News
CONTEST! THE Musical Mutants Build-Off by CBGitty.com - Mix Two or More Instruments Into One New Creation!
Our most outrageous contest yet!
OVERVIEW: Invent & build a new musical instrument that combines elements from at least two other musical instruments. Submissions accepted as photos and/or videos. We will award gift certificate prizes for th
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4th Feb 2021
Top 5 Weirdest Mutant Musical Instruments
In celebration of our Mutant Musical Instrument Build-Off, we've put together a Top 5 list of the weirdest musical inventions that combine elements from two or more instruments. Got something weirder? Post it in the Friends of C. B.
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4th Feb 2021
Samantha Fish CBG Fest Video FINALISTS Pt. 4
NOTE: The videos in this series of 4 posts represent the top 20 finalists for the Samantha Fish Video Contest as chosen by the organizers.Part 4 of 4. C. B. Gitty Crafter Supply proudly supports the Samantha Fish Cigar Box Guitar
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18th Jan 2021
Samantha Fish CBG Fest Video FINALISTS Pt. 3
NOTE: The videos in this series of 4 posts represent the top 20 finalists for the Samantha Fish Video Contest as chosen by the organizers.Part 3 of 4. C. B. Gitty Crafter Supply proudly supports the Samantha Fish Cigar Box Guitar Festival.
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14th Jan 2021
Samantha Fish CBG Fest Video FINALISTS Pt 2
NOTE: The videos in this series of 4 posts represent the top 20 finalists for the Samantha Fish Video Contest as chosen by the organizers.Part 2 of 4. See Part 1 here.C. B. Gitty Crafter Supply proudly supports the Samantha Fish Cigar Box Guita
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11th Jan 2021
PART 1 - CBGitty.com Presents the Video FINALISTS for the Samantha Fish Cigar Box Guitar Festival
NOTE: The videos in this series of 4 posts represent the top 20 finalists for the Samantha Fish Video Contest as chosen by the organizers.C. B. Gitty Crafter Supply proudly supports the Samantha Fish Cigar Box Guitar Festival. The
festival
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7th Jan 2021
How to Transform a C. B. Gitty Gold Foil Soundhole Pickup into a Vintage Top-Mount Pickup
The C. B. Gitty Gold Foil acoustic pickup is one of the most versatile and easiest magnetic pickups to mod for cigar box guitars.
They're deliciously cheap and I always have a half dozen of them in my woodshop at any time. It should
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18th Nov 2020
2020 Banjo Build-Off: First round of winners announced!
We’ve been buried in entries for the 2020 Banjo Build-Off! This week, we’re going to announce the first sets of winners.Anybody who entered through Cigar Box Nation dot com, Instagram or our Friends of C. B. Gitty group on Facebook had a chance for a
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6th Nov 2020
Building the "Baker's Friend" Guitar - A Photo Diary
Just as A. E. Staley's baking powder worked wondrous transformations in bakers' recipes a century ago, so a hearty measure of artistry transformed an old packing crate into this beautiful heirloom guitar.
Wooden crates were once the mainst
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29th Sep 2020
Building the "Wagon Wheel" Tenor Banjo - A Photo Diary
So rock me mama like a wagon wheel, rock me mama any way you feel...
Before I had even finished my last heirloom build (the One-Way Ticket Steamer Trunk Guitar), I started thinking about what my next project would be. I can't remember ex
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24th Sep 2020
Building "The Quarryman" Dynamite Crate Guitar - A Photo Diary
A guitar whose roots go down into the bedrock bones of the earth...
I grew up in Marblehead, Ohio, a rocky peninsula that juts out into Lake Erie. The center of that peninsula is one giant limestone quarry, where for nearly 200 years men have be
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15th Sep 2020
The 2020 Homemade Banjo Build-Off! Win prizes from CBGitty.com
After the enormous success of our "Hard Times Make Great Music" instrument contest, we decided we're gonna party like it's 1869 and have a Banjo Build-Off!
The first set of cigar box instrument plans ever published were for a cigar box
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14th Sep 2020
Building the "One Way Ticket" Steamer Trunk Guitar - A Photo Diary
There's nothing like a cluttered junk shop to set the handmade instrument builder's imagination to fizzing.
For me recently, that inspiration came in the aisle of an antique/junk/hardware store in Farmington, New Hampshire. The battered ol
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11th Sep 2020
The Humo Barnwood Guitar by Michael Copado: A detailed builder's diary
Every once in a while, a certain guitar will stop you in your tracks. The human mind recognizes genius, whether in the parts choices, shape, or overall design. Michael Copado's Humo Barnwood Guitar pegs the genius meter on all thes
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8th Sep 2020
Hum and Buzz - Some Tips for Effective Electrification
Electrifying your cigar box guitar or other homemade instrument build can be a very rewarding experience. Being able to plug into an amp not only gives you more volume, but it opens the door to a huge range of effects that would not otherwise be avai
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2nd Sep 2020
Build a Piccolo Cigar Box Guitar - Half scale gives mandolin tones
I like to build instruments that will cover the full sonic spectrum. If I'm looking for something that will cover the upper end, a simple PICCOLO cigar box guitar is the perfect solution.A piccolo cigar box guitar only has a 12.5" scaleIt is tu
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2nd Sep 2020
The Brain Tumor and Cody's Wine Box Bass
Our customers are the coolest people we know and we always read your letters. Here's one that blew us away this week...Dear C. B. Gitty, I've attached a photo of wine box bass my grandson and I constructed using CB Gitty
parts. The box came f
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2nd Sep 2020
VIDEO: "They're like driving a Masarati!" - Rob Wrobel and his high class cigar box guitars
It was a special morning at the 2017 New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar Festival when our own Shane Speal got to interview several cigar box guitar builders who attended. Instead of just asking a few questions, Speal actually took their respective gu
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2nd Sep 2020
5-Gallon Bucket Bass: A Simple One-String Bass Builder's Diary
It doesn't take much to make a musical instrument. You can sandwich an elastic band between two popsicle sticks to make a kazoo. You can even bang two rocks together to hold a beat. But what about crafting a single-string bass from a 5-gallon bucket
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2nd Sep 2020
The Toolshed Guitar Builder's Diary
Legacy. Heirloom. Memorial. Commemoration.
What do these words mean? When something momentous happens in our lives, such as the passing of a dear friend whose life impacted many, how do we find a way to commemorate that?
Eulogies, headst
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24th Aug 2020