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A friend of my teeneage son chose as an 8th grade project at a Waldorf School in So. Cal. , to build from scratch a cigar box guitar.  Because I am a custom woordworker by trade, Gabriel and his parents asked me to be his mentor for the project.   I had no previous experience in guitar building or even knew of CBG's -- I've always been a conga player and had never played any type of guitar,    but I have music in my blood and a love of building unusual things so it seemed like an interesting challenge --   We did a lot of research on-line to learn how to do it --- Gabriel studied and wrote about the history of the instrument and it's origins as well as some of it's modern uses.  And we spent several Sunday afternoons in my workshop building two 4-string Cigar Box Guitars from scratch -- Gabriel's is a Don Diego box with an oak neck and zebrawood fretboard  -- and was finished in time for his final presentation in the spring 2012.  I finished mine a few weeks later with an all wood Puros Indios Cigar box with an oak neck and walnut fretboard ---  both have piezo pickups and sound really nice.  

The whole effort was a huge success for us both --- he produced a beautiful handmade instrument that he played for the whole grade ( I played percussion) --- plus learned the value of study and determination in the context of a fun and creative effort.

I learned a whole new skill as a woodworker that was enormously satisfyimg and I'm learning to play a little guitar ( pun intended )  --- thanks to some of the intructional videos on CB Nation.

I've posted some shots of the guitars we built and a shot of we two with our builds ---  (i'm the old guy)

Thanks to CB Gitty and others for parts and instruction and the many links to amazing samples of the old music and it's original forms. 

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