Cardboard box with very light reinforcing. The neck is birch veneer and the box reinforcing is really light pine or something like that--all the wood came from a pallet made in Europe. The lid is held on with four tiny screws.
18.75 inch scale length, weed whacker strings which look better than they sound.
Front. The grommets were made for tarps--the lid is almost too thick; next time I'll glue them on. Fret Distances Calculator is from http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/fretcalc/index.htm The "frets" are only pencil marks. The neck is 15/16 inch wide, rounded in back, about 1/2 inch thick, and cut away under the box lid (this section was later reinforced). The small sizes were chosen because this was intended as a gift for a child with small hands. I recommended that it be restrung with nylon strings and that presently it sounds best when played like a lap steel guitar.
This picture is in poor focus but you can see two brass strips that the strings cross at the tail: these are L-shaped in cross section and I bought 36 inch pieces that way but they could easily be bent from thin metal; they are glued with super glue; the shorter one sits in a fret slot. They should prevent cutting into the wood and cardboard.
The nut is a wire tie; I don't have any idea how long that will last. The bridge is a small bolt (intended for light fixtures) for low action and less finger pressure.
Comments
Recently I borrowed it back and installed a piezo on the inside under the bridge. It sounds good plugged in. You wouldn't do this on a lot of CBG for kids but his dad plays acoustic and electric and an amp is handy in the garage. His dad complimented me when I first gave it on my getting the fret marks right. I told him it was not hard and so forth; his opinion was based on how it sounded. (I guess the intonation turned out pretty good.) :)