Johnny Hiland Band

Although I’ve been playing guitar for many years it is only recently that I have discovered the fun that can be had with a cigar box guitar.

If you don’t know what a cigar box guitar is I shall explain. A cigar box guitar is simply a basic guitar made using a wooden cigar box as the resonant body. They tend to be home made instruments that use a cigar box as the resonator in the same way that an acoustic guitar uses its guitar body to amplify the sound from the strings.

Back in the 19th century cigars were far more popular than they are today. They began to package cigars in wooden boxes from around the middle of the 19th century and people soon found a use for these boxes in various home made instruments.

It’s quite simple to turn a cigar box into a basic guitar using a length of wood and a few tuning pegs and this is why they became a popular form of folk instrument. The simplest of cigar box guitars might have only one string, but they are commonly made with three strings and no frets. The steel strings would be fretted using a slide or a bottleneck.

Cigar box based musical instruments are a traditional form of folk instrument that could easily be made using items that would otherwise have been thrown away. In recent years there has been increased interest in these simple instruments with people sharing their building expertise, tips and advice on the internet. And its not essential that you use a cigar box to make home made musical instruments. Many builders of cigar box guitars use other boxes for the resonator including biscuit tins oil drums and childrens lunch boxes.

So if you’re struggling with augmeted thirteenths on your six string guitar toss it to one side and get yourself a three string cigar box guitar and make some noise.

As many people will know this year is the 20th anniversary of the debut album from Nirvana who in case you didnt already know a grunge band that were very popular before Kurt Cobain died. Nevermind brought the band huge successes and I think it shocked them all a lot and none of them really seemed to want it.

Well the band actually formed in 1987 in Aberdeen Washington and was only formed by Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic. Nirvana seemed to always suffer a problem with their drummer and the only one that really stuck around was Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) was around from 1990 until the end.

The very first song under the Nirvana name was of course Love Buzz and the debut album Bleach came a year later in 1989 and was said to be heavily influenced by the melvins. Cobain changed his writing style from the anger of bleach to the commercial success that was Nevermind because he was happier with his life.

Cobain never really wanted any of the fame that he received and he always complained that he had to play for the people that had bullied him at school and that these people were two faced.

Many years have passed since Kurt Cobain's death yet the band still remain as poular as they were back in the early 90's and they have been voted one of the best bands of all time.

If they were around today it is difficult to say if they would be into the newer instruments like electronic drum kits but one thing is for certain the way in which they played their guitars would not have changed and the brilliant music would have carried on.

Try the Gibson 355 for a really good guitar experience and as a final point, Nirvana were behind the whole music genre of grunge so let us not forget it!