“It might be rubbish, but it’s my rubbish”: How the Makers of Cigar Box Guitars Resist Throwaway Culture

This paper analyses ethnographic research carried out into the activities of a particular group of makers whose DIY activities are centred on the creation, dissemination and performance of home-made musical instruments in the form of cigar box guitars. From a series of semi-structured, in-depth interviews, it emerged that these objects are almost exclusively based on notions of recycling, reuse and repurposing, and as such extend the life of component parts that would otherwise be discarded. Also, as hand-crafted labours of love, the resulting instruments are often the focus of strong emotional bonds to their makers, and are used for extended periods, being added to, altered and reconfigured over time as new components become available and the makers’ skills improve. For many makers, partaking in this activity has been their first foray into creative production of any kind, and often, they need to find solutions to problems they encounter in the process of making of their instruments. As a consequence of the usually very solitary nature of the activity, these makers make extensive use of online forums and networks to become part of a community of practice, openly sharing their knowledge and experience to help each other, and to celebrate their achievements of productive labour. It is argued that the “magic” of the instruments produced and the support of a social media network is directly linked to the extension of product lifetimes of the objects made.

. A selection of "cigar box guitars", canjos and ukuleles constructed from cigar boxes, various other wooden boxes and tin cans made to commission by Spatchcock and Wurzill. Photo by the author.
The extended lifetime of cigar box guitars is clearly an issue of longevity rather than durability. As Cooper [1]

