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Hi all, just joined this group after taking for a while I thought I would try to give some back.  I have made a few projects so far, this is the first....

My First Cigar Box Guitar

 After stumbling across the whole Cigar Box Guitar thing (not sure where I originally found it) I decided to make one.  I got into making bows a few years ago and while I still enjoy it there comes a point where making another meets the quantity I already have x the effort x skill and so on.  Having said that, I am making another over this winter, just slower and less urgently. 

For the CBG, I had a decent stock of wood for necks and such and a trip to a cigar store got me a Underhill box.  I kept it fairly simple with a 1x2 oak thru neck, rivets to secure the strings, cheapo tuners, a eye bolt for the bridge – later made into wood – and a sawed off screw for the nut.  Fairly plain overall.  No frets.  Spray varnish on the box really made the wood look good.  It sounds good but a little quiet, no action at all, slide playing only.

Goals – make a CBG that actually played.

Good – it was fun and a lot of small problem solving for various design elements.  I was happy how it turned out.

Bad – nothing really bad, although it would have been great to be able to fret a note.  I wanted to keep it simple the first time.

Learnings - The eye bolt had coarse threads and the strings buzzed a bit.  The wood bridge sounded a little better I think.  I originally tried a low G and D with high upper G and didn’t care for it.  Using the 3, 4, and 5 strings from a regular guitar set was better for me.  In hindsight I didn’t need the corner braces, and didn’t need to screw down the lid.  Add I wanted to make more!  And use blue tape on everything while filing, measuring, drilling etc, it lets you write freely with big marks while protecting the rest of the wood.

I’ll work my way through the builds I have made so far, let me know if more or less info is better.

 Guess this is the best place to start a progress thread so here we go.

 I've been wanting to build a CBG for quite awhile now, past attempts to find boxes were futile but I now have found a box supplier near me :D

 I found this selection of boxes, found  this site of course and started watching tutorials on You Tube.

(I was hoping to find one cool box and walked out with 7, yikes!)

 Going to start with the Hoyo de Monterrey and have almost everything I need to follow Unstrung13's tutorial. Hopefully I'll be on that within a few days. It seemed to be the simplest tutorial so I figured the best place to start.

 Of course the Brickhouse needs to be a Bass :D (which is my main goal for this endeavor. I'll make that one electric and get a few nice parts (gold volume knob) and tuners from CBNG.

 My favorite though is the Chillin' Moose'. Sweet little box, but it's small so I figure probably more of a Uke scale, definitely electric, probably piezo.

 I think I'll try a stomp box with the baccarat, though I'll probably use it more as a 'slap box'.

 I'd like to turn the Romeo into an amp, but I'm getting ahead of my self. 

 I'll post some pics of progress and or finished g when it's ready :) 

Note: I realized after posting that the links will take you away from this page.

Hey there! This is the first post in a blog I will be keeping to document my first CBG build. As many of you reading this from Cigar Box Nation have been through this process many years ago I thought it would be fun to include you in my account of earning my 'strings'. (hahah.. strings, wings,that was good right?) Hopefully I can show other new comers that anybody can indeed build something that is useful and beautiful. I must add that I was an industrial design major in college, so I have a little more skill then the average person in building things. But my knowledge of these instruments is the same as anyone who has never seen one in person. Hopefully I will recruit several of you to assist me in my process. I will be taking as many pictures as I can and keeping the blog updated at least once a week.

As I learned in Design School several years ago, the best place to start is with an idea. Since I do not have an extensive background in instruments, specifically guitars, I knew I needed to look at as many examples as possible to get the idea in the first place. A quick run on Wikipedia.com produced a nice little history of the CBG and a picture that I found really useful.

I knew that this style of guitar could be made in many different styles, but I did not expect to find the traditional versions so simple. I do find the idea of a simple build pleasing because the chance of success would be improved. However, I do not wish to construct something from a kit or that would not gain the attention of a seasoned vet. Out of all the simple builds available on the internet my favorite so far has been by GuitarIsMyLife with a nice breakdown of the several components. I also came across the documentary  Songs Inside The Box which I will definitely look into, although there are plenty of pictures of these amazing instruments there is little about the people who build them.

So my first task is going to be to design my CBG and see if it would be functional and what elements of the design would need to be changed. I'm also going to begin putting together a parts list with prices to develop an overall idea for the cost of the build. Again my goal here is not to produce a 'how to' but to document the process one would go through when attempting their first build.

Until next time.

-Stone 'Barnyard' Barnard