Making music
Berkeley Electric Cooperative member Arthur England has a knack for making sweet-sounding guitars from almost anything, including Krispy Kreme doughnut boxes.
Photo By Milton Morris
Arthur England
Age: 60
Home turf: The corner of Summerville, Moncks Corner and Goose Creek.
Claim to fame: Maker of eclectic cigar box guitars. See: facebook.com/BuddahsBoxGuitars.
Other gigs: Retired owner of an insulation business; part-time florist and floral designer.
Musical preference: 1980s “hair bands.”
Co-op affiliation: Member of Berkeley Electric Cooperative.
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Making music
Arthur England has been making things his whole life. From furniture to floral arrangements, England can seemingly design anything he sets his mind to. That gave him a leg up when a devastating motorcycle accident left him temporarily using a wheelchair and forced him to find a harmonious new pursuit.
England took up playing guitar. “I learned tons of chords but just couldn't seem to put them together and make a song,” he recalls. “I decided that if I can figure out how the guitar works, maybe I’ll have that ‘aha!’ moment that will make it work for me.”
Research led him to study the handmade cigar box guitars used by blues musicians in the early-1900s. “I found out that it was a pretty basic instrument. They take a box, a stick and a string and they are playing the heck out of it,” he says. “They weren’t taught any music theory. They knew what sounded good.”
And thus, Buddah’s Box Guitars was born. Through trial and error, he learned to make guitars from a variety of materials. “I’ve used tennis rackets, buckets, a wooden ironing board, forks and spoons for bridges and Corian samples for nuts at the top of the string,” says England. “My biggest seller of all time is a Krispy Kreme doughnut box.”
His whimsical creations caught fire and have been adopted by amateur and professional musicians alike, including guitarists with Lynyrd Skynyrd, Big Head Todd and Daughtry. Orders continue to roll in and while his playing hasn’t improved much, England says, he’s living out a different musical dream. “Guitars are about as full time as I can do these days.”