explains:
A Product's longevity describes its life-span (or "lifetime") and is thus a somewhat different measure [to durability], being partly determined by factors other than attributes formed through design and manufacture. These factors include user behaviour towards a product and wider socio-cultural influences.
It is argued here that the behavioural relationship between the makers and their instruments and a number of specific socio-cultural influences are key elements in this resistance to mainstream consumption, making the production of cigar box guitars of particular interest to research in sustainability.
Anticonsumption is an established and well-explored area of academic study, usefully delimited by Makri et al. [2] who identified product lifeextension and repurposing as particular areas worthy of further study. J Sustain Res. 2020;2(4):e200038. https://doi.org/10.20900/jsr20200038 Yet, from their extensive literature review, it appears that amateur making and do-it-yourself practices as methods of anticonsumption have not yet been fully explored. One study by Scott and Weaver [3] does discuss amateur making (and even includes cigar box guitars as an example). The article concentrates on repurposing objects to extend product lifespans.
Cigar box guitars are an example of a process the authors label "amalgamative repurposing": Broadly speaking, repurposing can take three forms: functional repurposing, in which the object is not altered but used for a different purpose; aesthetic repurposing, in which the object is altered but the purpose is the same; and amalgamative repurposing, in which the object undergoes some sort of transformation to serve a different purpose. These three different forms of repurposing differ in the amount of skill, effort, and involvement they require, with amalgamative repurposing requiring the highest amount of skill and involvement.
The authors position repurposing as "an intersection of sustainable consumption and anticonsumption" and relevantly conclude that "creativity and fun may be a key motivation for repurposing and perhaps other sustainable consumption behaviors".
Creativity and fun are key driving components of amateur making, and although craft practice itself has long been an area of academic study, the analysis of ethnographic studies with respect to amateur makers has only relatively recently become more established. One of the most cited authors researching in this respect is the historian Gelber, who since the early 1990s has produced a series of academic articles and books about the social aspects of DIY in the USA [4]. In 2000, Attfield's seminal ethnographic work Wild Things: The Material Culture of Everyday Life highlighted the critical analysis of the work of amateur makers in the UK and the makers' relationships with the objects they create as being worthy of serious academic attention [5]. I have previously addressed the diverse nature of amateur making activity and located it in relation to professional design practice [6], and in The Design of Everyday Life, Shove, Watson, Hand, and Ingram examine Do It Yourself making as the consumption of craft [7]. In his concluding chapter to the edited volume Repair Work Ethnographies, Jackson notes "the various kind of hacks, kludges and workarounds that support repair in amateur and enthusiast environments [8]. Another Jackson's ethnographic studies have focused on two important aspects of amateur making; the motivation and rewards gained from its undertaking [9], and the role played by the locations in which such practices take place [10]. Gauntlett's book Making is Connecting, assesses the impact of social media on the sharing of DIY knowledge [11]. Although not an ethnographic study, Knott's Amateur Craft: History and Theory explores the important contribution amateur craft has made to the material culture of the modern world [12]. J Sustain Res. 2020;2(4):e200038. https://doi.org/10.20900/jsr20200038 Why is the cigar box guitar such a strong contender as an object of sustainable consumption? What role does being part of a community of practice play in supporting sustainable aspirations? This study aims to answer these research questions and add to the bodies of knowledge described above by specifically exploring the ways in which the builders of these instruments, both individually and as a community, inherently resist throwaway culture.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Following a purposive sampling exercise (where each participant was asked to suggest other makers they were aware of), a series of eight semistructured, in-depth interviews of between 45 minutes and one hour in length were conducted with builders of cigar box guitars, none of whom were professionally trained luthiers. All of the participants were, of course, offered confidentiality through the use of pseudonyms, but all of them requested to be referred to by the names they were known by within their cigar box guitar circles (which may or may not be their real names).
The core questions asked of each participant were the same. These included questions about their backgrounds and training or qualifications, the length of time they had been producing cigar box guitars, and their motivations for doing so. Further questions explored the location where the making activity took place, where they sourced their raw materials, the particular processes they used in design and manufacture, the amount of time they spent each week making and whether for them it was a parttime or full-time activity.
All of the interviews were recorded using a voice recorder and were transcribed word for word into text files by a professional transcription service. The resulting textual material was coded manually by the author into a series of thematic points.
When analysed, some of this material informed an earlier research study by the author, which explored the creation of these instruments in the UK [13]. At a later date it was decided to create a short documentary film on the subject [14]. During the filming of this documentary, and later during the filming of an extended version commissioned for terrestrial television [15] (Figure 2), further semi-structured interviews employing the same set of questions were conducted with three of the participants in the original study and another twelve makers not involved in the original study that attended a cigar box guitar festival event which was filmed as part of the documentary. These filmed interviews were also transcribed word for word and manually coded. A list of the participants showing their age groups, the amount of time they have been involved in making cigar box guitars, whether they are part time or full-time makers and whether they were interviewed for the initial study or the documentary or both is shown below ( Table 1). The participants, if not full time makers, had a variety of occupations including an actor, an IT consultant, two teachers, a ceramicist and warehouse worker. There was only one female J Sustain Res. 2020;2(4):e200038. https://doi.org/10.20900/jsr20200038 interviewed. This was not by choice, but because despite all efforts other female makers were not located. Taken along with the similarities of ages of those interviewed, this reinforced the initial view that this activity is largely dominated by middle-age men from a middle-class background.  Another important aspect, which was not fully explored in the original study, is the extent to which cigar box guitar makers make use of social media to develop their resistance to throwaway culture.
The makers all admit to making an extensive use of social media to counteract the feelings of isolation they experience while carrying out their making activities. Cigar box guitar makers evidently like to feel that they belong to a community of like-minded people-being part of virtual communities connected through social media as well as physical communities of people for whom meeting and playing their home-made instruments in public is a primary concern. In order to explore this further, a "netnographic" approach was taken to analyse makers' online activity. Netnography is "a research methodology of ethnography adapted to the study of online communities" [16]. Analysing the content of internet-  (Table 2). It shows that the popularity of the cigar box guitar has been fairly consistent, with, on average, two new cigar box guitar related pages being founded each year over the last 12 years. However, the average number of members per group, at 6261, is a meaningless figure.
The number of members varies wildly, with 4 groups having over 10,000 members (one group having over 55,000, another with over 36,000), but the majority of sites having far fewer: 10 groups have fewer than 1000 members and 11 groups have between 1000 and 10,000 members. In addition, most members of a particular group are also a member of one or more other groups, as can be seen by the same posts appearing on a number of different CBG Facebook pages. By far the most popular type of group is "Builds/Playing" (9 groups) where the focus is on general building tips, and showing and playing finished builds. This is followed by "Playing Tuition' groups, where general lessons and "how to play …." tutorials are provided. Two groups are store sites, and the other types are a mixture of store, building tuition, exchange and community groups. to the top of the box or tin underneath where the strings will be fitted.
Although the use of an electromagnetic pickup potentially removes the need for a hollow body, solid-bodied "cigar box" guitars are quite rare. The final components required can be bought or made from a variety of found objects (usually a mix of the two)-a tailpiece for the strings, a bridge and nut to support the strings above the body and neck of the guitar, and some kind of tuning device to tension the strings and tune them to the correct note.
One of the most high-profile and active proponents of cigar box guitars in the UK is Chickenbone John, who pronounces himself to be "The Godfather of the cigar box guitar". He gave up a career as an architect when during a recession he found himself making more money from selling his home-made instruments than he was from his professional practice. Chickenbone John explains the driving force to use recycled materials and not worry too much about trying to achieve perfection. He says:  involved in this process of recycling and repurposing rather than purchasing, it can become second nature and seemingly the source of much of the enjoyment. Some of the makers comment that they soon started to pay far more attention to what they were buying and more closely consider where it came from, and started to look instead at all kinds of diverse objects they came across in a different way, seeing the possibilities of how they could be employed as a part of various instruments ("I could make a ukulele out of that" or "That could be turned into a banjo"). Such an approach has been responsible for a number of wildly eccentric stringed instruments made from unlikely objects-from old garden shovels to steel dog bowls, toolboxes, old metal washboards and even the "crapocaster", made from an old toilet seat.

