"The best way to describe [Speal's music] is to take blues and gospel and country and Hawaiian and ragtime and put it through a meat grinder that's missing some teeth."
-York Daily Record

It all started with an empty cigar box, a plank of wood from the family barn and three used guitar strings. That was back in 1993 when Shane Speal build his first cigar box guitar. Music hasn't been the same since.

Shane Speal is "The King of the Cigar Box Guitar, a blues rock songwriter who plays a primitive guitar made from an empty cigar box and a stick. He is also the leader of the modern Cigar Box Guitar Revolution, a growing fanbase of cigar box guitar builders and players who are dominating blues stages worldwide. Speal has performed concerts throughout the country and has been featured in many TV, newspaper and national magazine features. He is also the central figure in the Max Shores' documentary on cigar box guitars, Songs Inside the Box.

"[Shane Speal] is universally recognized as the prime mover of the Cigar Box Guitar cult, a man who has made it his life’s crusade to spread the word and promote the popularity of CBGs."
- Premier Guitar Magazine, August 2009

[Speal says,] “a Cigar Box Guitar 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.” 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?”
-Premier Guitar Magazine, August 2009

“Shane sounds like Motörhead in a jug band!”
-Bill Jehle, Curator of the Cigar Box Guitar Museum