Cigar Box Guitars: The Ultimate DIY Guide for the Makers and Players of the Handmade Music Revolution (Fox Chapel Publishing) Step-by-Step Projects and In-Depth Profiles of Builders & Performers

Part DIY guide, part scrapbook, Cigar Box Guitars takes you behind the music to get a glimpse into the faces, places, and workshops of the cigar box revolution!

• Step-by-step projects to building your own cigar box guitar
• In-depth profiles of builders and performers like Shane Speal, Donald "Boz" Bostwick, and Mike Orr
• Chronicle of the modern revival of the cigar box guitar, with information about its roots, influential personalities, and cultural trends
• Stunning galleries of historic and contemporary instruments to inspire you

The incredible cigar box guitar has never been more popular, and now you can learn to make and enjoy your own! You don't need to spend a lot of money and you don't need to have a shop full of tools. All you need to do is follow the author's step-by-step instructions for making three different styles of guitar. They're fun (some would say addictive) to build and even more fun to play!

The 3 guitars that can be made with this book are:

• Simple Fretless Acoustic Guitar: A simple build with the minimum number of components. It's a three string acoustic instrument built from a paper covered box and played with a slide. It has burned-in fret lines, but no real frets.
• Fretted Three-String with Piezo Pickup: This project uses a nicer cigar box and has a more decorative headstock. It also has real metal frets and three strings. In addition, this one incorporates a very simple piezo pickup so it can be played through an amplifier. It is slightly more complex in woodworking terms and involves a bit of wiring and soldering.
• Six-String Electric Guitar: This one would be built from a cigar box and a pre-fabbed six-string guitar neck. It would use commercial pickups and volume/tone controls. Picture it as a tribute to the Fender Telecaster! It involves more complicated woodworking and much more wiring/soldering, as well as filling much of the box with wood to support the tension of six steel strings.

More than just a how-to guide, this book chronicles the modern revival of the cigar box guitar. You'll learn a bit about its roots and discover the influential personalities who are changing the musical landscape with their playable art. Author David Sutton, a professional photographer and woodworking enthusiast, introduces you to the culture and faces of this self-expressive movement with in-depth profiles and photographic portraits of fascinating builders and performers.

Inside Cigar Box Guitars, you'll find step-by-step instructions for making three different guitars, as well as several photographic galleries of historic and contemporary instruments to inspire you to create your own instrument that will be admired by everyone who sees and hears it.

Cigar Box Guitars is a perfect opportunity to put a real American tradition in your own hands!

David Sutton is a highly successful photographer who says that he enjoys woodworking almost as passionately. His portraits of people and their pets have been featured extensively in national media including the Today Show and Animal Planet, as well as in the Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Chicago Sun-Times, and Crain's Chicago Business. He has also exhibited his work in numerous venues including Hermés of Paris and Takishimaya New York.