Our most outrageous contest yet!

OVERVIEW: Invent & build a new musical instrument that combines elements from at least two other musical instruments. Submissions accepted as photos and/or videos. We will award gift certificate prizes for the ingenious as well as the bizarre. Deadline is April Fool's Day, April 1, 2021. All details are listed below.  

Intro: Countless inventors have sought to combine elements from different instruments into a new, revolutionary creation. The harp guitar is an example of a successful invention. It mixes an acoustic guitar with low (and sometimes high) harp strings to extend the range of the sonic palate for the player. Muriel Anderson is one of many who has popularized the harp guitar, such as in the Youtube video below.

While the harp guitar is an example of a groundbreaking "mutant" instrument, the US Patent Office is filled with less successful ideas, such as the 1936 Cigar Box Pitchfork Fiddle-Drum, a wacky one-man band creation as seen below.  The inventor attempted to mix a one-string cello-like instrument and a bass drum pedal, connecting both to a single resonator barrel.  ( Get a reprint poster of the insane patent for just $5.00 at CBGitty...)

We want to see you make your own mutant!  Make a zither-guitar hybrid.  Utilize parts from another instrument to craft something else.  (Shane Speal has done this with wooden pipe organ pipes, turning them into lap steel guitars.) Brass instruments mixed with drums?  Sure!!! 

We will also accept the following:

• Double-neck instruments, if they include two different types of stringed instruments (guitar/uke hybrids, etc).  
• Multi-instrument one-man-band setups, especially if they're unique and groundbreaking.
• Stumpf fiddles, devil sticks, pogo cellos and bumbasses.  (Google 'em.  Seriously...)
• Percussion attachments that fit onto other instruments.
• Stringed attachments that fit onto other instruments. 

This build-off has no limits on whether it's a stringed instrument, percussion, brass, plosive aerophone... or a mixture of these.  You must be the builder of the instrument.  

Pictured above: Two examples of the Ukelin, a mutant instrument that mixed a bowed psaltry concept with a chorded zither.  Thousands and thousands of these were sold door-to-door in the early part of the 20th Century, but very few people ever mastered playing one!  See our Ukelin Patent Poster here.

CONTEST DETAILS, RULES & SUBMISSION INFORMATION:

Contest runs February 4 - April 1, 2021

Prizes: 

• GRAND PRIZE - Best Overall Instrument - $300 C. B. Gitty Gift Certificate - This will be awarded to the instrument that wowed us the most.  We're looking for creativity, ingenuity and something that breaks new ground in the musical instrument world
• TWO RUNNERS-UP - $100 C. B. Gitty Gift Certificate to two runners-up.  Like the grand prize, we're looking for the wow factor.
• MOST ABSURD/FUNNY - $100 C. B. Gitty Gift Certificate awarded to the instrument that makes us laugh the most!    
• MACGYVER AWARD - $100 gift certificate from C. B. Gitty for the best instrument made from 100% recycled materials
• INSTAGRAM - Two random winners who enter via Instagram will be selected to win a $50 gift certificate from C. B. Gitty (See entry details below)
• FACEBOOK - Two random winners who enter via the Friends of C. B. Gitty Group on Facebook will be selected to win a $50 gift certificate from C. B. Gitty (See entry details below)
• CIGAR BOX NATION - Two random winners who enter via Cigar Box Nation will be selected to win a $50 gift certificate from C. B. Gitty.  (See entry details below)

Pictured above:  Tambourine jingles embedded into a ukulele headstock.

How to Enter Via CigarBoxNation.com:  

1.  Post up to three (3) photos and one (1) video link of your entry in the comments section below.  

2.  You must use the following method to post photos.  Entries that are posted via the "paper clip" icon will be ineligible.  

We are experiencing periodic glitches in photo posting on Cigar Box Nation.  If you cannot add your entry to the comment section below, we recommend you submit your entry via Instagram or Facebook. To learn about those options, click here.

NOTE:  IN ALL SUBMISSIONS, INSTRUMENTS THAT WON PREVIOUS CIGAR BOX NATION CONTESTS ARE INELIGIBLE.

By entering the contest, you give Cigar Box Nation, C. B. Gitty Crafter Supply and their social media accounts the permission to reprint your photos, descriptions and videos. 

One more bit of inspiration:  The Drumbone: a percussion instrument that was inspired by a slide trombone!  (This is seen in many Blue Man Group shows)