Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Moon on December 30, 2011 at 2:13pm

Hi this is my submission.Carl Mullins Aka "Moon".Fret markers are made from the inner sides of the box as well as the nut.Red oak neck with red oak finger board.It also has a piezo pickup in it.

Permalink Reply by Trevor Bohay on December 30, 2011 at 2:18pm

awesome!

Dan Sleep said:

Spidey box was salvaged from a jack in the box. Take notice on the third pic there is the red crank handle the runs the spiderman jack in the box themesong  from back in the day.

I thought the "Punch" box was most fitting for our masked crime fighting friend.

Oak through neck design with a unique sound hole being in the upper right corner.You will notice the illumination in the picture due to the fact the back of the hole is lined with high grade reflective tape. You may also notice on the tape just a glimpse of a spidey leg That is a kids temp tattoo over top of the reflective tape. Spidey in 3d on the top plus notice the bridge area where it tells the tale of Peter Parker after getting bit feeling a little funny. 

 

Thanks for checking it out!!!!

 

J. Robinson

Permalink Reply by Terry Horn on December 30, 2011 at 4:27pm

I've been hooked on uke's for a minute so I thought I would build one to play in my experimental ensemble, can't be like all the others.  Cigar box, some found wood, some old acoustic guitar tuners, nails, piezo contact mic, and a bit of an old coat hanger..  Here you go:

Not sure why they're all turned horizontal but you get the idea.

Poorly recorded sound file:

6 string cigar box uke

Permalink Reply by Loco on December 30, 2011 at 8:57pm

 

Here is my submission for the 2011 Contest Build off. This is my second CBG build

Tenor CBUkulele

17" Scale

Poplar SoundBox

Poplar Neck  *The neck was laminated and carved by hand*

Poplar Fretboard

Birchwood SoundBoard

18 Frets

Bone Nut and Saddle

Custom Bridge

Open Gear Tuners

Walnut Stain

Semi-gloss Finish

Aquila Strings

Tuned GCAE

 

 

 

Permalink Reply by JP Swenson on December 31, 2011 at 2:16am

Mike, this is one gorgeous, bad ass bass cigar box git!  I had to come back and take another look and now I notice you've even put an arch on the fretboard!  I've never seen a box like this either, it's beautiful.  Great choice of materials too, and your craftsmanship makes it look like it was never any but a CBG.  Awesome build.  I hope the judges look this puppy over close....you deserve to win!

mike anderson Blues Box Guitars said:

Permalink Reply by legnahkra on December 31, 2011 at 5:00am

here it goes..! this box has been in my hands for about 3  months...
thinking about the design and not wanting to do a copy of the previous montecristo builds so...

here's my offering..!

beautiful warm tone both plugged and unplugged. looks pretty elegant and pretty heavy..!
combining the sound of a high output humbucker with the traditional cbg sound of a piezo pickup..!

weird shape 2/4 headstock design... stripped off the original black finish
and added some black stain and satin lacquer

used the front side of the box taking advantage of the "montecristo" logo. gitty's screened sound hole covers,
polished..! telecaster-style bridge and gold humbucker with screened inserts...

matching the soundhole covers.

straplock system to safely secure the strap to the box (strap not present... duh..!)

single volume control with a 3-way switch
(up: humbucker - middle: humbucker & piezo - down: internal piezo).
black jackplate with gold screws to match the rest of the hardware...

Permalink Reply by TruckDrivingFool on December 31, 2011 at 5:49am

New to this and all I can say is this is 9 pages of pure awesomeness. Pure creative talent at its best, glad I'm not judging.

Permalink Reply by Jason Hitesman on December 31, 2011 at 6:09am

Well, I had hoped to enter one of my latest "Christmas Guitar" builds...but unfortunately the local artist who was doing some custom painting on them for me still hasn't got them back to me (so not only do I not get to enter them but my niece and nephew didn't get their guitars for Christmas :( )

But I said I'd enter so instead I'm going to enter my favorite my #2 which may have been built in 2010...but got some upgrades in 2011 so it did spend time in my shop this year at least ;)

Here it is after it's latest update - the addition of 1/2 of a Fender P-bass pickup replacing the radio shack piezo it had originally.  

And a beauty shot from before the addition of the pickup:

And a few detail shots during construction.  I didn't want to attempt a scarf for the neck yet, but I did want to do something a little fancier.  So I came up with this angled deal somewhat inspired by the Cheap knockoff Strat that the tuners came from.  I actually used some cheap soft pine to build a practice version first - then built the real neck out of good old big box store red oak.

