more cigar box guitar basics - slide playing

This is aimed at beginners who may have never played slide guitar or a three-stringed CBG. Now you have your guitar tuned up correctly you need to get the feel of playing slide.

It's amazing how many beginners think you have to press the strings down onto the fretboard with the slide. No no no, think about it. The slide is taking the place of the fret wires. The pitch or note played on a string gets higher as it gets shorter. The normal fret wires act in the same way as the nut at the top of the neck. They create a solid point on the string, along with the bridge, to allow the string to vibrate. The slide is simply a movable nut allowing you to shorten the string length in variable degrees rather than fixed ones like the fretwires. You only need to put enough pressure on the string to get a clear note when plucked. You also need to place the slide smack over the fret mark - not between frets or on the dots.

So first practise doing that on just the top (first) string. I prefer the slide on my little (pinky) finger as it leaves the best three fingers free. If you want to play slide on a conventional guitar, you'll appreciate having them free for occasional fretted notes. So just try placing the slide over the third fret position on the first string and pluck it. Does it rattle? Not enough pressure, put slightly more on until it rings out clear.

The most important thing you need to develop is hitting the note accurately when sliding up or down to it. You can only tell by using your ears. Unless you are tone-deaf you will know when it's right. So try putting your slide over the third fret, pluck the string and while it's still ringing, slide smoothly up to the fifth fret. Does it sound right? Yep - you just learned your first lick. Now try adding some vibrato when you reach the fifth fret. Using movement in the wrist, simply 'wobble' the slide back and forth slightly above and below the fret position. That sounds much better doesn't it. Try these exercises, sliding from frets 2-3, 3-5, 5-7, 7-10, 10-12 then try them in reverse. Don't forget to practise the vibrato on the targeted frets.

More tips to follow soon.

some cigar box guitar basics - tuning

I Just thought it was time to go back to a few basics. I've probably said these things before in older posts but it's worth mentioning again for any newbie CBGers. All my guitars so far, have been made specifically for slide playing so they don't have fretwires. They just have markings as a guide, so all these comments relate specifiaclly to slide guitars and playing them.

First let's look at tuning. The bridges on most of my guitars are 'floating'. In other words they aren't glued or fixed to the body. That allows them to have fine adjustments made to the 'intonation', which is the first thing we need to check. Play a note on an open string (I usually start with the 1st). Listen to it carefully then place your slide directly over the 12th fret position and play that string again. It should be exactly an octave above the open note. You'll find it easier to get this accurate if you use a narrow metal rod such as the shaft of a screwdriver. If it's not correct, then move the bridge back or forward slightly until it is. De-tensioning the strings a little will take pressure off it and make it easier to move. If you have to change the strings, it's easier if you do one at a time. That way the bridge will stay where it is and avoid you having to do this each time.

Now to tune up - I normally tune to an open chord such as E, A or D. You can't change the tunings very far by winding the machine heads up or down so if it's currently in low open E and you want it in A, you need lighter strings. You need to make sure the tension on them is right. So how do you know what to use, this is how I do it and it works well. Think about standard tunings EADGBE. Now think about the popular open D tuning on a six-string - DADF#AD. Now if I wanted the guitar in low open E and only have three strings I would tune it to (low)EBE. Look at the standard tuning on the bottom three strings - its E(low)AD. So it makes sense to me that if I use the 6th, 5th and 4th strings from a standard set (I usually use 12s for CBGs), the tensions are going to about be right to give me my low open E chord. Tune the 6th as standard to E and the 5th and 4th can comfortably be tensioned up two semi tones to give me the B and higher E.

So using this principle I would use the 5th 4th and 3rd strings (ADG) from a 12 guage set to give me an open A which would be AEA. I just need to tune up two semi tones on the 4th(D) and 3rd(G) to get me there. This tuning up on some strings is the main reason I make my guitars with a short scale. Using standard strings on a short scale guitar means they need slightly lower tension to put them in true concert pitch, so that gives me some scope for over tensioning them slightly to get my open chords.

Lastly, a word about the necks. If you were buying a standard guitar, one of your main priorities would be making sure the neck was dead straight. These CBGs don't have anything as sophisticated as struss rods and so you will see there is often a substantial bend in the necks. Also that the action is incredibly high. This is perfectly fine for slide playing, in fact it's an advantage so don't be concerned about it. I use hard woods such as oak, mahogany, beech etc so there is no danger of them snapping under normal use.

