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Cigar Box Guitars are Art, Even with Laser-Cut Parts

The most popular discussion this week has been what people don't like added to cigar box guitars. The dogma has been running all over this neighborhood. Somebody get the pooper scooper!

But seriously, I have seen these arguments pop up within the online cigar box guitar community ever since its inception around 2003. I would usually just start screaming, "No Rules!" over and over to squelch the dividers.

I guess I've mellowed with age. I'm not going to scream anymore.

Instead, I've posted a picture of four cigar box guitars I just completed above. If you look closely at them, you'll notice that they contain:

Found objects such as yardsticks, door handles and a stove burner cover
Decorative parts I purchased online, including box corners which do nothing at all to enhance the tone...but they look cool.
"Despised parts" made from a laser-cut CNC machine, including the rectangle sound hole covers which were originally humbucker pickup rings.

Let's talk about those laser-cut parts, shall we? Several members on here are deriding the use of factory made, laser-cut parts by C. B. Gitty. The notion is that these parts take away from the handmade aspect of the instruments.

But maybe the focus should be on us as builders and not the parts themselves.

My workshop is filled to the top with various cigar box guitar parts. Some I scored at flea markets and yard sales. Others I purchased directly from ol' Mr. Gitty. To me, they're all part of the exciting gumbo I cook when I step into the shop.

Laser-cut parts are exciting to me because they offer shapes and inspirations that I may not find in a junk store. But I almost never leave the parts as-is when I build. The soundholes in this guitar above are a prime example.

In the guitar above, I used two C. B. Gitty humbucker pickup rings as the basis for the soundholes. I added metal "confessional' screen (painted with rust paint) behind them to give a unique look.

So did I 'cheat' when I used the pickup rings? Quite honestly, I'm not concerned. I love the outcome.

And that's the key right there.

Why should we be concerned with other peoples' dogma when it comes to building these things? Each one of us is an artist when we build. Some of us work only with a found-object mentality while others enjoy making them from kits or purchased pieces.

In the end, we're making our own instruments...each one crafted in somebody's woodshop. We're reinventing the guitar building process and taking it back to the individual.

Just remember, while you're getting irritated with somebody making guitars from processed parts, millions of guitarists are still brainwashed into thinking that the major guitar companies are still creating magical instruments.

The truth is, they're all churned out 100 at a time.

Go build something. While you're at it, encourage somebody else to do the same today.

-Shane W. Speal Sr. Dec 14, 2015

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on December 14, 2015 at 8:03am

aye. Making one.. Is better than not making one.. No matter how you do it.

I prefer to focus on the aspects that I DO LIKE
Best :)

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Permalink Reply by Rusty Summer on December 14, 2015 at 9:28am

CBG's really are functional art. I have designed a "case" that is actual a frame that hangs on the wall so that your gitty can be displayed and is kept out of the way. I have the design, now I have to build one. I will post a build along when I get it done.

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on December 14, 2015 at 4:04pm

Think everyone is missing the point here,i reckon if they could've,the original cbg makers would've used lasers,but Dockery farms never got electricity till1939

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Permalink Reply by Daniele Muscetta 'Plank' Guitars on December 15, 2015 at 4:02am

I agree, Shane.

Laser cutting is a tool, just like a chisel or a saw. And those CNC and laser cutting technologies get cheaper and can ease some repetitive or tedious work too. So why not? The maker culture is bringing industrial-level technology down to smaller workshops and making it accessible. Hand made things will still have more character at times, but it's also the composition and assembly that makes the object both artistic and functional to the desires of its maker and player.

After all, not every company has such a vertical integration to produce ALL the parts it uses, it's just a tradeoff of money/time spend on each piece/uniqueness/convenience...

Keep up the great work, such an inspiration.

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Permalink Reply by Rooster on December 15, 2015 at 6:10am

This has been an interesting subject to follow this week. There have been many opinions both ways on the subject of what is considered "Traditional" in our builds. I am of the opinion that it is like comparing Roy Underhill and Norm Abram in the woodworking world...............Both are craftsmen who achieve a result by different means but I haven't seen either one out cutting down a tree to get their wood ;-)

IMHO........The most important thing is to build something.........by whatever means and whatever material you have to work with.

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Permalink Reply by turtlehead on December 16, 2015 at 8:07am

Bumping for more views.

