Howdy all. This looks like it might be a fun place. I built and sold mountain dulcimers a long, long time ago. I bought an electric 3-string CBG a few years back and I'm now inspired to build similar instruments based on cigar boxes, tin cans, etc. My mind's eye sees CB balalaikas, multi-neck ukes, and any other perversions I can dream up. Cover your ears!
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Thank you all! I'm not building anything at the moment because I'm in the middle of a long road trip. Alas, my CBG is back home. I must content myself with the few instruments I brought along (Martin Backpacker guitar, Kala 6-string tenor uke, old Kay mandolin) and those we acquired along the way (10-tiple and an Alvarez tenor uke for my wife).
But I have mad plans cooking in my overheated brain. Most involve tin cans and other recycled junk rather than cigar boxes but I'm sure there will be some cross-fertilization. So, just what am I cooking up?
* My tricky hollow necks made from yardsticks. Take 3 yardsticks. Cut one in half lengthwise. Use those halves as sides; glue the others on as top and bottom. Be sure to glue some thin quarter-round in the lower portion; when dry, shave away those lower corners and sand the whole thing smooth. Saw in half for two 18-inch hollow necks. On some instruments, run sympathetic strings through.
* Ham-tin balalaikas (or domras). I'll need more than one so I can play with various stringings and tunings: EEA (standard), GBD (Russian guitar), GDA (fifths). An awful lot can be done with just 3 strings. I mostly don't use the top course on my fifths-tuned mandolin.
* 2- or 3-neck uke. I've a big soft briefcase that can't *quite* hold two soprano ukes. So I'll fab something that looks like a big cigar box (using light veneer) and buy some cheap WalMart ukes. Remove necks from useless bodies (they'll become planters), bolt those necks on the box in parallel, and voila! String them as gCEg (slack-key), GCEA (low-G), and GDAE (fifths). That briefcase will become a great gig bag with that axe.
* 3-neck banjo-uke. I need to measure stuff when I get home but I can probably do that with more cheap WalMart uke necks and a big tambourine as the resonant head. Bolt those necks on so they radiate out. If the ukes have tuning machines instead of pegs I can use steel strings. Yes, I have a trick to keep the strings from fouling each other: put the bridges at sweet spots on the near side of the rim.
* I have other ideas involving cigar boxes and resonators, bodiless dulcimers and strum sticks, a junkyard mandola d'amore, and more. But it's late and I'm beat. More later.
Welcome to the addiction!