THIS IS A PART OF ME
There is also a clear element of pride in what the makers of cigar box guitars produce that contributes to extended product lifetimes-a connection between the maker and the instrument itself which enhances its value to them.

Such emotional bonds between the players and their instruments seem
to be key to preventing the object being discarded at a later date. Many makers report that they frequently re-make the same instrument a • I've got a problem making this cigar box guitar-can anyone suggest solutions?
• I want to use nails as frets-what problems am I likely to have?
• What's the best position for this particular pickup?

Instructional posts/videos:
• This is how to make a cigar box guitar/ solve a problem/downloadable plans • Reviews of related equipment, tools, pedals or amplifiers • How to play "Spirit in the Sky" on a cigar box guitar Promotional posts: • Advertising Cigar box guitar-based performances/festivals/trade shows The results (Table 3)   Makers demonstrate awareness of the fact that while they all take a "back to basics" approach to building and push the idea of "authenticity" in the pieces they produce, they also wholeheartedly embrace the use of the internet to make and maintain their connections to online communities of makers. Chickenbone John says that "if it wasn't for the internet, it would just be happening in the dusty back room of a pub somewhere", while Nig stated:

DISCUSSION
There are a couple of interesting ironic elements surrounding the activity of making cigar box guitars. One is that, as shown, its proponents widely identify as being against mainstream consumption, and even as that allowed them to escape the drudgery of monotonous or repetitive work. In a similar way, for those that make instruments primarily for performing with in public, adopting homemade instruments has allowed them to expand their repertoires in new ways and to explore new avenues in their music making and song writing. Frequently, as can be seen from the blues-inspired performance names adopted by many of the players, the instruments have become part of an alter-ego they adopt on stage, and as such make a contribution to their self-identity. As a result, the instruments they have created have become of huge importance to their musical development and playing careers, with more than one participant stating that they felt they could never go back to their previous unsustainable consumption of factory-produced musical instruments.
The above analysis shows that there are three aspects that act to strengthen the desire for makers of cigar box guitars to resist throwaway culture. Firstly, having an object or a range of artefacts that have not only their own use value (in Marxist terms) but also a personal, emotional value about which the maker can feel passionate, can act as a focus of makers' good intentions with respect to sustainable consumption, recycling, J Sustain Res. 2020;2(4):e200038. https://doi.org/10.20900/jsr20200038 repurposing and upcycling. Such objects provide a strong incentive to carry out making as an active form of resistance. Secondly, the unique nature of the instruments from a sonic perspective, as well as an individual tactile and visual perspective, means that cigar box guitars enable personal growth and development as a musical performer in a way that other instruments do not. Thirdly, as the netnographic analysis revealed, being a part of active virtual and physical support networks provides the necessary learning experiences, information, advice and positive emotional support and encouragement for makers striving to develop their skills in order to operate in a sustainable and more emotionally rewarding way. Without the support of such virtual and physical communities, makers might find continually striving to achieve the extension of product lifespans far more onerous.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
The supplementary material is available online at https://doi.org/10.20900/jsr20200038.

DATA AVAILABILITY
All data generated from the study are available in the manuscript or supplementary files.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.