There's s a fisherman named Larry Dahlberg who has a quote about the stages in an an angler's career that goes something like this:

1. First you just want to catch any fish. (build a cbg)

2. Next, you want to catch a lot of fish. (build a bunch of cbgs)

3. Then, you want to catch the biggest fish. (build the best cbg)

4. Finally, you want to catch fish the way you want to catch them.

I think that applies to Cigar Box Guitars pretty well.

At first glance I wouldn't have noticed the pickup rings as laser cut until you pointed them out Shane. Just another found object being used in a way that it was not originally intended.

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Permalink Reply by Bad Finger (Eric) on January 3, 2016 at 4:23am

I followed that pathway and I'm so stuck on #4 that I haven't built anything in over a year. Just waiting on something to come out of the ethereal mist and express itself as the next Sawzall box guitar. The box is just sitting there waiting.

Interestingly, it may very well involve a laser cutter since I now have access to one at my school. Mainly because I burn up a lot of abrasive discs cutting out pickup holes and details in the lid.

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Permalink Reply by Bristol Blue on December 16, 2015 at 12:59pm

Brainwashed ? Not Really . Depends on how broad your interests are and how you view CBG's within the bigger picture. Nobody forced me to buy Fender, Gibson or Rickenbacker guitars. Apparently legend has it that ALL the old Blues guys played home made instruments. Maybe ,some of them did but let's face it even the ones that did "learn their craft" on Diddley Bows etc , All recorded their records using Stella's , Kalamazoo's, Gibson and so on . Were they brainwashed too?

The major guitar manufacturers in the world are Americans, They mass produce to an extent with a lot of hand work still involved . They have to have a consistent product to stay in business. Nothing wrong with that is there?

I love playing my 3 stringers just as much but sorry, I don't IMO , think of them as guitars in the traditional sense, To me it is a different instrument . A Rickenbacker 330 is a guitar whereas a CBG is a CBG. Not "better" or "worse", Just a different instrument.

Sorry if I have offended anybody. I just saw red at the "Brainwashed" comment. As a teenager in the 80's I remember being just as pissed off when people started refering to some musical genre as "Alternative" and thinking to myself ,if you have to be told what the alternative (to the mainstream) is , then you are being brainwashed.

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Permalink Reply by Blues Frog on December 16, 2015 at 4:44pm

Looks like this has become a contest. Go here for contest rules..

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/forum/topics/traditional-vs-new-fangl...

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on December 18, 2015 at 7:32pm

Dogma is a bitch.

Think about it. >:-E

Now, Shut Up, And Play Yer Guitar!

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Permalink Reply by Uncle John on December 20, 2015 at 8:21am

Laser cut sound holes and decorations are art? Well, shit. Aguing what is and isn't art can piss a lot of folks off. And hurt their feelings. Are paint by numbers paintings art? I'll say yes, but kind of a lower form of art. In the purest spirit of making our own instruments and music...... The more an item is home made... then the more it is art. Using found and re-purposed parts is a bonus.

I found CBGs on the net around 2007. Using online instruction, I made a fretless cbg with scrounged, used tuners. I electrified my build with a piezo from a door bell. Manufactured parts for CBGs were rare. We used tent grommits, closet rod holders and sink drains for sound holes. Found stuff.

Maybe it was Pick that I first saw use a yard stick for a fret board. J.P. Swensen used a pot lid. Crow and others showed us how to make home made tuners from eye bolts.

Now we can get lazer cut sound holes and decorations. We can get pre-fretted fret boards and pre-wired pickups with housings or covers to cover it up when we do a poor job cutting a hole for the pickup. Manufactured items make our builds look slicker and more professional. They save us a lot of time. I use and appreciate that stuff.

But I will say it again. The more an item is home made... the more that it is original and uses found and re-purposed parts.. then the more it is art and our own art.

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Permalink Reply by Dane Donato on December 20, 2015 at 11:47pm

I have to agree in large part with Uncle John.

Look at the difference between someone making a part by hand using raw materials vs. someone using computer aided machinery, home-based or not. Say, for instance a pickup ring. One made entirely by hand tools vs. one programmed and made with a laser cutter or maybe a 3D printer. Which is art and which is technology?

Another way of looking at it is buying a piece of art vs. something mass produced in the hundreds to millions. I'd almost always prefer to have something made by an artist that is one of a kind vs. something produced in a factory by the millions. Having the same pickup ring on my guitar and knowing it is on many other guitars is not quite as satisfying.