New Guy - First Build

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.9353868455?profile=original9353868880?profile=original9353869665?profile=original

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

 

 

E-mail me when people leave their comments –

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

Join Cigar Box Nation

Comments

  • Not to shabby for your first build.  Your story sounds like I could have wrote it myself. I'm virgin at this also, probably at just under a month.   Also made mine way to fast. So I known where you're coming from. Can't wait for my next build. I especially like the blue tape idea. The more info the better I always say.

  • Looks good.  Take your time and enjoy the building process.  Don't feel bad about looking at the pictures others post of their builds and borrowing ideas.  There's a lot of creativity you can put into these things.  Half the fun is building each one different from the last and seeing what they sound like when you are done.

  • Looks real nice for a 1st build.

  • I like the way you did the neck and fretboard in the box.

This reply was deleted.