James A OBrien
  • Male
  • Roslindale, MA
  • United States
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How did you learn about Cigar Box Nation?
Andy Estabrooks
How many instruments have you built so far?
8
What do you find most interesting about cigar box guitars? (If you do not enter something meaningful here (at least one sentence long), your membership may be rejected as a spam/bot fake account).
The accessibility.

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James A OBrien's Blog

19th Century Cigar Box Violin at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA

Posted on May 1, 2015 at 12:42am 5 Comments

I recently had the opportunity to have a special viewing of a 19th century Cigar Box Violin made from a guy in England.  The Head and Pappalardo Curator of Musical Instruments at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Darcy Kuronen gave my fiancé and I special access to this piece.  

My fifth build

Posted on April 9, 2015 at 2:00am 2 Comments

The most confident build I've done. I went real slow and careful; considered all my previous mistakes and avoided them. I went fretless because it's the most enjoyable to play for me. It feels like skinny dipping to me. Three strings tuned to Open low G, with "WHAT A GUY" carved into the board. It has a three string Ted Crocker pickup I bought in 2011. It's made from a deep Jaime Garcia box, because my nickname is Jamie. Maple neck, no staining or sealing but I…

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