#1 resource for Cigar Box Guitars, Free Plans, How-To, Parts & More!

Cigar Box Guitar No. 2

For my second cigar box guitar, I bought a six foot length of 1 x 2 oak from Home Depot. I made sure the piece of lumber was flat and straight. It weighed a lot more than the pine wood I’d used in my first cigar box guitar, and felt a lot better in my hands. I also bought a small metal miter box from a hobby store to cut the fret slots in the neck. This time, I made perfectly straight fret cuts.

I shaved off the part of the neck that attached to the cigar box so that the surface of the fret board was flush with the top of the cigar box, unlike on my first cigar box guitar. Remembering Mister Jalopy’s dictum, “screws not glues,” I screwed the neck to the cigar box with three fasteners. This way, if I need to make changes or later want to swap in a new cigar box, it will be a simple matter to remove the screws.

I made a couple of small mistakes, like drilling a hole in a spot that hit a screw going in a perpendicular direction to the hole, but this guitar build went very smoothly. The action is low, but not so low that it buzzes, and I can play the strings all the way up to the highest fret (the 20th) without interference.

Many thanks to Steve Lodefink and the gang at Cigar Box Nation for the advice on this!

0 members like this

View Full Size

Tags:
Location: Studio City, CA

Comment

You need to be a member of Cigar Box Nation to add comments!

Join Cigar Box Nation

Comment by Paul Thorley on December 7, 2009 at 9:22pm: Nice one, Mark.

Comment by chris ekelman on December 7, 2009 at 1:47pm: looks good.

Comment by Keni Lee Burgess on December 7, 2009 at 4:50am: Looking mighty fine my friend. I wouldn't mind taking her out for a ride around the park. Happy Holidays. Enjoy.

Comment by bairfoot cajun on May 27, 2009 at 4:45pm: hey mark that qualifies as a rat rod cigar box guitar. it looks cool i likes it. bet it sounds good. i always build my guitars so i can take them apart if they need it. great concept yep.

Comment by THE FADER on May 27, 2009 at 4:05pm: Mark, great job !
Like the aged box too !

Welcome to
Cigar Box Nation

Sign Up
or Sign In

Or sign in with:

The Essential Pages

Site Sponsor

Forum

Blog Posts

Latest Activity

Moritz Voegeli and Matthias Bichsel are now friends

2 hours ago

David L. replied to Rich Butters's discussion UK - Best Place to Buy Cigar Box's

"I have found these are…"

3 hours ago

J. D. Woods replied to J. D. Woods's discussion Are metal frets necessary?

3 hours ago

Doug Thorsvik posted a video

Don't Worry Be Happy: 3D Printed Cigar Box Guitar

Cigar Box Guitar Slingers - Spokane, 198th Zoom Mtg 04/15/24. Only 1-finger chords, free songbooks here: https://www.cbgslinger.com/download CBG Songbook.pdf...

3 hours ago

1 Comment 0 Likes

Southern Ray commented on Crazed Fandango's photo