Cigar Box Guitar Articles

Build an 8 string mandolin from the tin of a canned ham. Common hardware store parts used. Full instructions.

The cigar box guitar in their collection was made by an unknown maker in North Carolina around 1875-1899. It is a four course (4x1) guitar

Photos of cigar box fiddles, cellos and other instruments from 1922 book, Creative Music for Children by Satis N. Coleman.

The photos of the Cigar Box Guitar Museum instruments have been artfully turned into shirts, cell phone covers and more. You can find the la

This curious antique banjo was made from a wooden dough bowl for a body, a carved hunk of wood for the neck and clothespin tuners

Here's an easy project that will give you a goofy electric echo microphone that you can use for cool effects in a recording or on stage.

“If you can hum, whistle or carry a tune in your head, you can play the Marxolin with only a few hours practice!”

Cigar box guitarists frequently talk about one-string diddley bows as the foundation of many slide blues players. This is the real deal

The Concertone is one part harmonica, one part accordion, made in Germany in the early 1900’s. It was also known as a Pipoleon or a Hohneret

This trapezoid shaped guitar was discovered in Maryland several years ago by an antique dealer, but not much else is known about it. I...

The Electric Diddley Bow is a homemade one-string slide guitar that uses an old radio headphone earpiece as a pickup.

Several people asked about measurements of the Little Joe banjo, so I traced it and made a PDF. Download it here

Fontenot talking about his cigar box fiddle. Near the end, he pulls out a re-creation of his original cigar box fiddle

The Little Joe is a bizarre novelty instrument by the Harp-O-Chord Company of Columbus, OH and enables players to be a one man band!

This primitive one-string guitar was a labor of love for the builder, who planned out a neck-through-body design with a bent wood...

This cigar box violin is probably over 100 years old, and it's still playable! It was discovered in Toledo, OH.

Much time was spent carving and building this instrument and it truly looks like an instrument that could launch a bluesman's career.

This unassuming yellow painted cigar box guitar is literally the grandfather of modern cigar box guitar design!

My son, Shane Jr. (pictured above on drums) is a budding musician who is exploring as many instruments as possible. Yesterday, he came...

A look inside the Mailbox Guitar reveals an extremely simple bracing system made from poplar scraps. The wood was leftover from some cigar