Chickenbone John's Guitars

18/08/2026

We've arrange two learn to play sessions on 14th november - morning or beginners, afternoon for intermediate players -just get in touch if you're not sure which to book.

Learn to play cigar box guitar with the Godfather Of The Cigar Box Guitar...1000s of happy customers!. We are offering a morning session for beginners and an afternoon session for intermediate players - if you are not sure which to choose, please get in touch and we'll be happy to advise. If you are...

18/08/2026

We've just arranged some more workshops. Our first one is to make a fretless 3 string guitar at one of our popular "Make and Play" workshops on 7th November.

Make a simple fretless 3 string guitar & learn how to play with The Godfather Of The Cigar Box Guitar! All materials, parts, tools and tuition & lunch included.

12/08/2026

I had a film crew with me during the last weekend of Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival, so it will be interesting to see how that turns out. Coincidentally I've just been contacted by Kris Boll to do more filming...here's something he shot in 2015 ...yes, eleven years ago!

This is "Chickenbone John" by Kris Boll on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

04/08/2026

Someone asked about shimming cigar box guitar bridges, so I made a video about it.

I was prompted to do the video after being asked by a customer abou...

04/08/2026

Last week's Birmingham Jazz and Blues Festival gig with Dave Smith at the Bacchus Bar. Photo courtesy of Johnny Mobasher

29/07/2026

First gig of this year's Birmingham Jazz and Blues Festival, at Birmingham School of Art with Dave Smith.

27/07/2026

Yesterday at Leicestershire Guitar Show...demonstrating the one chord boogie on cigar box guitar. https://www.facebook.com/sarah.reid.5201/videos/1815028573270132/

24/07/2026

Getting ready for Sunday's Leicestershire Guitar Show..here's a batch of short scale guitars ready to go.

30/04/2026

If I've been a bit quiet on the guitar making side of things recently, that's because I'm busy doing some repair and improvement works on the workshop. A couple of months ago the floor was flooded due to a drainage problem (sorted out very quickly at no cost to us by Severn Trent Water), and this spurred me on to get the workshop sorted out properly, as the floor at the front of the workshop has always been problematical with it being uneven and with water ingress during really heavy downpours. Getting it sorted has involved putting new footings under the front section and replacing part of the floor...with a tonne of concrete all mixed and placed by hand by me. Whilst at it I've made a new part-glazed wall on one side with a Japanese-style external screen, started putting in a new ceiling and also framing-out and boarding one of the walls. Sound insulation and new electrics are going in, and we'll be re-arranging out workspace and putting in new benches. Anne has been taking care of business whilst I've been occupied doing this and I can see some progress at last!

21/04/2026

I was asked by a customer if we could set up a guitar in a lower EBE tuning, so here it is in comparison to a regular GDG tuned guitar. He decided on the strength of this demo that he liked the sound so he bought it! We may put together some sets of strings for this tuning.

12 likes, 1 comment. "Cigar Box Guitar- GDG tuning compared to EBE tuning."