I'm not sure how much information there is out there or here about "real" cigar box guitars. What we do is as real as anything, of course, but does anyone have an idea about how one of this gits would have been build back in, say, the early 1900s on some farm in the deep south? Magnetic pick ups, fancy tropical hardwoods, factory tails and tuning machines, etc are wonderful ways to explore this form of folk instruments, but what would one of these things have been like historically? Wire or gut strings? Frets or no frets? Hide glue or no glue? Square nails or no nails?

Thanks in advance for any input. 

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Thanks for the posting, Wayfinder. It looks like a bit of a slog to find those posts, but I will get around to it soon. The more I make these things, the more I am interested in looking backward to what was really done back in the "old days." And incidentally, you should think of adding a draw knife to your tool arsenal. They are wonderful tools. Avoid the modern mass produced ones. My best one I found in a local antique store, a 110 year old tool that keeps an amazing edge and cost me under 50 bucks. Scrapers are great, too, and not much out of pocket. 

https://youtu.be/TsgUdEOCwPM

Hey Dane, I'm not sure if this is the vid wayfinder was talking about. It's one I posted a couple of years ago. Most of these tools and techniques were used hundreds of years ago for furniture making and most likely for homemade instruments as well.

Thanks Wayfinder. I edit out my screw ups and the parts where I cut myself!

Nice demo, Jim. I am more than familiar with these techniques. I used to make a lot of wooden archery bows, and still do once in a while. The shaving horse is a great tool. 

I was actually more interested in how crude or finished historic CBGs would have been. I can of course use very old tools (spoke shaves, draw knives, brace and bits and so on) to build one. I wonder how much someone back 100 years ago would have cared about fit and finish, or if they were on the crude side (to our eyes), and if any of the old instruments were fretted, stuff like that. 

Mostly, I am interested in trying to get the most old-time sound out of my instruments, and the closer I can get to what a guy on a farm in Georgia would have crafted, the better. 

Thanks Dane. Sorry if I was talking about stuff you may know a lot more about than me! Never made an archery bow but would like to have a try at it. Anyway it's good to know there's another drawknife, shaving horse guy out there. I suspect there would have been a wide range from very crude to nicely finshed homemade instruments even on Georgia farms. Looking at homemade furniture from that era shows what went from strictly utilitarian to some very beautifully finished pieces.

No worries, since you don't know my background. If you interested in bows and other nifty things, here is a link to a treasure trove of info. http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/directory#.VTkCDvldXec 

Lots of primitive bows and arrows, atlatls, etc, but more importantly, a forum for some the most talented folks around the world who are into ancient skills, including stone tools. So much can be incorporated into our own explorations. Some skills are very much used by luthiers, including hide glue for instance. 

I agree, some of the folk art, furniture, etc we have inherited shows a high level of sophistication. I visited a Shaker community (now a museum) in Pittsfield, and the things the Shakers were building using only hand tools just blows my mind. 

Shaker craftsmanship is AMAZING!

Thanks for the link Dane. So many old skills that, except for a few talented folks, would be lost! It's amazing to look at ancient buildings, art, and things as "simple" as stone points and atlatls and realize that our ancestors were highly skilled craftsmen and had to be to survive. The idea that some of these things must have come from alien visitors giving us knowledge comes, I think, from the fact that we don't know how to do so many of the things that our ancestors were doing.

cigar  /  kleanx /  fruit  box  , a broom stick  and the wire  from  the broom   neck  as  string .

was  the basics  of    a cbg  /  diddly bow  . frets were  rare  ,  fancy  was a waste  of time  .

wider   sticks  ,  carved  necks,  and   more strings  were   options too.

later  add  ons  (mostly  due  to  invention and  availability  times, )   such as  pickups   and mags  were  evolutions to  the   acoustic    box  ..   but  most  relied  on the natural  resonation  of the  box  .

john mcnair ,  of reddog guitars ,   has a  flare   for  posting  the historic side  of cbgs  .

http://www.reddogguitars.com/BluesHistory/HistoryPage.html

Thanks for the post. 

Start here:

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/albums/the-cigar-box-guitar-museum

Then, get a copy of Bill Jehle's Book, One Man's Trash. Here's a Flickr link to his site, with dozens of photos, so you can judge primitivity for yourself:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tedcrocker/sets/72157600365357368/

And here's his site itself:

http://www.bellyjellymusic.com/cigar-box-guitar-museum.html

Pick has already given you John McNair's Red Dog Guitars site.

Ron, this is exactly what I was interested in. Thanks so much. 

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