Hope you found this helpful. Next post will be slide playing basics.

distressing a cigar box guitar

I've started building a new CBG and wanted to have a go at making a distressed one out of a new box. I stripped the labels of this plain looking Monte Christo box, then sanded all the corners and edges to round them off to look worn.

I added some marks by wacking the surfaces with various metal items to produce a random marked effect that would make it look like it had been used a while. Some coarse grit sandpaper scratched across the grain in a few places added to the effect. Lastly I gave it a couple of coats of stainer which gave it a mellow golden colour and picked out the distress marks.

Next stage is to make a neck to look equally old. Probably use some mahogany and paint the fretboard. I'm thinking of white, then dulling it down somehow. Compare the before and after photos - I think it worked quite well. I may add an old label or two later.

pinched harmonics on a cigar box guitar

You'll probably already know that if you pluck a string on a standard guitar and quickly touch it at the 12 fret, you get the harmonic and octave higher. You can also find harmonics on the 5th and 7th frets easily too. Well heavy metal players make use of this phenomena to get those high pitched squeals common to that genre using method know as "pinched harmonics". It's a bit of a dark art to me so excuse my ignorance on just exactly how they produce it. There is a definite techinique which I'm noy 100% sure on.

Anyway, I was just messing about with my CBG and found a way of getting an unusual harmonic which I think is similar to pinched harmonics. It sounds unusual because you can get it to sing out whilst sliding. It involved using thumb and forefinger at the same time to pluck the string. Sort of plucking it in two places with these digits but in opposite directions. I posted a short vid on my Youtube site using it. Have look and take note of what my right hand thumb and forefinger are doing when I'm getting the harmonics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTIcHCVSzyA

cigar box guitar bridges saddles

As requested here's some info on bridges/saddles. First some principles as I understand them. The bridge/saddle is the main component that transfers the vibrations of the strings to the soundboard, in our case the cigar box lid. The most efficient materials are dense ones. Having said that the traditional material for acoustic guitars is bone which is not as dense as metal but I don't know why it is favoured. A CBG is never going to compete with a Martin or Gibson on sound quality but we do want to try to get a decent volume and tone out of it, given its limited capability, so it's worth experimenting with different types. Personally I like to use as much recycled material for my CBGs as possible. I have mainly just used scraps of hardwood like oak and mahogany and shaped them into an upside down "T" cross-section shape. I made one out of aluminium for the Quality Street tin and that worked well too. My last CBG had a bridge made from bamboo and aluminium and that also worked.

I think the positioning of the bridge on the soundboard must also have some bearing on the sound. I have seen many CBGs with the bridge placed right down at the bottom of the guitar. I haven't tried placing it there myself as logic tells me that the most sensitive area of the lid must be near the middle. I opted for a position about 2/3 down the lid which is roughly where most acoustic guitars have them. The guys that build them must know a thing or two so who am I to argue.

Another issue that may be of interest to the builder is how to secure the ball end of the strings as most modern acoustic guitars have the plastic pin arrangement in the bridge. Well most CBG builders adopt the "straight through neck" design. This lends itself to fairly easy construction and the facility to leave a short "tail" at the bottom of the box to anchor the strings to. Simply drill small holes to pass the strings through from underneath. I have included a small metal plate to take the strain of the strings off the wood, which would otherwsie tend to cut into it. Hope this helps.

cigar box guitar building rules

I'm always looking for new angles on cigar box guitar building. I like to experiment, try new methods or materials in the hope of further improving the looks or playability and also for the fun of it. Sometimes they work - sometimes not. The last experiment was using classical guitar style machine heads requiring a slot to be cut out of the headstock. It resulted in me slicing a chunk out of my finger. Entirely my own stupid fault and I'm not sure it was worth it. I was hoping it would avoid the need for string trees giving me a steeper angle onto the tuner spindle from the nut. I found the angle was OK improving the pressure on the nut but due to the narrowness of the neck and straightness of headstock, there is a tendency for the outer strings to jump out of the threads of the bolts I use for nuts and therefor requiring some sort of string trees to guide the strings. My next experiment will be making nuts from aluminium bar with deeper slots to hold the strings more secure.

