News

At C. B. Gitty, we've always been excited about the idea of kids building cigar box guitars, and what they can learn from it, so we jump at the chance to work with teachers and schools who are insterested in making this happen. A couple of months back we were contacted by Tom Knight, a teacher at the East Woods School in Oyster Bay, NY (on Long sland) about a special class he wanted to do with some of his students. The East Woods School is a "small by design" private school t …

More and more people are getting into building cigar box guitars and other homemade instruments. In turn, a growing number are also hitting various festivals, craft shows, and street fairs to try to sell their unique creations.  And going out into the public to sell cigar box guitars always poses some exciting challenges for people who aren't used to it. Putting yourself out there, talking to people, talking-up yourself and your work, bargaining and working a sale... for some more ex …

This week at C. B. Gitty we are officially launching a new brand of instrument strings specifically focused on Cigar Box Guitars and the handmade/homemade music movement: The Southbound String Company. This is the first brand of strings dedicated to these unique handcrafted instruments, and it is the culmination of years of careful testing, experimenting, trial and error to find what combinations of strings work best for these "non-standard" instrumental creations we love so much. All …

Yesterday afternoon, Glenn Watt and I hauled about 700 board feet of 150-year-old wooden planks from an old hat factory into Gitty HQ. When I got to work yesterday morning, a reclaimed wood run was not even on the radar.Here is the story of how it came about, and proof of why making connections with people can be so powerful.Those of you who have been following our progress will know that I have been working on using more and more reclaimed materials, wood in particular, in the products we manuf …

Three new how-to articles dealing with popular Cigar Box Guitar concepts have recently been posted in the How-to knowledgebase at CigarBoxGuitar.com. Two deal with popular 3-string tunings, and the third introduces the What, Why and How of the Zero Fret. Be sure to look them over if you are looking to expand your Cigar Box Guitar know-how!Tunings Articles: Open G "GDG" Tuning on your Cigar Box Guitar: 4 Methods, with String SizesOpen D “DAD” Cigar Box Guitar Tunings and String Sizes Article – w …