Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I'm always up for a challenge & I never even knew these existed until I was asked if I could make one Bit of youtubing & internet research and a week and a half's worth of labour inbetween waiting for bits to arrive & glue to dry on a uke build.
I started with one of these (who knew there was a brand of cigar that named Oliva, close to my own Oliver...won't need to do any signature inlay on this one, sorted!) Machined a few holes in it cut a bit of 2x1 Maple for the neck and ended up with one of these Made my own tailpiece out of some old scrap brass sheet, the customer's initials are L.T so I pierced them into the tailpiece (backed with a small square of Ebony to accentuate the initials) I know these cigar box guitars are meant to be really basic, rough and ready but I just couldn't bring myself to build something that a customer was going to be paying for that looked like I'd made it as a high school wood working project!
It was a nice quick and easy project that gave me a chance to use up some odds & sods I've had hanging around for ages, the fingerboard (Ebony)was a reject that I'd fretted for a 25" scale then the customer changed their mind for a shorter scale
Tuners were from a set of Schallers I'd installed on an archtop, it fell over when I had it in my shed (don't ask me what happened I'm still mad at my own stupidity over that one) & the top two tuners took the brunt of the fall, they were all scratched & dinged so I was left with four decent tuners, I put them away and then this came along needing those four tuners. Single coil is a Tonerider Tele neck model I picked up cheap from Ebay a few years back, it's been hanging around ever since waiting for somewhere more permanent to hang out. I also have a couple of Piezo's glued on the underside of the lid, positioned at the 'wings' of the bridge, all switchable via a 3 way selector. The Electrics (Switches & pots e.t.c) I always have plenty of in stock for repairs e.t.c.

The little amplifier is a kit I bought from cb gitty's a whole 2.5W of pure unadulterated grunt and runs off of a 9V battery. Some assembly & drilling required The customer doesn't know he's getting the amp yet but it was cheap enough & matched the guitar so well I thought I'd chuck it in as part of the deal.
The guitar is tuned to an open G (GDgB), I'm not familiar with this "fancy" tuning so not sure of chord shapes e.t.c yet but I've had a lot of fun mucking about with it & it's a great little guitar for Delta style blues and slide playing (the amp has a little trim pot that can be tweaked to give it some dirt if you want to go authentic) . Also unplugged it hasn't got much volume so it's a great thing to sit on the couch with everybody else can hear the tele(vision ).
I've just ordered a small 6" Resonator cone which is going into my next one, that one's going to live in my own menagerie of toys

"Wicked"

As my young mate Tim would say....

Very, very neat and tidy as those things go.

Great job Nick. I've been reading up on cigar box guitars for a brother-in-law. He's really into the "recycled" ethos and these guitars ooze that. Yours looks great. Not overdone at all, just done to your high standard!

Martin

That's just sweet as Nick.

I've got a couple of the exact same boxes that I use to stash pearl, bridge pins etc. in. I like your use much more.

Lovely work Nick.

Hi Nick
Looks fantastic love your work
Regards Steve

What a fun build! The amp just makes it over the top.

Very clever Nick, especially luv the amp it makes for a really unique package.

Well Done

Kim

gee the cigar box guitar world is getting very classy. Well done Nick looks cooool.

I like that a lot, I've built quite a few of these and love the freedom and creativity one gets. That looks like the Rolls Royce of CBG's

Sweet as bro

Just as Taffy has said: you just built a Rolls Royce cigar box uke!

Very inspiring.

Thanks everybody, it was a fun build to do and didn't take long either so pluses all round. The final plus was from the customer who absolutely loved it, I don't see enough 50+ year old men behaving like a 5 year old at christmas these day's