Another area for experiment is the bridge/saddle. So far I have tried using eye screws like many CBG builders but wasn't happy with the result. Most of my CBGs have saddles I make from hardwood like oak or mahogany, a sort of inverted T shape with shallow grooves for the strings. I was reading a posting on a forum about using banjo type saddles. They are narrow with feet at the ends which sit on the banjo skin and in fast look like the name suggests - a bridge. I got to the point on my latest build where I needed to make the saddle/bridge and rummaging through my scraps box, I found an odd thing which gave me inspiration. It was a broken slice of bamboo. Some time ago I bought some large diameter bamboo poles with the idea of making some percussion instruments. I had cut a slice off a piece but it had snapped in half forming a shape like half an onion ring. It struck me that the banjo type bridge could be made from a similar piece.
Using my bandsaw I cut a new slice about 6 mm wide then cut a piece about 1/3 of the diameter off it. I sliced a few mm off the outer curved edge to form a flat top. Then cut a narrow groove across that to hold a narrow aluminium saddle I made from some scrap. I think it looks and sounds good, I have fitted it to my latest CBG which you can see in another post.

My advice is, don't limit yourself to set ideas. By all means keep it in when when you find something that works well but try something new now and then, that's the fun of building these things, as someone said about CBG building "the rule is - there are no rules"

some lessons learnt

It was Saturday. I was making two necks for CBGs. This time I had bought the type of machine heads like you get on classical guitars - you need to make a slot in the headstock. I decided to rough drill them out on my big drill press then put a router bit in it to clean up the slot. I knew what I was doing was a bit dodgy to say the least but "I'll be careful" I thought. I had a really bad week at work stress wise and I reckon my brain wasn't running properly. The bit grabbed the wood and pulled my hand onto it in a split second. I felt a sharp pain in my finger end. There was that horrible realisation that I'd damaged my finger and it flashed through my mind "how bad is it"? So you have to look - it could have ben the whole tip of the finger. Well it wasn't as bad as I expected but it wasn't good.

So lessons learnt? Don't mess with machines when you are overtired. Follow safe practises - you know it going to go wrong don't you? Don't think you know better than that inner voice that's warning you. Lastly, don't buy those type of machine heads. It's taken three times as long to prepare the headstock and I'm not entirely happy with the results anyway.

Intonation and saddle position on cigar box guitars

Intonation is the ability of the guitar to sound and play "in tune" at the correct fret positions and if it's wrong, a guitar won't play good at all. Not quite so critical on a fretless instrument as you play mainly "by ear" but you still want to get it right. Here's my method for setting the bridge/saddle position on my CBGs.

The neck will have already been marked out with the correct fret positions from a template which also includes the approximate position of the saddle. As you probably know, the 12th fret lies halfway between the nut and the saddle and gives you the first octave of the same note found on the open string. So that is the important position to get right.

I set the neck in the box to place the saddle about 1/3 from the tail. Don't know if that's the absolute best place for it but it seems right to me for aesthetic and playing purposes. When the neck is fixed and the lid fastened down, I string it up and place the saddle roughly where it should be. I keep the string tension low at this point so I can move the saddle easy. I use the shaft of a small screwdriver as a "slide" (easier to see the exact position over the frets due to it's narrow diameter). Next pluck a string open and either tune it to a set note with an electronic tuner or just listen to it if your pitch ear is good. Put the screwdriver slide over the 12th fret and pluck again. Is it the same note an octave higher exactly? If it is you were lucky and job done.

Assuming it's not spot on, keep plucking and move the slide up or down the string till you find the exact spot. Is it nearer or further from the saddle than the 12th fret position? If it's nearer the saddle (above the 12th) then move the saddle nearer to the nut thus shortening the nut-saddle distance until it's bang over the 12th. If the octave is below the 12th position then move the saddle nearer the tail of the guitar. Once you've got it in the right place you can either mark it's position, slacken the strings and glue it in place or just leave it unglued and tension up the strings to the pitch you want them. My preference now is not to glue because that gives me the option of fine tuning it in the future without ripping it off the box.

new project - cigar box guitar flight case

I've started it. It's shaped like a flight case and made from wood. It will hold two CBG's and have a battery powered amp built in. I'm pretty excited about it. The case is made from some old pitch pine boards that are painted a sort of grey/greeny blue colour and because it's old, it has gone crazy. That will form the edges of the case, sort of like a deep picture frame with a rebate along one side where a piece of plywood fits to form the main top and bottom of the case. It will have foam glued inside to form shapes for the guitars to lie in. I'm looking for some cheap velvet to cover the foam and make a nice inside. I'm putting some photos on here to show how it is progressing. Probably take a few weeks to finish. Keep dropping in here to see how it's going. First picture shows the bottom section from the outside. There will be a speaker for the amp mounted in it.

