When I built this I had not even heard of cigar box instruments. The Mountain Dulcimer had peaked my interest and I had a music teacher tell me "The fingerboards must be cheap, because we glue then to shoeboxes and give them to Kindergartners". No fingerboards where on eBay the day I looked, but I did find a program for measuring fret positions.
So one day on the way home from work I stopped and bought the cheapest set of guitar strings I could. I found a random piece of wood in the basement and ran a single string from end to end. Later that night, my wife asked me to get a plastic spoon for my daughters school lunch. As I was looking for one, I noticed that all of the plastic knives had a flat edge (perfect for hot gluing), and the other side had a fret looking edge. Then, as I passed the recycling I noticed the clementine box. It fit the instrument perfectly.
When I showed the instrument to a friend at work, he said "You know what that is don't ya? They would call that a 'cigar box instrument'". Well, that gave me a new term to Google on, and the rest is history.
Wow. Creative stuff here! How's she sound? In fact, how does she fret, decent enough to work with? Thanks, liking several of your creations here :) -Glenn
Comments
I uploaded a short video of the instrument here:
Clementine Box Video
This was my first stringed instrument, and I had only been playing about a week when I recorded it. So, it is what it is. :)
When I built this I had not even heard of cigar box instruments. The Mountain Dulcimer had peaked my interest and I had a music teacher tell me "The fingerboards must be cheap, because we glue then to shoeboxes and give them to Kindergartners". No fingerboards where on eBay the day I looked, but I did find a program for measuring fret positions.
So one day on the way home from work I stopped and bought the cheapest set of guitar strings I could. I found a random piece of wood in the basement and ran a single string from end to end. Later that night, my wife asked me to get a plastic spoon for my daughters school lunch. As I was looking for one, I noticed that all of the plastic knives had a flat edge (perfect for hot gluing), and the other side had a fret looking edge. Then, as I passed the recycling I noticed the clementine box. It fit the instrument perfectly.
When I showed the instrument to a friend at work, he said "You know what that is don't ya? They would call that a 'cigar box instrument'". Well, that gave me a new term to Google on, and the rest is history.
Wow. Creative stuff here! How's she sound? In fact, how does she fret, decent enough to work with? Thanks, liking several of your creations here :) -Glenn
I like it.