The bridge is a cigarette shaped lighter I found online for $1.50...but it never worked (I've since ordered 4 more to use as bridges and 3 of those did work, this one and the broken one from the second batch are both missing a piece it turns out, guess that's what you get for a $1.50 refillable novelty lighter from China.)  The tailpiece is a picture hanger which I reshaped into a tailpiece.  I still haven't made a real nut for it, just a small piece of wood with a fret on it as a "Zero fret"...have a chunk of antler here to make a real nut out of but haven't developed the skill to care it well enough yet.

Overall I'm really happy with it.  Came out better than I had hoped.  Has the look I was going for, tone that gets compliments from everyone who's got a chance to play it, has inspired me to actually start learning how to play stringed instruments again (and this time not completely failing) and my new daughter absolutely loves putting a slide on it, cranking my practice amp and going to town with it!  

And finally a video.  Please excuse the "Playing" I've yet to get anyone who actually knows what they're doing on video with it.  Not only have I only been playing for about a year and a half with no formal lessons (other than Kennie Lee's videos) but the battery in my honeytone amp was almost dead when I recorded this. (Video is still uploading as I post this so it may not be available to play for a little bit)

Permalink Reply by Slowpaw Steve T on December 31, 2011 at 8:00am

"Gemini", a twin neck design but typically of twins they look alike but each have their own character - the lower neck is tuned GDGb and sounds deeper and more bassy and loves plenty of distortion, the upper neck is tuned to G+D+D+b+ and sounds sweeter, amazingly clean tones come over much better on this neck, distortion sounds not quite as good as the lower neck.
I planned this build to use live to avoid clumsy guitar changes between songs using different tunings, but overall the guitar really has its own unique sound!

 

Tailstocks both topped with Maple.

 

 

Body shot showing pair of chrome "Toaster" style Artec humbucker pickups. All the Telecaster electrics, controls and both necks are mounted in the lid of the cigar box, the hinges soon came loose so i removed them, screwing the lid to the box. The twin neck pickups can be switched together or switched seperately.

 

 

A long shot of the American Oak twin necks, both are fretted to 25.5 inch scale, fretboards are made of Maple with Bison bone nuts. Open tuners and fret wire from CB Gitty. Ernie Ball Super Slinky strings.

  

 

 

Permalink Reply by KT Lewis on December 31, 2011 at 9:53am

Here is my entry - Lefty Brick House.  24.5" scale.  Tuning area at neck is designed like a brick.  Staining on neck and fret board is a combination of many different colors that give a very weathered/dirty feel.  Poplar neck, Red Oak fret board.  Open G tuning.  Except for the nut and bridge (thanks to Pat's Hardware in Freeland, MI) all parts are CB Gitty powered.  Sounds clean unplugged and screams like a wild man electrified.  Fret markers are on the neck and are brass nails/tacks.

Attachments:

• Lefty Brick House body.jpg, 2.5 MB
• Lefty Brick House tuning brick.jpg, 1.5 MB
• Lefty Brick House full axe.jpg, 3.5 MB

Permalink Reply by Habanera Hal on December 31, 2011 at 11:03am

Clever headstock design!

KT Lewis said:

Here is my entry - Lefty Brick House.  24.5" scale.  Tuning area at neck is designed like a brick.  Staining on neck and fret board is a combination of many different colors that give a very weathered/dirty feel.  Poplar neck, Red Oak fret board.  Open G tuning.  Except for the nut and bridge (thanks to Pat's Hardware in Freeland, MI) all parts are CB Gitty powered.  Sounds clean unplugged and screams like a wild man electrified.  Fret markers are on the neck and are brass nails/tacks.

Permalink Reply by jonathan leslie on December 31, 2011 at 12:01pm

Ok, I'm a first time builder, and had a ball building my guitar:

I made a separate thread with links to  dozens of pictures of the entire build process here:

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/forum/topics/weekend-warrior-cbg-buil...

I really was challenged by my cigar box as the sides and top were over 1/2" thick.  this was a real high quality cigar box and also had a massive copper badge that took over 1/2 of the front face of the guitar.   I decided to leave that badge in place, and make the front of the guitar from the back side of the cigar box.   That means that the guitar can be opened from the back to expose the internals.  I really liked this feature.   since the bottom of the CB was plain, It allowed me to custom stain the front and I used this as a chance to try and do a sunburst staining.   I thought it came out quite dramatic.  

I started with 1x4 poplar stock rather than 1x2 so I could make a big headstock.  I even tried to tilt the headstock back although the angle isn't quite as pronounced as I would like.   I carved my initials into some scrap and glued that to the top of the headstock, but not before notching it so it doubles as a guitar pick holder:

The $1 store was my best friend and enemy in this endeavor.   I ended up buying almost $40 worth of bling to figure out what I wanted to embellish the guitar with.  got a nice selection of corner brackets, hinges and clasps (I had to add clasps to the box as the box lid is only held by 2 small magnets and gravity)

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