Cigar Box Guitar History Museum

How to Build an Advanced Cigar Box Guitar

2011-02-25T08:14:00.000-08:00

This is the Ultimate How to Build a Cigar Box Guitar DVD.

From beginner to advanced, everything is completely covered.

Hi my name is John, I have spent well over several hundred hours filming and editing the most complete How to Build a cigar box guitar DVD available. If you would like to take your guitar making not only to the next level but far beyond to get the sound you have always wanted in a cigar box guitar, I will show you how and what to do, everything is covered from start to finish. It doesn't matter if this is your first time, or your 10th.

This DVD is from A to Z, the complete start to finish with advanced building of cigar box guitars. Full of many secrets that can only be found on a Red Dog Guitar, want to know what the hoopla is all about??? Goggle Red Dog Guitars....listen to them and you will hear why they have a sound that is so iconic and original ...BUT...the best part is you too can build a guitar just like the ones on my website with this DVD.

I will show you how, all the steps completely broken down, from start to finish.

In this DVD you will learn EXACTLY how to construct a Red Dog Cigar Box Guitar...ALL OF THE SECRETS to making the neck and guitar a true tonal machine, what to do about the body, fret-boarding and fretting like a pro, headstocks of all types... BOTH 3 and 4 strings... all of the parts to make a great cigar box guitar and most important, you will learn a deep understanding of all the pickups and various ways of mounting them to get that deep Delta Blues sound you have always wanted....plus a super in depth breakdown of the bridges of many styles and how they change everything.

This is the most in depth and complete How to Build a Cigar Box Guitar DVD ever made and that can ever be made, Go to you-tube and search "cigar box guitar" and check out many of the great and talented makers and have a listen, then do a comparison and search and see just why Red Dog Guitars has the tone everyone wants....however, this is not a contest, with this DVD you will have all of the secrets to incorporate in your own guitar making, no matter if its your first time, or you want to start a guitar making business or club, this will give you the ability to make really awesome guitars and take them to the next level.

This is not a basic or introductory DVD, but full on ultimate Cigar Box Guitar building... the wood, boxes, deferent styles of necks and so much more is covered for building a great playing full of tone one of a kind guitar.

This DVD is made for standard Television players and is 96 minutes (1&1/2hours) of cigar box building, everything explained, the tools, the parts, the woods, neck heels, paint finishing, fretting, the pickups and so much more is explained, all the mysteries explained in one fun to watch DVD...within it there is a world of unknown tips, tricks and secrets used on Red Dog Guitars that you can use on your guitar to make the ultimate cigar box guitar.

$28.50 USD

shipping worldwide $2.15 USD

28.50+2.15=30.65

yes! anywhere in the world same price, 2.15!

14 to 21 days Post Office "snail" mail

Questions??? email john@reddogguitars.com

Newly found Cigar Box guitar and Homemade stuff!

2010-12-01T16:53:00.000-08:00

Me with my Home made gas-can-tar.

Mom was great she let me start smoking at age 4!!!!

McStomps with his one string diddley Bow Broom tar!

Yes Johnny deep is still playing his CBG, On an Interview with Entertainment tonight you can clearly see it in the background on his sofa!

Cigar Box Guitar

2010-10-27T15:34:00.000-07:00

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! look what i found on cigarboxguitars.net its a three string tooo arooooooooooo!!!!!
I am the biggest Tony Miles fan!!!!! ...second only to HoneyBoy edwards HIMSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wowowowowowowowowowwo!!!!!!!

Check out "Reggae Tony" Miles and Blues Legend David "HoneyBoy" Edwards

Delta,Blues Legend David "HoneyBoy" Edwards is the last of the original bluesmen left. At the age of 94years young. He is still touring and selling out the house everywhere .

Now he has his very own 3stringer cigar box guitar , presented by: Tony Miles 01/2010 in Felton CA. David "HoneyBoy" Edwards just won the 2010 Life Time Grammy Award

New Homemade instruments!

2010-05-28T10:27:00.000-07:00

The Tube Screamer!

2010-04-14T11:17:00.001-07:00

Cigar Box Guitar News!

2010-03-12T12:02:00.000-08:00

NEWS! Another set of historical plans found: Popular Mechanics, Sept. 1923

Cigar Box Mandolin!
Cigar Box Uke!
Cigar Box Violin!

Cigar Box Jazzolin!

2010-03-11T17:57:00.000-08:00

Shane has just discovered a lost set of plans for a one-string "Cigar Box Jazzolin," originally published in Popular Mechanics in 1920.
This instrument is similar to the Vaudeville Fiddle plans in the Free Plans section. One-string fiddles were a mainstay in Yiddish vaudeville from the late 1800's to early 1930's. Larry Fine of the Three Stooges was a virtuoso of the 1-string cigar box violin and W. C. Fields was filmed performing with one. Oy vey!
Vroom, Frank W. "How to Make a Jazzolin from a Broomstick." Popular Science July 1920: 110-11.