Second picture is a close-up of the nice old crazed paint. The actual colour is slightly greener than this.

Third picture is the inside of the bottom section with two guitars placed in to help work out the layout for the foam sponge.

Update 18th Jan - started fitting foam pieces around guitars and made some compartments for the amp, speaker and accessories. I put a wanted ad on Freecycle for some velvet to line it with and some kind lady dropped off two wine red curtains. It will look great when done. I had a suggestion from a CBG freind in the Netherlands to use the lid as a stompbox, so I'm going work on that plan too. Building this is on hold for a while. Three guitars have gone to new homes so I need to make a couple more now.

Cigar Box Guitar questions

I had a couple of questions asked about how to make a pick-up and anchoring strings. I thought it a good idea to post my answer on here too.

Q. - "I'm totally fascinated by the cigar box guitar and am trying to put one together right now. I think the first problem was how to get the strings/tail done, and I'm opting to just make very small holes and let the ball at the end hold things. The other problem is amplifying, a piezo has me stumped. I know Radio Shack has them and I've been told they simply wire over to an input jack ... but I was wondering if you have any suggestions as to how I can easily get the thing wired for amplification."

A. - The neck passes straight through the box and out the back about 5cm to provide anchorage for the ball end of the strings. I drill three holes about 1cm apart. I find that when strung, the strings start to cut into the wood so I make a small metal plate out of brass or alloy which I screw onto the tail just in front of the holes so that it takes the pressure of the strings off the wood and stops it cutting through. It helps keep the thing in tune as it stops you losing tension from them cutting into the wood.

Pickup - easy. It's a ceramic piezo transducer disc. Some people buy a piezo buzzer which has one in and they rip it apart. Hard work when you can just buy the disc anyway. It looks like a thin a brass disc with a white coating in the middle (like a fried egg). There are two wires soldered to it, one to the brass outer and one to the coating. Carfeully unsolder them and discard the wires. You need some screened twin cable and a 1/4 inch jack socket. On one end of the cable solder one wire to the inner of the jack and the other wire and the screen wire together to the outer. At the pickup end trim the outer covering back about 2 cm and cut off the screen. Very very carefully solder one wire to the brass and one to the coating where the old wires were. Be carfeul because the coating is fragile. If it breaks off when soldering just try soldering another small blob on another area, it usually works OK. Before fixing to the guitar, plug it into an amp and just tap the disc, if it clicks it's OK, if it's dead then you got it wrong. When OK I fix the socket into the body then glue the disc (brass side) with Araldite to the inside of the box just under where the bridge/saddle is going to be. I also add a blob of hot glue to stick the cable to the lid just to stop it flapping about and ripping your wires off. I don't bother with vol. or tone controls, just use those on the amp. Job done.

metal slides for cigar box guitars

The guitars I make are purely for slide playing. The slide I use and like best is a heavy brass tube. I have tried pyrex which is a very thin glass. The glass is quite soft and scratches after a while. They break when you drop them too, hence I don't have one any more. They are too lightweight for my liking. Heavier slides are good for creating a decent vibrato too, they seem to "wobble" better on your finger. Real glass bottlenecks are cool being heavy but are hard to make. I've tried copper tubing making slides from hot water pipes but copper is too soft too and gives a dull sound compared to brass. I reckon a decent chromed tube would be good too.

I've been looking for scrap brass or chrome tubing to make some slides to go with my guitars. I called at a scrap metal merchant today and bought an old chromed towel rail. The type that is plumbed into your heating system. It's brass underneath. I reckon I can cut it up into small lengths, file the ends smooth and make about 40 slides out of it. I'm going to make one soon as a prototype so I'll report back on how good it is. I like the idea of recycling too. Most parts of the guitars are from recycled materials and it has a good vibe, good mojo, to make useful things out of scrap.

