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Hi, I have not had time to build a box guitar in a long while, but last week I made the effort.

The inspiration came from having an abundance of timber available from a fence that I demolished, and a reason to build.
The timber is shown in the first photo, the inspiration comes from the fact that this year the town where I live is celebrating 150 years since the finding of gold in this area of North Queensland 1772 to 2022, here in Australia.

My house and workshop sit on the site of the first solid building on the Millchester goldfields, and 20 meters from the back door I recently found an 1875 coin.
Anyway, as can be seen, to add a mining flavor to the build the guitar has the likeness of a spade, tools of necessity back in the day, and parts of the timber have been left unfinished to give an aged appearance. The date is stamped on the peghead handle.

A few other features I have not used before are the use of height-adjustable bridge saddles [in the form of modified slotted bolts] the way the neck is attached to the body [two old slotted head wood screws] and the use of acoustic strings [only used once before].
To keep the strings vibrating energy where it’s needed, in the top and in the box, I used very thick sides, and that has improved the sound an amazing amount when coupled with the thin-ish top.
It’s loud enough to play fingerstyle and be heard, and really loud if a flat pick is used. I’m very happy with it considering the top was so full of splits that I had to run glue into them to stiffen up the top.
Cheers Taff