "kit" which was basically a plank of wood for a center-block, a pre-cut craft box as a substitute for a cigar box, some OEM hardware, pickups/electronics and a neck like you'd find on a "DIY" electric guitar kit (in all likelihood actually bogarted from one of said kits), and instructions to make your own fully-functional 6-string, more-refined rendition of a CBG. It was a co...