How did cigar box guitars come about?
A modern diddley bow with electric pickup.
The cigar box guitar concept was fashioned after the "diddley bow": a primitive, home-made blues instrument that was common among poor field-workers in the rural American South, typically black sharecroppers and/or slaves. This is the "land where Blues began", and the diddley bow epitomizes the birth of Blues music.
Because music was an important part of their life (often, it was the only type of recreational "break" they had from the hard labor in the fields that made up much of their life), these people would make their own music and musical instruments. They didn't have money to go to the store and buy a professionally-made instrument, so they'd often construct them out of found materials such as junk and recycled materials, including cigar boxes and anything else they could find.
Kyle Kipp, the originator of August Musical Instruments, has traveled to the Mississippi Delta and studied this musical heritage first hand. Therefore, Augusta Musical Instruments keeps this rich history of this instrument in mind, using common household materials and recycled items. But, our cigar box guitars are a bit more sophisticated than the primitive diddley bow: using high quality parts, several strings instead of just one or two, modern electronics, modern tuning machines, durable finishes, etc. so that you have a very functional and playable instrument.
Below, watch the famous modern Blues-rock musician Jack White build a traditional diddley bow
(from the film "It Might Get Loud")
Because music was an important part of their life (often, it was the only type of recreational "break" they had from the hard labor in the fields that made up much of their life), these people would make their own music and musical instruments. They didn't have money to go to the store and buy a professionally-made instrument, so they'd often construct them out of found materials such as junk and recycled materials, including cigar boxes and anything else they could find.
Kyle Kipp, the originator of August Musical Instruments, has traveled to the Mississippi Delta and studied this musical heritage first hand. Therefore, Augusta Musical Instruments keeps this rich history of this instrument in mind, using common household materials and recycled items. But, our cigar box guitars are a bit more sophisticated than the primitive diddley bow: using high quality parts, several strings instead of just one or two, modern electronics, modern tuning machines, durable finishes, etc. so that you have a very functional and playable instrument.
- For more information on the history of the diddley bow, see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diddley_bow
- For information on how to make a traditional one-stringed diddley bow, see: http://makeprojects.com/Project/The-Diddley-Bow/14/1
- Read this great article about cigar box guitars by the LA Times: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/13/entertainment/la-ca-cigar-box-guitars-20110313
Below, watch the famous modern Blues-rock musician Jack White build a traditional diddley bow
(from the film "It Might Get Loud")