MEMPHIS, TENN. -- — They’re built around wooden cigar boxes, just like untold thousands of homemade guitars patched together across America since the 1800s. But no minstrel-show performer or ...

HUNTSVILLE, AL. - What is a cigar box guitar? Technically, it’s a discarded cigar box with a hole for a 1-inch-by-2-inch fretboard. A hodgepodge of random items. Perhaps with a leather cord attached ...

Aurora resident Victor Martinez and rock guitar legend Jimi Hendrix have something musical in common -both have played cigar box guitars. While Hendrix is said to have been so desperate to play guitar ...

LOS ANGELES — The pages of newspapers, or history books for that matter, don’t runneth over with stories of happy accidents involving chain saws. But that’s just what put Philadelphia musicians Lucy ...

The pages of newspapers, or history books for that matter, don’t runneth over with stories of happy accidents involving chainsaws. But that’s just what put Philadelphia musicians Lucy Tight and Wayne ...

All the electronics for the suitcase bass came from parts Ross Newell recycled from old smoke alarms. Turns out if you wire it backwards, the alarm component that makes the loud "beep" noise becomes a ...

It has been said that no zydeco band is complete without a rubboard and an accordion. But deep in the birthplace of zydeco, an exhibit at the St. Landry Parish Visitor Center features a different type ...

Ever played a cigar box guitar? The customarily homemade instrument follows the design of a regular guitar. But they traditionally use a cigar box as the resonator. Of course, creative musicians who ...

Shane Speal, whose Snake Oil Band headlines the first New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar Festival on Saturday, started out playing something with a little more firepower. “In the ’80s, I was a bass player ...

If WT Bryant isn’t working with his hands, he says his world just doesn’t feel right. It’s that maker spirit that’s led him to reimagine objects like the cigar box. For nearly four years, Bryant has ...

One of the best things about making music is that it’s so easy to do. There are countless ways to make interesting sounds out of nearly anything if you’re willing to experiment a little bit — just ask ...