Update 19 Oct 2007 - I made a couple and they are great, nice smooth action and clean sound

Making a Cigar Box Guitar - Part 4 - the bridge

There are different materials/items used for the bridge but it needs to be a hard material. Some people use a threaded eye hook. I tried it but wasn't happy. I make my own simple bridge using some hard wood like oak or mahogany - a small piece left from the neck will do. I make it about 5 cms long and shape the cross section into an upside down T shape. The saddle part where the strings cross is only about 3 or 4 mm wide. I make it using a small router bit mounted in a drill stand. I cut very shallow grooves (1 mm) about 1 cm apart for the strings to sit in.

I string it up temporary but not full tension and place the bridge in it's approx position. Pass the string through the bottom of the holes you drilled at the base of the neck. You need to find the exact spot for correct intonation. I use a tuner and play one string open and tune it to an exact note (e.g. A) The twelve fret should be exactly one octave higher. I use a screwdriver shaft as a slide for this process as the narrowness makes it more accurate. Place it over the 12th fret and move the bridge either further up or down the box until the octave is bang over the twelth. You can mark it's position if you intend glueing the bridge to the box. I don't usually bother as it gives me the option of fine tuning the intonation whenever I want.

The design of my necks means that there isn't quite enough backwards offset on the neck (like a Fender) to provide enough tension of the strings over the nut. Like Fender I get round this by fitting "string trees" which pull the strings down onto the nut. I sometimes use small screw eyes and thread the string through the eye. Sometimes I make a small metal bar with a hole at each end and two small screws through them into the headstock. The bar presses down on all three strings simultaneously. Once you have these fixed you can string it up and tune it.

These small refinements are something you can experiment with. Once you have the basic box, you'll find little ways of improving them. All part of the creative fun.

More refinement tips to come ......

making a cigar box guitar part 3 - the box

So it's time for the box. It needs to be a wooden one not cardboard. I mainly use the paper covered ply boxes with hinged lids. I cut about a 1 inch (25mm) soundhole in the lid using a Forstner bit. The neck will fit just under the lid when closed so you need to cut notches in the ends for it to drop into. I open the lid and mark the centres of the two ends. Measure the section of the neck and mark this at these centres, allow a bit more depth for the thickness of the lid which usually sits inside the sides.

Carefully cut these pieces out using a coping saw or sharp craft knife. Aim for a close tight fit. The neck should fit into it now so try closing the lid - you might need to make it a bit deeper yet - the neck should protrude out the back a couple of inches (about 2 cm). There will be a gap under the neck between it and the bottom of the box. I make two pieces of narrow wood to fit tightly in this gap to support the neck and glue one at each end of the box. When set I drill through the back of the box and through these blocks. Next I put a wood screw with cup washer through each hole and and screw into the neck. Obviously choose screw lengths that won't come right through the neck. This secures the neck to the box.

If adding piezo pick-up I next drill a hole for the jack socket, glue the piezo disc to the underside of the lid where the bridge will be and wire it out. When happy with it close the lid and secure it with a few panel pins (usually there's one already in it in the middle - add another at each end)

coming next - the bridge, string trees and stringing it up. Any questions feel free to mail me.

making a cigar box guitar part 2 - the neck

This a brief description of how I make the necks. I use hardwood like oak or mahogany usually recovered from old furniture and ripped down to approx 20 x 30 mm section and about a metre long. I round off the corners slightly with a plane and rasp then sand down smooth.

I use another guitar neck to find the positions for nut, bridge and frets. I have made a template on thin MDF and use this to mark the positions in pencil allowing sufficient length for the headstock and for the neck to pass through the length of the cigar box and protrude about 50mm for attaching the ball end of the strings.

I mostly use 3 in a line tuners which means you need to remove some material from the front of the headstock to create an angle for the strings to drop down to over the nut (look at a Fender for the principle). I mark the positions of each tuner post and drill three holes for them to pass through.

I place the neck over the box so that the bridge will be about 1/3 up the length of the box and mark the neck about 10 mm inside where the box ends will be. This section which will be hidden in the box needs about 3mm removing - this is to stop the neck resting on the inside of the lid and dulling the sound.

I cut a small groove across the neck where the nut is to go and glue in a large threaded bolt for the actual nut.

I drill three small holes near the bottom end of the neck abou 10 mm apart for strings to pass through. The fret positions and dot markers are now burnt on using a woodburning tool (or old soldering iron). Also my signature "smojo" on the headstock. I "treat" the neck with a couple of thin coats of tung oil then rub smooth when dry with a cotton rag. Finally I attach the tuners.

