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Comment by Tony Pistilli on November 6, 2019 at 7:01am

I would suggest that you just build the simplest one at first and once you see how fun it is and how good these guitars actually sound and play, you will be hooked! Don't be afraid of messing the first one up so don't get too elaborate

for your first one.

Comment by MadGomer on November 6, 2019 at 6:26am

Rich - sound advice below from John, Brian, and Tim.  Based on whatever you have to build upon (be it a cigar box, tin, ammo can, license plate, etc) you will be able to develop a design and build it successfully once you have the basic understanding of scale length/fret spacing, headstock angles, etc.  It may seem intimidating at first but I can assure you it's far more simple than you can imagine (I'm living proof).

Comment by John Mark Perchalski on November 6, 2019 at 6:14am

Rich,

I'd strongly suggest that you watch a few (dozen) videos on cigar box building, with a focus on scale, intonation, and neck fitting. As every cigar box is a bit different, the understanding you will gain from watching others build experiences will help you adapt plans to your own particular situation, tools, and experiences.

There are a LOT of phenomenal makers out there who've uploaded videos showing builds and explaining the quirks and how to deal with them, but off the top of my head I'd recommend Shane Speal and Puckett Cigar Box Guitars videos on youtube. There are doubtless many other builders out there, and I'm probably doing some brilliant luthier educator somewhere a disservice by not mentioning them, but those two I know have extremely lengthy video playlists on how-to-build and how-to-adjust-to-suit which are extremely useful.

I believe that you will find that having this visual how-to reference and the explanations of experienced makers will greatly enhance what the plans will give you.

I myself would not buy plans on the internet, as there is a huge community with a wealth of helpful folks (many of whom have made videos explaining how to start from scratch). You can always tip those folks or thank them if they're helpful, but should you end up with a set of plans that don't fit your experience/toolset/workspace/cigar box you might become more discouraged rather than less.

John

Comment by BrianQ. on November 6, 2019 at 5:59am

The answers are all in the plans, you just have to lay them out based on info, not hard at all, figure out headstock measurements, then measure scale length from nut to bridge, then figure out where your string holes will lay on the tailpiece? Boxes are different sizes, so you’ll just plan the bridge to be anywhere from middle of the box to about 3” from the end, it’s that easy? There’s detailed measurements in Shane’s book, but really all that info is in the Resources tab? here’s some new plans for setting up headstock: 

https://www.cbgitty.com/news/how-to-install-cigar-box-guitar-tuners/

Maybe a kit is what you need to shake of those jitters, you may be overthinking it?

Comment by Tim Pannabecker on November 6, 2019 at 4:15am

the section on this site called, Free Plans and How to Build, is an unmatched resource for how to build.

my early mistakes?  Neck/fretboard height from the soundboard/box.  Paying attention to scale length (distance from nut to bridge) and fret placement within the scale.  

It was suggested to me when I started that - there are no rules and have fun.

Comment by Ken Vickerson on November 6, 2019 at 3:13am

Hi Rich I built my first CBG using these instructions from Make magazine. https://makezine.com/projects/make-21/cigar-box-guitar/.   They don’t have dimensioned plans but all dimensions are included in the instructions. I hope they are useful to you. 

Comment by Rich Butters on November 6, 2019 at 2:08am

Hi All,

I am about to start building my first Cigar Box Guitars and I am writing to ask if any member of the group can share any plans they have for 3 / 4 string guitars.

There are plans on here but these are 'text instructions to follow'  - this is great and I thank the persons who uploaded I am after drawings and dimensions that I can copy into a full-size drawing (Taffy gave me this great advice)

There are plans 'For Sale' on the internet but I thought I would ask the community first

Cheers Rich

Comment by BrianQ. on November 5, 2019 at 12:29pm

Also it adds what they call break angle between the nut & strings, which is pretty much downward pressure that creates a better contact with the nut, producing a louder vibration through the strings? If you have long shaft tuners, you can get away with that & set it up like Tim’s pic below with no troubles? Great set up Mr. Pannabecker :)

Comment by BrianQ. on November 5, 2019 at 12:06pm

Bill, if you buy a ready-made neck, then it will most likely be already thinned & ready to accept tuners? The reason why we thin our headstocks is so that the tuner hole will clear the top of the surface, not all tuner shafts are the same height, some shorter/lower than others & tuner hole won’t have enough height to clear the top of the surface? 

Comment by Tim Pannabecker on November 5, 2019 at 11:58am

I have straight necks that I add a “tension bar”.   I can’t say it is superior, but it works really great and since I make one offs, never duplicating my builds, it is a great way to get your angle.   Btw I use it at the bridge too sometimes

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