Cigar Box Guitars

It's Cigar Box O’Clock

Join me having fun building and playing cigar box guitars, even though I don’t really know what I am doing.

Let’s build guitars together. I will be showing you my mistakes and how I got round them (or not). Share your thoughts on making and playing your guitars, making mistakes, learning and having a good time.

It doesn’t matter if you have never played a guitar. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t a skilled woodworker. It doesn’t even matter if you can’t get hold of cigar boxes. Join in and have a go. If you can’t do something, ask me and let’s see if we can find an answer.

There are loads of links to other great YouTube channels on the links page and I learned a lot from these.

The most important thing is to enjoy yourself.  Wherever you are in the world, if you are in the mood, It’s Cigar Box O’Clock!

Cheers! Pete.

Peter playing his cigar box guitar

About me

I am Pete Kennerley from Hertfordshire in the UK.  I have occasionally picked up a classical guitar and was learning the mandolin in my late fifties. THEN, I discovered the guitar box guitar when looking for information on mandolins — and realised this is what I have wanted to do all along.

So, I started to learn in my sixties. It’s never too late (or too early) to have a go.

I realised that there are many YouTube channels by people who have played the guitar all their lives, and by those who are expert carpenters – and some of them are great. I have put my favourites on the links page.

But I also realised that there was no channel by people like me, who want to have a go but have never done it before.

Videos Coming Up

In no particular order:

  • Making a Romeo and Juliet travel guitar that fits into a suitcase
  • A St Patrick’s day guitar, with downloadable templates and possibly a label in Irish
  • A plastic cigar box guitar, shaped to fit nicely on your lap
  • Making a basic box if you can’t get hold of cigar boxes, with downloadable plans
  • Making a neck from offcut ebony bits
  • Making a fretboard from a hardwood ruler
  • Making a distressed cigar box guitar with a resonator spring inside
  • Making a portable 9 volt amplifier out of a cigar box
  • Making a clock out of a cigar box
  • Whatever else occurs to me, or is suggested.