CONTEST WINNERS: What Came Out of Santa's Workshop 2018

With hundreds of entries via C. B. Gitty's Customer Gallery, CigarBoxNation.com, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, the Santa's Workshop photo contest was our most popular ever!  Thank you to all who submitted their photos and descriptions featuring instruments made for the 2018 Holiday Season.

Luckily for us, this wasn't a judged contest. The instruments were all fantastic!  Instead (as per the rules), we used random number generators to pick one grand prize winner and five runners up.  

GRAND PRIZE $500 C. B. GITTY GIFT CERTIFICATE WINNER:  

KIDS PLAYING GUITARS - Built by Cory Brooks and submitted to the contest via Facebook. Cory says these guitars were three more Christmas giveaways.

RUNNERS UP (EACH AWARDED $100 C. B. GITTY GIFT CERTIFICATE):

TEXACO GAS CAN GUITAR - Built by Mike Becker of Becker Custom Guitars. Mike submitted this entry via his Instagram. You can find this guitar for sale, along with his other creations at https://reverb.com/shop/mike-s-gear-garage-36

BABY WITH DIDDLEY BOW - That photo was submitted by Steve Steebos Kalist on Instagram. The only comment made on the photo was a Lynyrd Skynyrd quote, "He's got pistols in his pockets boys, he's Alabamy Bound"

PINBALL MACHINE GUITAR - Built by Cigar Box Nation power user, The Anonymous Pick (who sells his guitars under the brand name, Swamp Witch). The guitar was made from parts of a cut up pinball machine. It has real working lights and sound effects! This was submitted via Cigar Box Nation.

US FLAG GUITAR - Built by "Sparky" aka Joe Chipman and submitted via the C. B. Gitty Customer Gallery

• Body is quilted big leaf maple, sapele and padauk.
• Neck is crafted from tiger maple and padauk with truss rod.
• Neck-through design with custom box. 25 1/2" scale with #10 string set.
• Volume and tone controls with two humbucker-sized P90's.
• Roller nut, roller bridge and locking tailpiece.
• Custom white pearl pickguard control plates.
• Open gear locking tuners.
• Eight coats of hand rubbed Tru-oil finish. Plays and feels like a dream!

LAP STEEL GUITAR - Built by Bill Turner, aka Wunkyman and submitted to the contest via Cigar Box Nation. He describes the guitar as "a 3 string lap slide guitar I made for my wife, Debby. She's a big fan of foxes, if that isn't obvious by the theme. The top and back are 1/4" oak veneered plywood. The body is a combination of 1/2" oak and 1/2" plywood. It is a 24" scale that uses a 3 pole single coil pickup. The body is fairly hollow so that it can also be played acoustically. The pearl button fret markers are at the 3,5,7,10,12 and 18th frets. The eyes are a combination of stacked brass and pearl-look buttons. The whole build was distressed and then finished off with a brown antiquing wax."