This book is dedicated to Roy H. Williams, who gave me Don Quixote’s lance; Glenn Kaiser, who brought me to Blind Willie Johnson; and Ben Baker, who made sure we got a 12 pack of Budweiser before going to the greenhouse.
For Melissa, who is my everything.
Special thanks to David Sutton, Randy Flaum, William Jehle, RJ Gibson and the New Orleans Jazz Museum for their photo contributions.
All photographs are by the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2018 by Shane Speal and Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc., 903 Square Street, Mount Joy, PA 17552.
Making Poor Man’s Guitars is an original work, first published in 2018 by Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright holders.
Print ISBN 978-1-56523-946-3
eISBN 978-1-60765-547-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Speal, Shane, author.
Title: Making poor man’s guitars / Shane Speal.
Description: Joy, PA : Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc., [2018] | Includes index.
Subjects: LCSH: Cigar box guitar--Construction. | Musical instruments--Construction.
Classification: LCC ML1015.G9 (ebook) | LCC ML1015.G9 S658 2018 (print) | DDC 784.192/3--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018023294
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For a printable PDF of the patterns used in this book, please contact Fox Chapel Publishing at [email protected], with 9781565239463 and Making Poor Man's Guitars in the subject line.
CONTENTS
Foreword: Little Freddie King’s Cigar Box Guitar: A Bluesman’s Firsthand Account
1: “Nobody Builds a Cigar Box Guitar Because They Want to Play Nice Things”
2: How to Build a Three-String Cigar Box Guitar
3: Variations on a Theme – Pickups and Mods to the Three-String Cigar Box Guitar
4: “The Portland Cowboy” Tin Can Guitar
5: “Foot Stomper” Cigar Box Percussion Unit
6: Electric Washtub Bass, a.k.a. “The Soul Bucket”
9: The Mailbox Guitar (A Builder’s Diary)
12: “The Lady” Guitar – An Electric Guitar Illegally Handmade inside a Prison
13: Recreating Scrapper Blackwell’s Cigar Box Guitar (A Builder’s Diary)
14: Tips on Selling Cigar Box Guitars at Festivals and Craft Fairs
Cigar Box Guitar and DIY Instrument Resources
Introduction
If I were to write just a book on building guitars, it would merely be an instruction in carpentry. If I were to add the rich history behind the instruments, the book would certainly have a bit more depth. However, I am neither a carpenter nor a professional historian; I am a musician who, to paraphrase the composer Harry Partch, was seduced into carpentry and history from searching for the sounds in my mind.
If I don’t talk about the music, then it is all a worthless quest.
It’s always about the music—a deeper music.
As I write this, my ears are still ringing and my voice is hoarse from attempting an old Cab Calloway song during band practice tonight. (Or was it the AC/DC cover?)
My band was at my place, running through a few song ideas. The mutant group, Shane Speal & the Snakes is built around cigar box guitars, washtub basses, homemade percussions, and a harmonica. All plugged into Spinal Tap amps and playing at breakneck speeds. In tonight’s practice, we experimented with a new sound by feeding the harmonica through a beer can microphone into a 1970s rotating Leslie organ speaker. It was fantastic!
When fans ask us about our genre, we usually just stand there and give them blank stares, because we have no clue. We’re a jug band that plays hard blues.
Or blues-meets-Motorhead on homemade instruments along with a toilet paper gun and confetti cannons.
Maybe the genre is “jug fusion” or “trash rock.” Regardless of a tidy name, we’re dangerous.
I believe music should be dangerous, on-the-edge, a little sloppy, and most of all, human. I attribute this philosophy to what I heard on a live, bootleg Sex Pistols cassette in 1982. I was twelve and just beginning to grow my mullet, cranking music on my stereo. To me,