MEMPHIS, TENN. -- — They’re built around wooden cigar boxes, just like untold thousands of homemade guitars patched together across America since the 1800s. But no minstrel-show performer or ...

LOS ANGELES — The pages of newspapers, or history books for that matter, don’t runneth over with stories of happy accidents involving chain saws. But that’s just what put Philadelphia musicians Lucy ...

The pages of newspapers, or history books for that matter, don’t runneth over with stories of happy accidents involving chainsaws. But that’s just what put Philadelphia musicians Lucy Tight and Wayne ...

All the electronics for the suitcase bass came from parts Ross Newell recycled from old smoke alarms. Turns out if you wire it backwards, the alarm component that makes the loud "beep" noise becomes a ...

HUNTSVILLE, AL. - What is a cigar box guitar? Technically, it’s a discarded cigar box with a hole for a 1-inch-by-2-inch fretboard. A hodgepodge of random items. Perhaps with a leather cord attached ...

Anyone who saw the funny little square-shaped guitars at Mikel Doktor’s booth stand at the Music is Art festival might have thought Doktor had created some unique, alien-type of instrument. However, ...

It has been said that no zydeco band is complete without a rubboard and an accordion. But deep in the birthplace of zydeco, an exhibit at the St. Landry Parish Visitor Center features a different type ...

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) - It started as a search for a different sound. Kevin M. Kraft spent years unsatisfied with the instruments he had and was considering commissioning a custom-made guitar when he ...

WITH THESE UNIQUE INSTRUMENTS. AND OF COURSE, IT’S MADE MASS. THE SOUND THAT COMES OUT OF THAT IS UNBELIEVABLE. IT’S CRAZY. FOR THE UNINITIATED, THE SOUND COMING FROM THIS CIGAR BOX IS MIND BLOWING.

One of the best things about making music is that it’s so easy to do. There are countless ways to make interesting sounds out of nearly anything if you’re willing to experiment a little bit — just ask ...

"Although the making of these guitars began in the 1800s, they are coming back full circle," said Mike Snowden, a Lafayette native, musician, cigar box guitar craftsman and one of the leading figures ...