Never mind the CBGs here a Marks and Spencers biscuit tin guitar!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Very much in the style of a cigar box guitar, this three-stringer is a Marks & Spencers Biscuit Tin guitar based on a novelty biscuit tin shaped like a Marks & Spencers delivery van.

This guitar is currently listed on eBay UK with a starting price of £0.99. The seller very honestly comments that: "As you would expect, it ain't a great sound, but it is great fun!"

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

3-string boat oar guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Do you really need me to write an in-depth blog post about this boat oar guitar? It's a boat oar, strung up with three strings and with a pickup mounted on it, and would be used for sldie playing in cigar box star style.

Currently listed on eBay with a starting price of $100 for those who don't want to be bothered with building something similar themselves.

See also the Tennis Racquet Guitar.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Unusual "pyramid box" La Flor Dominicana 4-string cigar box guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here is a unique cigar box guitar (actually if a CBG wasn't unique that would be something unusual in itself) featuring a so-called "pyramid"-shaped La Flor Dominicana cigar box, four strings, and a fully fretted neck. I think perhaps if I'd been the maker and had this box to work with, I might have been tempted to make a doubleneck.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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.