My interest is in building cigar box ukes. My first CBU was a tenor scale built from an Avo box, and while it looks good, the sound is rather thin with its thick plywood top. I'm working on #2 and #3 right now, and I expect them to be a lot better, as one is from a Davis 1886 Redwood box, and the other is a DIY trapezoid from Sitka Spruce and Red Oak. Some well known master luthiers have built top of the line smaller ukuleles with either the Davis 1886 box or the House of Windsor Palmas box. I have done a lot of searching, and found several other older boxes from various brands that are made from premium quality wood, but they all have the same thing in common: they are small, most under 9" on the long edge. That's good for a soprano or concert scale uke, but far too small for a tenor or baritone.
Does anyone know of any larger cigar boxes that are made from high quality wood that isn't extra thick? I do have the capability of making my own box, but that sort of defeats the purpose of repurposing a nice cigar box. I did find one old and large (14 x 6 x 3) redwood box on eBay, but it wasn't in the greatest shape and the asking price was a lot higher than I was willing to go. I don't even know if many larger boxes were built from good quality wood (not plywood), but I thought I'd throw this out to see if anyone has any info they can offer.
Tony
Replies
After much searching since I made the above post, I ended up purchasing two large boxes on eBay this morning. One is a 1960 "Awful Bills" Redwood box that measures just under 12" x 8" x 3". It will become a tenor CBU. The second is a Don Tomas Spanish Cedar box that measures 12" x 8" x 4". It will become a baritone CBU. My wife asked yesterday what I'm going to do with all of these cigar box ukes. Play them, I guess. My little office/music room is getting a bit crowded, though.