History

The cigar box guitar is a primitive chordophone whose resonator is a discarded cigar box. Because the instrument is homemade, there is no standard for dimensions, string types or construction techniques. Many early cigar box guitars consisted of only one or two strings that were attached to the ends of a broomstick that was inserted into a cigar box. Other cigar box guitars were more complex, with the builder attempting to simulate a traditional string instrument such as a guitar, banjo, or fiddle.

Trace evidence of cigar box instruments exist from 1840 to the 1860's. The earliest illustrated proof of a cigar box instrument known is an etching of two Civil War Soldiers at a campsite with one playing a cigar box fiddle copyrighted in 1876.

It would seem that the earliest cigar box instruments would be extremely crude and primitive; however, this is not the case. The National Cigar Box Guitar Museum has acquired two cigar box fiddles built in 1886 and 1889 that seem very playable and well built.

The cigar box guitars and fiddles were also important in the rise of jug bands and blues. As many of these performers were black Americans living in poverty, many could not afford a "real" instrument. Using these, along with the wash tub bass (similar to the cigar box guitar), jugs, washboards, and harmonicas, black musicians performed blues during socializations.

The Great Depression of the 1930's saw a resurgence of these homemade instruments. Times were hard in the American south and for entertainment sitting on the front porch singing away their blues was a popular pastime. Musical instruments were beyond the means of everybody, but an old cigar box, a piece of broom handle and a couple of wires from the screen door and a guitar was born.

A modern revival of these instruments (also know as the Cigar Box Guitar Revolution) has been gathering momentum with an increase in cigar box builders and performers. A loose-knit tour of underground musicians tour the East Coast (US) each summer under the banner "Masters of the Cigar Box Guitar Tour."

The modern revival of cigar box guitars is documented in the 2008 film, "Songs Inside The Box" which was shot primarily at an annual Huntsville, Alabama event called the Cigar Box Guitar Extravaganza.

History courtesy of Wikipedia