Beginning in 1865 the U.S. Government required that cigars be sold in small boxes to aid in tax collection. The discarded boxes would be joined to a broom handle or other wooded stick. A wire, often from a window screen, was stretched across it to create a simple fiddle played with a bow or plucked. CBG was originally the poor man’s guitar, created by people who wanted to play an instrument but couldn’t afford to buy one.

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Built out of a box and a stick, the CBG was often part of a “jug band,” a band made up of washboard bass, a jug and a harmonica, and sometimes things like spoons and a comb or stovepipe. Some of the earliest Blues music was created in jug bands. Lightnin’ Hopkins, a Blues guitarist that Rolling Stone placed in its Top 100 Guitarists of All Time, frequently played a CBG.

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Other well-known guitarists that have played CBGs include Bo Diddley, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Jimmy Hendrix, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Ed King of Lynyrd Skynrd, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top and actor Johnny Depp. In Huntsville, local musicians Microwave Dave, John Savage, Travis Bowlin and John Nickel play CBGs.

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Perhaps the most interesting thing about a CBG is that each one has a unique sound (whereas commercial guitars are built to have consistent sound) because of the different sizes and depths of the guitar body.

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The traditional CBG has three (sometimes four) strings. Three strings are easier to play that the typical six string guitar because they are easier on your fingers and hand flexibility.

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CBGs are traditionally tuned Open G, with the strings G-D-G. Open G tuning means that many notes can be played as a bar chord (one finger across the full fret) making it easy to play a tune with just two or three different finger placements.