History of the Cigar Box Guitar
De BISAWiki
It's mentioned that the Cigar box guitar was formulated in the mid 1800s, they came about as folk who wanted to play music and dance, primarily black people working in the cotton fields had no instruments to play nor could afford any. Cigar boxes began to appear in the late 1840s when cigars started to be shipped in smaller boxes of 20-50 cigars, prior to this date cigars where shipped in larger crates and barrels.
It appears that the origin was in fact a cigar box banjo, the African slaves that now lived in the usa made instruments depending on a typical African instrument called the 'Banjar'. This is thought to be the precursor to the American 'banjo'. The 'Banjar' was one single stringed instrument and the basis of the entire body was a cigar box. The earliest illustrated evidence of a cigar box instrument is in 1876, the etching depicts two civil war soldiers at a campsite playing what appears to be a cigar box fiddle.
play a cigar box guitar and fiddles where genuinely essential in the rise of the Jug Bands and Blues music, they were accessible to every person and for all that couldn't afford a real instrument they were an excellent way to create music. Some instruments as simple as a box, broom handle and string where sufficient for some individuals to locate inspiration in the instrument and create great music by simple means. A number of the superb pioneers of rock n roll began with this instrument, pioneers of rock n' roll for example Carl Perkins, blues greats like Lightin' Hopkins, B.B. King, Blind Willie Johnson and Charlie Christian all started with this simple instrument. The superb B.B. King did not begin with a Gibson yet a homemade cigar box guitar that his father generated for him in his shed.
In the united states a group of musicians from the east coast under the name of "Masters of the Cigar Box Guitar Tour" travel the states of America, all of these musicians cover some of the present day greats such as Dr Oakroot, Johnny Lowebow and a lot of others. These days virtually all famously Seasick Steve has recorded and used a Diddly-Bow. In the uk as I mentioned in my earlier post 'Hollowbelly' has been performing well all over the UK and has done wonderful work as an ambassador to this wonderful instrument. This instrument has such a raw sound and modern musicians are seeking to move away from the overly expensive guitars that generate exactly the same tones and want some thing different, a primal sound.
