Cigar Box Guitars
The Blues is considered by most musicians to be the only truly American form of music. It traces it’s roots back over a hundred years ago to the slaves, working in the fields. They could not afford a factory built guitar, so they improvised with anything they could find. An old cigar box, a long piece of wood, and some string and they had an instrument.
Early blues artists like Lightning Hopkins and Muddy Waters started out using cigar box guitars, or CBG’s. CBG’s have a wonderful, swampy, bayou kind of sound that modern instruments just can’t duplicate.
There has been a resurgence of CBG builders and players, and there are several web sites dedicated to the building and playing of these truly American instruments. You can also find quite a few videos on YouTube. Check it out if you have time.
These are some CBGs made by members of CigarBoxNation.Com
