A cigar box is just a cigar box — except when it's a guitar. In the hands of Gipson Shoemaker III, the simple wooden box becomes a musical instrument worth hundreds of dollars and capable of producing ...

It begins as just a cigar box and a five-quarter stick of maple. With 12 hours work, four strings and skilled fingers, it's music. As a luthier, Roger Wendover has spent more than a quarter century ...

Mainly a drummer who plays guitar and writes music as well, Taylor became interested in building cigar box guitars after he became annoyed by the snootiness often connected to brand-name guitars.