Christian Little

Cigar Box Guitar – Goin to Brownsville

I’ve been playing, or should I say learning, the guitar for over thirty years but I’ve only recently discovered the fun that can be had with a simple cigar box guitar.

If you have never heard of cigar box guitars I shall explain what they are. A cigar box guitar is, as the name suggests, a guitar made from a cigar box. These tend to be home made folk instruments that use a cigar box as the resonator body in the same way that an acoustic guitar uses its resonant body to make the guitar sound.

Back in the 19th century cigars were far more popular than they are today. They began to be packaged in wooden boxes from around the middle of the 19th century and there are etchings of civil war soldiers sitting at a campsite where one of them is playing a fiddle made from a cigar box.

Turning a cigar box into a guitar like instrument is relatively easy to achieve with a length of wood for the neck and a few tuning pegs. The simplest of cigar box guitars might have only one string, but they are commonly made with three strings and no frets. A bottleneck slide, knife or even a piece of animal bone can be used to fret the steel strings.

Cigar box based musical instruments are a traditional form of fok instrument made from rubbish such as empty cans or cigar boxes. In recent years there has been increased interest in these simple instruments with people sharing their building expertise, tips and advice on the internet. And its not essential that you use a cigar box to make home made musical instruments. Many people who build these home made guitars use other boxes for the resonator including oil cans, childrens lunch boxes and even biscuit tins.

So if you’re struggling with augmeted thirteenths on your six string guitar toss it to one side and get yourself a three string cigar box guitar and make some noise.