Hillbilly Swing!

2010-01-11T09:28:00.000-08:00

CBG History recently unearthed!

2010-01-11T09:24:00.000-08:00

Marvel at this cool stuff!

3 string guitar and Cigar Box music CD's

2009-11-10T06:39:00.000-08:00

Lots of cigar Box guitar and 3 string guitar cd's click the banner or here

http://cigar-box-guitar-music.blogspot.com/

I am Bo Diddley!

2009-11-09T05:46:00.000-08:00

Check out the funnest website ever!

2009-10-14T14:29:00.000-07:00

visit a fun 3 string guitar and cigar box guitar website

vintage cigar box guitars stuff

2009-09-26T13:42:00.001-07:00

Louis Armstrong's cigar box guitar

2009-09-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

Taken from Louis Armstrong's Biography 1966 & The Story of Jazz from the 1890's to the 1960's

July 4th 1900-"Not unlike jazz itself, Daniel Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong was born in a black-of-town part of New Orleans. His musical ability became evident early. As a boy he sang for pennies and formed part of a strolling quartet in which he played a cigar-box-guitar"

cigar box guitar videos

2009-09-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

fun stuff!

Jasper makes music!

2009-09-20T11:14:00.001-07:00

Old Guitars From reddogguitars.com

2009-09-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

just some random cigar box guitar stuff

2009-09-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

Mississippi Fat Chrome

2009-09-08T07:35:00.000-07:00

I have lots of new guitars posted in my website. I also have made many videos, they are not all on at the front of the site, they are scatted all over, Google Red Dog Guitars and check them out!

From the New York Post Aug, 26th

2009-08-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

If you are into cigar box guitar, you might have already seen this photo in some form or another as it was in the New York Post and is now all over the net....But it's so cool, It's not some boring and tired old news 6 string guitar! ...so I just have to post it here too, I mean come on, could this be any cooler????? It's a cigar box guitar and one things for sure, It's Primal Americana!

The GodFather of The Cigar Box Guitar

2009-08-21T14:35:00.000-07:00

Shane's 3 string cigar box guitar

2009-07-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

The guitar that started it all!

Delta Blues on a Stick

2009-04-10T13:50:00.001-07:00

There is a new site all about the three string guitar come on over to 3-string-guitar.com

you will have some fun!

Old Newspapers from the 1880's

2009-04-09T13:02:00.000-07:00

Using a discarded cigar box to build a guitar or banjo started during the Civil War, many newspapers across the counrty ran How to's on the front page, here is one of the many examples I have collected, this one is dated July 11th, 1886

Here is a wonderfull image I found in the New York Digital Libary, Its called "music hath charms" I posted all the info incase someone wants to research more....you never know what you will find that I missed!

Image Title: Music hath charms.
Creator: Forbes, Edwin, 1839-1895 -- Artist

Notes: Written on border: "Violin made from cigar box, bridge and tail piece of cedar, strings from Washington, D.C., bow of pine and horse hair"
Original Source: From An artist's story of the great war, 30 years after . . . : illustrated with nearly 300 relief etchings after sketches in the field, and 20 half-tone equestrian portraits from original oil paintings. (New York : Fords, Howard & Hulbert, c1890) Forbes, Edwin (1839-1895), Author.
Source: Mid-Manhattan Picture Collection / Music -- regional -- American
Location: Mid-Manhattan Library / Picture Collection
Catalog Call Number: PC MUSIC-Reg-Am
Digital ID: 832892
Record ID: 1061862

THE PBS CIGAR BOX GUITAR DOCUMENTARY IS NOW AIRING!

