News
Stairway to Heaven on a 3-string Cigar Box Guitar
We're totally gonna steal these licks! Historian, author and all around Renaissance man, Charles Atchison just posted this video giving an overview of the main parts of Stairway to Heaven. (Which means he took an 8 minute song and condensed it down to under 2 minutes for us!)Atchison is the author of The Folk Art Instrument Reference book on building homemade instruments. It's over 200 pages with more than 400 pictures and illustrations. Copies are in stock right now. In
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4th Nov 2015
Merlin Miller Recreates Historic Uncle Enos Cigar Box Banjo
“I’ve got something you’re going to want to see,” Merlin Miller said, as he entered my booth at the 2015 Huntsville Cigar Box Guitar Festival carrying a cardboard box.Merlin has been building cigar box guitars and other homemade instruments for years. In addition to having a really cool first name (and he does have a bit of a wizardly look about him), he is also the father of Jon Miller, who is currently working on a “Strung Together” documentary on cigar box guitars and the people who build the
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3rd Jun 2015
C. B. Gitty helping to Sponsor the 3rd Annual Cigar Box Guitar Festival!
Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker will be attending the Chicago Cigar Box Guitar Festival this year, and it was announced yesterday that the company will be helping to sponsor the event. C. B. Gitty will be sponsoring the Open Mic stage, and who knows, he might even get up on the stage to sing and play a number or two. For more info on the Chicago CBG festival, click on the poster image below.
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4th Sep 2014
A review of "Holler!", the new album from Shane Speal and his Snake Oil Band
I can already hear it... “Oh, so Gitty’s reviewing the new Shane Speal album he bankrolled.
I wonder if THAT review will be unbiased…”Maybe it won’t be entirely unbiased, but I will try to be
honest. I just couldn’t NOT review this album. So here goes.I am a fan of Shane’s music and style. I have been for a
while. When I was first getting into cigar box guitars 6 years ago, I bought a
couple of Shane’s early records. Those early recordings were raw, rough and they
were gritty. The prod
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25th Jun 2014
Writing the Cigar Box Guitar Manifesto
I have been thinking for a while about writing some sort of manifesto, or mission statement, that attempts to sum up what this whole cigar box guitar movement, often referred to as a revolution, is all about. When you really get down to thinking about it, it is not an easy thing to sum up. The people who take part in this come from all over the world, from a wide range of backgrounds. There is no stereotypical cigar box guitar builder, or cigar box guitar player. People build for different re
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11th Jun 2014