This is just a rough guide, if you want any tips feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me.

Next part 3 - preparing the box

Making cigar box guitar part 1

How easy is it? Relatively easy providing you have some basic woodworking skills and tools. You can probably knock something playable together without too much fuss but if you get "bitten" by the CBG bug, you'll want to refine your instruments and make something a bit more pleasing to the eye and to play. I'm going to describe the basics of what's involved in making my guitars, then you can modify it to your own methods and styles. I will break it down into several posts so please keep coming back here for the next part.

Part 1 - initial considerations:-

Although they are fairly simple instruments you need to give it some thought if you want to make one. Do you have the skills and tools and materials needed? These are the bare necessities:-
Tools -

• Some sort of workbench and ideally a vice to hold timber/lumber.
• A small handsaw
• measure
• drill and various bits
• couple of screwdrivers
• tri-square
• sandpaper
• craft knife
• small hammer

You'll struggle if that's all you've got though. Nice to have but - don't dash out and buy them all at once, you can get by without them:-

• coping saw or jig saw for cutting shapes
• circular or bandsaw to rip down wood for necks
• router
• smoothing plane
• rasp for smoothing rough corners of wood
• bradawl
• soldering iron (if you want to fit electrics or burn on fret markings)
• wood chisel
• couple of small G clamps
  

Skills - obviously you need basic skills at using these tools but you don't need to be an expert cabinet maker!

Materials -

• cigar box - wood not cardboard. It could be plain wood or the type that has paper covering it. A good size is about 10 x 6 x 2 inches roughly
• a piece of hardwood - oak, mahogany, maple, beech etc. approx 2 x 1 inch and about 40 inches long
• two screws about 2 inch long and washers to go with them
• woodworking (PVA) glue
• set of 12 guage acoustic guitar strings (cheapest will do)
• threaded bolt for the "nut"
• machine heads for tuning - you could improvise with wooden pegs or screw eyes but in the end it's worth buying some proper ones. I use "three in a line" types that fit at the back of the headstock. A full set will make two three string guitars so they are very economical. You don't need Kluson or Grovers either! - just something that does the job
• three small eye screws - more about them later

Part 2 to follow - preparing the neck.

5 more Tips for Playing Slide Cigar Box Guitar

OK so if you're a raw beginner and you read my first 5 tips you are ready to start making some decent bluesy sounds from your CBG. Don't try to walk before
you can run, take your time, master the basics and build on that.

1. 
   Hitting the note - You either took up golf because you're tone deaf and came back out of curiosity or to can hear a decent note and figured that
   playing a CBG is far more fun and cool than wearing a naff sweater and whacking a ball around a field. You can do all the usual guitar tricks of pull-offs,
   hammer-ons etc with the slide but for now concentrate on what the slide does best - err sliding! It helps you to hit the note at the right pitch and also
   gives it that swampy, delta blues sound. Try this - Pluck the 1st or thinnest string only just to get the root note into your head as a reference. Now hold
   the slide right over the second fret mark on same string (just angle it so it misses the other two strings but keeping the slide at right angles to the
   neck). Apply just the right amount of pressure to make a clean note. Gently pluck the string and immediatley slide up to the next (third) fret. You might go
   over or stop short but you'll know becasue it will sound wrong. Keep trying it till you can hit it sweet using the open string as your base reference again.
   When you get bored of that, try the same thing over the 4th fret sliding up to the 5th and the 6th fret sliding up to the 7th. Sounds good doesn't it, you
   just found the basis of a 12 bar blues. Practise and practise till it sounds good.
2. 
   More slipping and sliding - Now you've got the feel of it and can hit the note good try some more slides. Try going from 10th to 12th fret. Use your
   open string again first for reference. The 12th fret is one octave above the open fret so it should sound the same only higher. Now try sliding down the neck
   from 12th to 10th or from 7th to 5th and from 5th to 3rd. Wow - how about that? If that sounded good and you bought some golf clubs you wasted your money!
3. 
   Vibrato - Now this is what transforms a fairly boring note into something with dynamics. As you slide up to your chosen note, say from 3rd to 5th
   fret, when you hit the note "wobble" the slide up and down the string around that fret. Try to wobble it about one quarter of the distance above and below
   that fret. Try different "speeds" of "wobble" till it sounds right. The trick is to let your wrist go somewhat limp or loose and and do the wobble with the
   hand rather than the whole arm. It will sound too "stiff" and awkward otherwise. This takes some practise but you'll get there eventually. Apply this
   "wobble" or vibrato whenever you want to hold a note for any length of time. It increases the sustain of the note and makes it less important to hit the note
   bang on the fret. Also sounds great.
4. 
   Playing chords - Don't panic, the great thing about slide CBGs is you don't need to remember any chord/finger combinations. It's already tuned to an
   open chord. All you have to do is what you just did on one string but placing the slide over all three. Just make sure you keep it parallel to the fret line
   so they all hit the note spot on.
5. 
   Rhythm - It gets a bit trickier now so don't throw the golf clubs out yet. If you never played any guitar before you'll be finding this a bit of a
   challenge anyway but stay with it. Put the slide down for a while and try to develop your right hand rhythm technique by just playing all three open strings.
   If it's tuned up right it will make a pleasant chord on it's own. Try keeping a steady medium tempo rhythm by tapping a foot first or if necessary using a
   metronome. Gently strum the strings in time. Just practise keeping a regular rhythm going. You can use a pick or as I prefer just brushing the side of my
   thumb over them. Try doing just down strokes on the beat then introduce an upstroke between each beat.

