In early August last year (2021), I was honoured, when “The King of Cigar Box Guitars” Shane Speal showed an interest in purchasing one of my builds, AGP #436 - “Antique Al’s Antiquity”, a replica of one his Antique Toothpick Fretted CBG’s, I offered to gift it to him, which he agreed to do, but only on the condition that we do a “Horse Trade”, the said trade was done over a few weeks and 2 different continents, and to say I was overwhelmed by the generosity on his side of the trade, would be an understatement, the accompanying pics should speak for themselves.

It has been sitting within my arms reach for 12 months now, where I often picked it up and played it, both unplugged and amped up, but!, as I am not as talented as Shane, and also the fact that my playing is best described “Ham Fisted Bricklayer” style, I struggled with 4 Strings (instead of my usual 3 string builds), also the small string spacings and the side fret markers, something I’m sure Shane does not have any problems with.

Up to now I have been reluctant to change anything on this Classic Cigar Box Guitar Build, BUT!, at the risk of upsetting “The King”, I did finally make a couple of Minor Mods ie; converting it to a G D g 3 String, which meant a new Bone Nut, also raised the Bridge slightly, and filed new string slots to suit a wider spacing between them, also added White Side Fret Markers.

In the letter by Shane that came with the build, which I have now named “Horse Trade”, he states that it “Screams Bloody Murder”, and by Crikey he’s right, I think mainly due to the little “12 Bar Blues” Flat Pickup, what a magnificent very thin pickup it is, I love it, have since checked out the “12 Bar Blues” website, but sadly they’re a bit cost prohibitive for this tight assed builder to buy from the Land of Aus.

Original Shane Speal Horse Trade Specs
4 String Cigar Box Guitar
Scale: 580mm / 2253/64 inches
Pickup : 2.5k 12 Bar Blues Flat Humbucker
String Spacings: Nut-6mm ~ Bridge-10mm
Strings: .052NW .026NW .???PS .???PS
Tuned Low to High: D G B D

Modified Shane Speal Horse Trade Specs
3 String Cigar Box Guitar
Scale: 580mm / 2253/64 inches
Pickup : 2.5k 12 Bar Blues Flat Humbucker
String Spacings: Nut-15mm ~ Bridge-15mm
Strings: .048NW .032NW .021NW
Tuned Low to High: G D g