Message Board Archive: Thread Number 125

Is there any referrence photos or information on the guitars which were
made from cigar boxes and wooden sticks? I read about it in a biography
- maybe Robert Johnson - I referenced that the poor blacks would find
cigar boxes in trash cans and nail a broom handle to them, then fashion
wire to them to use as guitars.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Ron Leland rladvert@flash.net

Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 16:52:37 -0500 (EST)
From: Owner-HyperNews@ComCAT.COM (Tom W)
Subject: homemade guitars
Message Number: 125.1

If you check your local library, quality bookstore, or internet, you'll
find a variety of books/articles about the blues which may report on a
blues player who had built his own guitar as a child. Also, check out
articles in the various blues magazines on the stands. Another common
"starter" instrument for many blues players was a piece of broom wire
strecthed over two nails, nailed onto a board or wall. This is called a
diddley-bo, and was plucked with one hand and "fretted" with a slide
with the other.

Once you begin to read in some volume about bluesmen you'll find that
the cigar-box guitar was more often that not a childhood "toy" and that
a real guitar (often a budget-mail order type) was available to a
budding musician.

If you frequent flea markets or antique shops, you may see some cigar
box folk instruments offered for sale. I also recently saw a web page
devoted to a musician who has made a career out of home made cigar box
guitars with electric pickups. (Was that web site referenced on this
bb?)