By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
STOCKTON—Proving beautiful music can come from the most humble of sources. Retired concrete finisher and Stockton resident Royce Williams delights musicians in the area and beyond with his one-of-a-kind, handmade cigar box guitars.
Through mostly word of mouth, his instruments have been talked about, bought and sold, and maybe most importantly, played by amateurs and professionals alike.
But much like the humble beginnings of the cigar box guitar, Williams said it was a project in itself to learn how to craft his instruments, years ago.
“The very first one I made I ended up tearing apart because it was crap,” Williams said. “You know, I didn't know what I was doing.”
But after practicing on versions for grandkids as a novelty, he said he went to work learning everything about creating a high-quality cigar box guitar.
“I started looking up, you know, googling ... like scale lengths and transition nut to fret, you got a certain distance. … So, it was quite a learning experience for me,” Williams said.
But now he said, “everything's the way it should be.”
With his guitars, Williams carries on a proud American folk music tradition.
“They've been making cigar box guitars since the 1850s,” he said, "when they first started putting cigars in a box as people started to turn them into guitars.”
Despite that long history, he said often when some see cigar box guitars, they doubt their musical quality.
“A lot of people just think it's a toy or something to hang on the wall and not an instrument,” Williams said. “Then I often pick one out and plug it in and they see that it really is.”
Crafting a sound
With each instrument, Williams said buyers have between 40 and 50 cigar boxes they can choose from, and he also completes custom builds.
But either way, to create a cigar box guitar, getting the namesake material is the first step.
He can find some in Hays, but a special shop in Denver is where the magic is.
“They boast that they sell 1,000 different types of cigars so that means 1,000 different type of boxes,” Williams said. “They have a big warehouse of cigar boxes.”
The boxes, while being the show piece of the instrument, is also likely the cheapest, with Williams noting “you can get him pretty cheap like between $2 and $5.”
But while the boxes may look the same every guitar is a custom order and has its own personality.
“I never make two the same and every one is different,” Williams said. “Like those two,” he said pointing to a two completed guitars. “They look the same but (they have) different color tuners, different types of sound holes in them. Everybody's is a one of a kind.”
For other parts, Williams has trusted sources.
“There's a couple of places that just cater to cigar box guitars, MGB Guitars and the C.B. Gitty,” he said. “Every once in a while, something will have to come from China. … But I usually end up ordering somewhere else because it's gonna take too long to get here.”
With waiting for parts and construction breaks, he said completing one guitar can take up to a month — and he typically builds only one at a time.
A following
As a cigar box guitar builder, Williams not only joins a long history of craftsmen creating distinctive instruments, but also an active and supportive community.
“September 15, 16 and 17 this year in Clarksville, Tenn., they're having a thing for guitar builders,” he said. “I want to go to meet some of these people I talk with online because we trade different ideas and (if we) can't figure something out, somebody will know what to do.”
In one group, he even said they all build guitars for each other, with recipients and builders matched at random.
As for playing his guitars, Williams lets others take on that responsibility as he only ever learned to play just enough to tune his creations.
But he appreciates their work and is proud to watch videos of people from all across the U.S. playing his instruments.
It’s kind of overwhelming to think 'I made something like that,' ” he said. “You know I just never seen myself doing it.”
