Blogs

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.