Making a Cigar Box Guitar (and 10 easy-to-make mistakes)

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My first CBG, how I built it and the many things that went wrong along the way, though with a very satisfactory result. A couple of things I forgot to mentio...

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  • Ah, the sacrifices for a good  box! This was great, I learned some  interesting things from your blood, sweat, and tears. It is fun, I have one build myself, my only advice is let it go to your head, it’s addictive in the best of ways!

  • Dave, seriously, 100+ ? Wow. Big cottage industry?

  • Nice tale of sorrows Danny. Things well learned. You kept at it and won. Sounds good. We all go through the trials. After a hundred or more guitars i’ve Made most mistakes more than once. If you can make the mistakes and still enjoy the journey then all turns out great. Now I have a house full of good sounding guitars. Not a bad outcome.

  • Thanks Uncle John (mind if I call you Uncle?). 20 mins long, I'd have skimmed it too.

    I'd say the looks are down to the materials - wonderful box, very pretty (if practically quite lousy) neck wood. I feel so good that it came out as a remarkably playable instrument.

    I watched a vid by a pro guitar builder last night about mistakes they make. He emphasized things like, "don't bite off more than you can chew" and "know when to give up". That makes sense making something 'proper' I guess, but when you're just hacking away, I'd opt for "keep going!".

    Now all I've got to do is learn how to play the darn thing (have spent 40? years as a very bad guitarist, maybe dropping to 3 strings will help :)

  • That is a good looking guitar.  You must have done a good job hiding your mistakes!   I just kind of skimmed this, but I have made most of those mistakes and likely more!  And I continue to make some.  But it's  sure fun.

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