FEATURE
The Modern Cult of the
Cigar Box Guitar
The Modern Cult of the
BY BOB CIANCI
A nagging question has been bothering
me for some time now: have we, the guitar-buying public, lost sight of the joy of making
music on a rudimentary, inexpensive stringed
instrument? I’m not referring to your first
Silvertone or Danelectro either. I’m talking
about a guitar that almost anyone can make
for a few bucks, with simple, everyday
materials easily found in your neighborhood
hardware store and smoke shop.
Shane Speal. The photo was taken by Rob Gibson
using Civil War-era camera and equipment.
Most of us who read this magazine like to
ogle, purchase and play high-end guitars,
of both the boutique and mass-produced
variety, treating them as precious objets d’art,
often missing the satisfaction and discovery
of creating music on a simple, inexpensive
instrument. While high-end guitars have their
place, there’s a lot to be said for getting deep
into something with a raw edge, just as the
Delta blues pioneers did. There’s one thing
Muddy Waters, Son House, Bukka White,
Mississippi Fred McDowell, Jimi Hendrix, and
many others had in common: they started
playing on homemade cigar box guitars,
fashioned with materials that were readily
available in their humble circumstances. Think
of it this way—can you really imagine playing
raw, feral Delta blues on a $3000 custom-shop
guitar and a handwired boutique amp? There’s
something painfully wrong with that picture.
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