Shane Speal's Snake Oil Band

he king of the cigar
Box Guitar
Shane Speal, a native of York, PA, is the self-
appointed King of the Cigar Box Guitar. While
he’s certainly not the only practitioner of the
instrument, he is universally recognized as the
prime mover of the CBG cult, a man who has
made it his life’s crusade to spread the word
and promote the popularity of CBGs.
“I’m a habitual musical hack,” he told me
[
Writer’s note: he’s being modest
]. “I started on
piano and guitar at an early age, played drums
in school and played bass in metal bands in
the late ‘80s. I discovered blues, Stevie Ray
Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix in college and it
was all downhill from there. I soon discovered
Muddy, the Wolf and Hound Dog Taylor, and
slowly worked backwards to the Delta stuff in
a quest to find something deeper. Once I hit
Blind Willie Johnson, my mind exploded. It was
gritty, raw, and meaner than any heavy metal
I ever heard. By the time I entered that Delta
blues phase, I was playing a beat-to-hell Stella
guitar with bad action and a bottleneck slide.
Then, in 1993, I came across an interview with
Carl Perkins where he described the simple
two-string cigar box guitar he learned on, and I
just had to build one.”
“I got fancy and gave it three strings, and used
a spark plug socket as a slide. Just a few weeks
prior, I had been killing myself trying to play
Sylvester Weaver’s ‘Guitar Rag’ on my acoustic.
When I finished the three-stringer, that song
just flowed out. It had the sound of grit, dirt
and sweat of the Delta.”
“A CBG is quirky and appears ‘broken’
from the start. They just don’t look like
they should play any music. I love to see
jaws hit the floor when I shove a socket on
my finger and wail away.” According to Bill
Jehle, “Shane sounds like Motörhead in a
jug band!” When questioned why he named
himself the “King of the Cigar Box Guitar,”
Shane replies, “It’s a celebration of absurdity.
Who would ever want to call himself the king
of such a shitty instrument?”
“I have many normal guitars in my studio, but
I only use them as backing instruments while
recording. The rest of the CD is CBGs and my
evil ‘Mailbox Dobro,’ which is made from an
actual black metal mailbox. I am a cigar box
guitarist. I’m just not interested in status quo
instruments anymore.”
Shane started the Cigar Box Guitar Forum
on Yahoo/Groups in 2003 with the provision
that members share everything they had
on the subject: information, photos, playing
tips and instruments. “There was a certain
electricity with the handful of musicians who
joined up back then,” he says, “an electricity
that’s increased over the years. They joined in
with info sharing and turned the forum into a
family. With a positive and fun atmosphere like
that, lurkers were drawn in like magnets. Was
I responsible? Yeah, I was like an evangelist.
I wanted people to experience a musical
movement that wasn’t based on ego or
rebellion, but on friendship and a fascination
for new music. It worked. Go figure!”
But why has this cult formed around these
primitive instruments? Shane remarks, “There
are no rules as far as building or playing CBGs.
If you can dream it, then do it. There is an
army of CBG’ers encouraging new recruits to
build their own. While the rest of the world
is rehashing Eric Clapton and Pink Floyd
tablature, we’re blazing new trails. We’re
writing history as we go along.” Shane now
runs a website called CigarBoxNation.com that
boasts over six hundred active members at this
writing. The old Yahoo/Group forum has over
three thousand members. Boy Scouts and Cub
Scouts are now building CBGs for badges. Tom
Waits and P.J. Harvey have used CBGs on their
albums. Billy Gibbons even plays them.
As to the future of the CBG, Shane proposes,
“The future is friends... more friends. None
of us expect to make ‘the big time’ from this.
The ‘big time’ doesn’t exist anymore due to
the destruction of the record business and the
horrible conglomeration of the radio industry.
Music has been thrust back into a more
regionalized stage, where performers are their
own booking agents and record companies.
This is an amazing thing. With a home
computer, we now control our own printing
press, recording studio and networking system.
