So I went ahead and made me a guitar. I got me a cigar box, I cut me a round hole in the middle of it, take me a little piece of plank, nailed it onto that cigar box, and I got me some screen wire and I made me a bridge back there and raised it up high enough that it would sound inside that little box, and got me a tune out of it. I kept my tune and I played from then on.
—Lightnin' Hopkins
Cigar boxes in their current form did not exist exist prior to the 1840s. Until then, cigars were shipped in larger crates containing 100 or more per case. But after 1840, cigar manufacturers started using smaller, more portable boxes with 20-50 cigars per box.
Cigars were extremely popular in the 19th Century, and therefore, many empty cigar boxes would be lying around the house. The 1800s were also a simpler time for Americans, when necessity was truly the mother of invention. Using a cigar box to create a guitar, fiddle or a banjo was an obvious choice for a few crafty souls.
The earliest proof of a cigar box instrument found so far is an etching of two Civil War Soldiers at a campsite with one playing a cigar box fiddle. The etching was created by French artist Edwin Forbes who worked as an official artist for the Union Army. The etching was included in Forbes work LIFE STORIES OF THE GREAT ARMY, copyrighted in 1876. There, the cigar box fiddle appears to sport an advanced viola-length neck attached to a ‘Figaro’ cigar box.
In addition to the etching, plans for a cigar box banjo were published by Daniel Carter Beard, founder of the Boy Scouts of America, potentially in the 1870s. The plans, entitled ‘How to Build an Uncle Enos Banjo’ showed a step-by-step description for a playable 5-string fretless banjo made from a cigar box. Searching through an archive of the St. Nicholas magazine does not immediately reveal that Daniel C. Beard wrote an article with this same title, however, nor that he published the plans at all in that magazine. It is more likely that the plans for the Uncle Enos Banjo were first printed in the American Boy's Handy Book in 1882 as supplementary material in the rear of the book as suggested in its prologue. (Beard, Daniel Carter (1882). The American Boy's Handy Book. New York: Scribner.
It would seem that the earliest cigar box instruments would be extremely crude and primitive, however this is not always 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 1886 fiddle was made for an 8 year old boy and is certainly playable, but the 1889 fiddle has a well carved neck and slotted violin headstock. The latter instrument was made for serious playing.
The Cigar Box guitars and fiddles were also important in the rise of jug bands and vluwa. As most of these performers were black Americans living in poverty, many could not afford a "real" instrument. Using these, along with the washtub bass (similar to the cigar box guitar), jugs, washboards, and harmonica, black musicians performed blues during socializations.
The Great Depression of the 1930s saw a resurgence of homemade musical 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 wires from the screen door and a guitar was born.
Modern revival
A modern revival of these instruments (also known as the Cigar Box Guitar Revolution) has been gathering momentum with an increase in cigar box guitar 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." These musicians include Doctor Oakroot, Johnny Lowebow, Tomi-O and many others. Also, there is a growing number of primitive luthiers adding cigar box guitars to their items for sale on their websites.
Modern revival is sometimes due to interest in jugband and the DIY culture, as cigar box is relatively inexpensive when considering other factors, such as strings and construction time. Many modern cigar box guitar can thus be seen as a type of practice in lutherie, and implement numerous own touches, such as additional of pick up and resonator cones into it.
Another factor in the current revival can be attributed to many musicians desire for a more primal sound. Blues guitarists, in particular, have picked up the cigar box guitar in an attempt to play Delta Blues in its purest form.
Notable performers
- Luther Dickinson, the guitarist of the North Mississippi Allstars , uses an electric cigar box guitar called the Lowebow. Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top performs with a cigar box guitar.
- Richard Johnston, the subject of the PBS documentary Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour (2005), performs with a Lowebow. Johnston helped design the instrument with the builder, John Lowe. Tom Waits plays cigar box banjo on his album, Real Gone.
- Ed King of Lynyrd Skynrd plays a cigar box guitar made by Tomi-O.
- Harry Manx, a Hindustani slide master, plays a Lowebow cigar box guitar.
- Rollie Tussing, National Slide Guitar Champion, plays cigar box guitars.
- Chris Ballew, lead singer of The Presidents of the United States of America, has recorded with a one-string cigar box bass made by Shane Speal.
- Joe Buck, one-man-band performer and also a member of Hank Williams III's band Assjack, plays a cigar box guitar box.
- Robert Hamilton of the Loq-Country Messiahs plays a 3-string Tomi-O cigar box guitar.
- PJ Harvey among many others plays a genuine Baratto Cigfiddle.
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