Be sure to check out my other posts regularly here at :-http://www.smojo-cigar-box-guitars.blogspot.com/

5 Basic Tips for Playing Slide Cigar Box Guitar

These basic tips are for out and out beginners and relate to my own three-string fretless CBGs but equally relate to more conventional guitars that you intend to play slide on where you would normally tune to an open chord.

1. Tuning the guitar - Decide what tuning you are going to use. My preference for blues on CBGs is an open "A" tuned either A-E-A or A-D-A the two A's being an octave apart. It depends what guage strings have been supplied too as to whether an open "A" will result in a suitable tension for the guitars. CBG's supplied by me will have a help sheet telling you what has been fitted. A-E-A is a good starting point - try it and get familiar with it before experimenting with others. Make life easier when tuning by getting a decent electronic tuner like the Korg CA-30 which will show you exactly what note you are playing rather than the basic ones with just standard EADGBE tuning. It will be really handy when trying alternate tunings later.
2. Type of slide - There are many things you could use as a slide. Some prefer metal, some glass, some bone! I find metal gives a bit more volume with CBG's than glass and it doesn't break. Get a decent heavy one too - it helps when applying vibrato. I use a bought brass tube slide. Again you can experiment later with different types once you've got the basic techniques off.
   
3. Using/holding the slide - Again there are diferences of opinion and what suits one doesn't suit another. You can play the guitar on your lap and hold the slide in your left hand (if you're right handed) but most will hold the guitar in the conventional way across the chest. Which finger? I recommend the little "pinkie" finger. The reason being it leaves three of your best fingers free. Not important here but if you eventually apply your slide skills to a conventional fretted guitar, you might want to form some fretted notes or chords as well in which case you can leave the slide on the pinkie and still get by with three good fingers.
   
4. Applying the slide to the string - The slide acts as a "movable" fret, that's why there is no need for actual metal fret wires on the neck. The fret positions on mine are marked on purely for a visual guide as to where to place the slide for a given note. The first important rule is to place the middle of the slide right bang over the fret mark where the wire should have been - not over the dots. The second important thing is to just apply enough pressure to make a clear note without the string rattling against the slide. A common mistake is thinking you need to press down hard enough for the string to touch the neck. You definitely don't want that. Pluck an "open" string first without using the slide anywhere, then try the slide at the 5th fret, you should be able to hear when you have it in the right place unless you are tone deaf in which case take up golf instead!!
   
5. Plucking hand technique - once again there are preferences, plectrum (pick) or fingers. I used to be mainly a plectrum man till I started with CBG's. I find there is much more scope with fingers. You can use them to "dampen" strings you don't want to ring out and finger picking styles sound great on these guitars. I let the nails grow a little bit long on my right hand for this. If you are worried about looking a little bit "girlie" with them you can soon restore you're macho cred by giving a demo on your CBG. They are incredibly cool instruments.
   
   So that's the rudiments for a complete novice. Watch this blog for some more tips that will soon have you playing and grinning all over your self satisfied mug. Enjoy!
   
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