check your local listings and PBS station

by Walker Hayes
In Peanuts Guide to Life, the collection of one-frame wisdoms of Charlie, Lucy and Linus, cartoonist Charles Schultz advises, “As soon as a child is born, he or she should be issued a new dog and a banjo.” Good advice for anyone wanting the right start. The idea begs two questions though-what kind of dog and which type of banjo? The answer to the first is obvious, it’s a beagle. The second answer concerning the right banjo is a little more elusive.
Many different types of high quality banjos are available. There are metal ones, some use wood and plastic; others involve a combination of each. There are banjos that have their beginning with other instruments, ukuleles, guitars or mandolins. There is a stand up type made from a bass, definitely not your father’s drumhead with strings. String sets vary too–there are banjos with one, three, four, five, six, up to ten strings. They come with open backs or closed backs, with or without pickups for amplification. Considering all the possibilities can boggle your mind.
Cigar box banjos often get lost in the shuffle. They are often simple instruments that long ago were made by beginning players from whatever components they had available at the time. Often the first exposure a beginner had to music was from a cigar box made from scratch. Today cigar box banjos can be made from scratch or from a building kit that has all the basic components. Even though they are relatively simple to make their quality of sound and playability doesn’t suffer. It depends on the effort and commitment to excellence the builder is willing to make. Whether made from scratch or from a kit, the builder can let his or her creative imagination run wild while building a unique, well playing instrument.
It is true that “good sounding banjo” is a subjective term dependent as much on the music you’re trying to produce as it is on the banjo itself. It can range from plunky hollow and incisive to piercing and painful, especially in the beginning. Mark Twain once said that a gentleman is a person who knows how to play a banjo but doesn’t. But as Mark Twain also knew well, that inimitable banjo sound is exactly what makes playing a banjo the matchless experience that it is. Cigar box banjos don’t play quite as loud as a conventional banjo, but with care and craftsmanship you can create that uniqueness in a well playing instrument that is both rich and responsive, often with a deeper, mellower sound.
“Easy Lovin’” was a 1971 country hit that peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard chart by Freddie Hart. Hart was one of many well known people who are not so well known for their banjo playing, but got their first exposure to making music with a cigar box instrument. He grew up in Loachapoka, Alabama in a large, sharecropping family of fifteen children. Freddie said he got started musically by cobbling out a cigar box instrument using strings made of wire from the copper coil of a Model T Ford.
For others, the roots of their iconic musical style were developed from the very rudiments of instrument making, creating what would scarcely be considered a musical instrument today. Jim Reeves, the youngest of nine children, made his first instrument from a cigar box and rubber bands. Stringbean Akerman made his first banjo from a shoebox with thread from his mother’s sewing kit.
Even Carl Sandburg, who Thomas Lask declared “the American bard,” played his own brand of music, especially early in his life. Sandburg is quoted as saying, “My first stringed instrument was a cigar box banjo where I cut and turned the pegs and strung the wires myself.” Before the banjo, he tried his hand at a willow whistle, then a comb with paper over it, a tin fife, a flageolet (a type of wooden flute), and an ocarina, none of which he played very well, including banjo, but all of which helped define who he really was.
What ties all these folks together is their gift of originality, the minutest part of that originality may have been sparked by these early-in-life experiences. But if you can in the minutest way identify with that experience, then my work here is done. Now that we have the banjo, let’s go get a beagle.

cigar box guitar history

2009-04-07T17:57:00.000-07:00

If you want a great sounding fun to play guitar call me at 1-787-671-9790

A new spin on and ol' thing

more photos at reddogguitars.com

there is a guitar over there with your name on it!

Just call 1-787-671-9790, I can send it out to you right away

If you want a cigar box guitar like this call me at 1-787-671-9790 or email me at john@reddogguitars.com

1932 Mickey Mouse

If it's good enough for Mickey it's good enough for you!

...a cigar box guitars message 4 U!!!

2009-04-07T17:13:00.000-07:00

I just got the lastest issue of Guitar Player mag in the mail. Cover is Slash (welcome to 1989) and touts him as the "Last Guitar Hero."Other articles feature the same tired stars they've been featuring for 30 years. Last month, it was Alan Holdsworth, Steve Lukather and the dude from Night Ranger. Yawn.
It's so apparent that the music world is on cruise control. They have no idea that there's fresh, exciting music out there. They're too full from a buffet of 'innovative' Chinese built guitars...hundreds ofnew re-hashed models each month filling their test labs. Yet all these guitars are just Strats or Les Pauls or dreadnaughts with other names on the headstocks. And the stars who play em? Same ol' same ol.'
They have no idea what's happening with the Cigar Box Guitar and Blues underground. We're gonna hit 'em where they ain't... By the time they realize what's happening, we're gonna be so far beyond the point of them catching up.There's magic in cigar boxes. It's fresh and exciting. My Guitar Player also came with a "final notice for renewal" card.
It's in the trash.
Shane Speal 2008

Watch this video...it will burn your earhairs off!!!!!

if you want one EMAIL ME at john@reddogguitars.com

OR CALL: JOHN 1-787-671-9790

The Strat EMPIRE has Fallen!

2009-04-06T21:44:00.001-07:00

call me

1-787-671-9790

ask for John

and Hey, let's not Forget the Third Riche!

they went down too!
click and see just how hard????

...and like crusin' in the 50's this is Gritty Rat Rod cigar box guitar heaven!

1950's Cigar Box Ukelele ~Surfin' Safari!

2009-04-06T21:32:00.000-07:00

To see more visit my site, Just Google "Red Dog Guitars!"

Fiddle me this!

2009-04-06T21:29:00.001-07:00

This is a Photo from 1915....Take a guess, what you you think here violin is made from???

Holy smokes Batman! The Fiddler is loose!..Tell me this, have you ever seen someone play a cigar box fiddle or cigar box violin with a twig and string as the bow????

Nope! only if you've been to the Cigar Box Guitar History Museum

Below is a young boy from Alabama in 1878 who couldn't even afford the box...so he went with the ol' table Leg Violin!...now that's homemade