Electric cigar box guitar 3 string, humbucker, vintage box, unique
Lights-out' Louis Ford had big dreams and a fierce ambition to make a name for himself in his home town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Not cut out for the harsh demands of farming, and with dreams of becoming a recording artist, as a child Louis would disappear from the family home for hours, and practice on the home-made Diddley Bow. This instrument had been fashioned for him out of an old broom handle and small cigar box by his Mother, who could see in Louis the potential for bigger and better things than a sharecroppers' life. Within the small town of Eureka Springs, Louis quickly made a name for himself by playing blues that had a driving rhythm, perfect for the local Juke Joint and the dancers who frequented it. Within months however, Louis convinced himself that he was destined for bigger and better, and sought to make his reputation within the more financially enticing clubs of nearby cities.
However, at this time, the country-blues style of playing that Louis played was beginning to falter within bigger cities, mainly due to the lack of amplification within noisier venues, surrounded by train lines and traffic. Louis converted his mother's Diddley Bow, fitting a pick-up and jack socket to the small box body. Playing for the first time with his new electrified Diddley Bow, his new set-up shorted the club's electrics, and the name'Lights-out' Louis was all he ended the night with. Undeterred, Lights-out Louis experimented more with the amplification of his sound, creating a three stringed guitar from parts thrown out by a local electrical store, and using an old cracked box found outside the tobacconists near where he lived.
This experimental guitar was, in his mind, his ticket the big-time. The big-time however never came, and after travelling one rainy night to a gig in his local juke joint, he plugged in, started to play, and again the lights went out. His own life too was extinguished that night, and the short life of Lights-out Louis faded from history as the years went on. In recreating this guitar, we have opted for a humbucker pick-up, with tone and volume controls, to give this an amazing rich, bluesy sound. This hardware has all been aged to fit in with the'found' nature of the parts within Louis' story. The body is from a vintage 100 cigar-capacity Corona box, which is easily the biggest box we've worked with to date. The sound when played acoustically is also really nice, thanks to this size. The neck is made from high quality ash, with a Blackwood Tek fret board, and aged brass machine heads. Stunning in design, awesome in performance, a real one-of-a-kind!