I have my own record label, insurrectionrecords.
com, and I sell my homemade instruments on
shanespeal.bigcartel.com. The cigar box guys
are using computers, and quite effectively. We
have our own indie labels, magazines, festivals,
social network, and a dedicated family that will
do anything to help each other out. This is the
future of CBGs and the whole music industry.” - Premier Guitar

he king of the cigar
Box Guitar
Shane Speal, a native of York, PA, is the self-
appointed King of the Cigar Box Guitar. While
he’s certainly not the only practitioner of the
instrument, he is universally recognized as the
prime mover of the CBG cult, a man who has
made it his life’s crusade to spread the word
and promote the popularity of CBGs.
“I’m a habitual musical hack,” he told me
[
Writer’s note: he’s being modest
]. “I started on
piano and guitar at an early age, played drums
in school and played bass in metal bands in
the late ‘80s. I discovered blues, Stevie Ray
Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix in college and it
was all downhill from there. I soon discovered
Muddy, the Wolf and Hound Dog Taylor, and
slowly worked backwards to the Delta stuff in
a quest to find something deeper. Once I hit
Blind Willie Johnson, my mind exploded. It was
gritty, raw, and meaner than any heavy metal
I ever heard. By the time I entered that Delta
blues phase, I was playing a beat-to-hell Stella
guitar with bad action and a bottleneck slide.
Then, in 1993, I came across an interview with
Carl Perkins where he described the simple
two-string cigar box guitar he learned on, and I
just had to build one.”
“I got fancy and gave it three strings, and used
a spark plug socket as a slide. Just a few weeks
prior, I had been killing myself trying to play
Sylvester Weaver’s ‘Guitar Rag’ on my acoustic.
When I finished the three-stringer, that song
just flowed out. It had the sound of grit, dirt
and sweat of the Delta.”
“A CBG is quirky and appears ‘broken’
from the start. They just don’t look like
they should play any music. I love to see
jaws hit the floor when I shove a socket on
my finger and wail away.” According to Bill
Jehle, “Shane sounds like Motörhead in a
jug band!” When questioned why he named
himself the “King of the Cigar Box Guitar,”
Shane replies, “It’s a celebration of absurdity.
Who would ever want to call himself the king
of such a shitty instrument?”
“I have many normal guitars in my studio, but
I only use them as backing instruments while
recording. The rest of the CD is CBGs and my
evil ‘Mailbox Dobro,’ which is made from an
actual black metal mailbox. I am a cigar box
guitarist. I’m just not interested in status quo
instruments anymore.”
Shane started the Cigar Box Guitar Forum
on Yahoo/Groups in 2003 with the provision
that members share everything they had
on the subject: information, photos, playing
tips and instruments. “There was a certain
electricity with the handful of musicians who
joined up back then,” he says, “an electricity
that’s increased over the years. They joined in
with info sharing and turned the forum into a
family. With a positive and fun atmosphere like
that, lurkers were drawn in like magnets. Was
I responsible? Yeah, I was like an evangelist.
I wanted people to experience a musical
movement that wasn’t based on ego or
rebellion, but on friendship and a fascination
for new music. It worked. Go figure!”
But why has this cult formed around these
primitive instruments? Shane remarks, “There
are no rules as far as building or playing CBGs.
If you can dream it, then do it. There is an
army of CBG’ers encouraging new recruits to
build their own. While the rest of the world
is rehashing Eric Clapton and Pink Floyd
tablature, we’re blazing new trails. We’re
writing history as we go along.” Shane now
runs a website called CigarBoxNation.com that
boasts over six hundred active members at this
writing. The old Yahoo/Group forum has over
three thousand members. Boy Scouts and Cub
Scouts are now building CBGs for badges. Tom
Waits and P.J. Harvey have used CBGs on their
albums. Billy Gibbons even plays them.
As to the future of the CBG, Shane proposes,
“The future is friends... more friends. None
of us expect to make ‘the big time’ from this.
The ‘big time’ doesn’t exist anymore due to
the destruction of the record business and the
horrible conglomeration of the radio industry.
Music has been thrust back into a more
regionalized stage, where performers are their
own booking agents and record companies.
This is an amazing thing. With a home
computer, we now control our own printing
press, recording studio and networking system.
I have my own record label, insurrectionrecords.
com, and I sell my homemade instruments on
shanespeal.bigcartel.com. The cigar box guys
are using computers, and quite effectively. We
have our own indie labels, magazines, festivals,
social network, and a dedicated family that will
do anything to help each other out. This is the
future of CBGs and the whole music industry.” - Premier Guitar