C. B. Gitty Crafter Supply grew out of founder Ben Baker’s own instrument building hobby. The company was founded at the end of 2008 on the premise that parts for building homemade instruments cost too much, and that there must be a way to provide amateur builders with supplies more cheaply, while still making a decent profit. In the years since, that premise has grown to encompass a wide range of instrument parts, accessories, kits, and a growing selection of the instruments themselves.

The driving force behind the growth of C. B. Gitty Crafter Supply is the same as that behind the growth of CigarBoxNation.com and other related sites – the homemade music movement, which holds that ordinary folks with little or no musical training can build fun, great-sounding instruments, from cigar box guitars, banjos and kalimbas to dulcimers and drums, flutes and more. As a group we are taking music and instrument building down out of the ivory towers and bringing it back to its simple roots… deep roots in a range of cultures and traditions, where poor people had to improvise with what they had available.