CBG#2

I just finished my second Cigar Box Guitar build and it turned out better then my first one. I took an acoustic guitar approach for this one.

I used a 24 9/16" Gibson scale.

The neck is made of oak. This time I did not use fiberglass to stiffen the neck as I did in my first CBG build.

I glued popular to the side of the headstock and routed the edge with my dremel.

This time I decided to fret the fingerboard before I glued it to the guitar. I also cut a 4in diameter hole into the cigar box.

I used oak for the fingerboard and the fretsaw I got from Stewart-McDonald.

I then put a little glue into the fret slots and hammered the fret wire into the fingerboard.

Glued the fretted fingerboard to the neck and overlapped the neck onto the cigar box top.

 I routed a piece of oak to hold a piece of cutting board for the bridge. The oak seat is glued to the cigar box guitar, the cutting board is not glued.

I glued a piece of oak where the neck attaches and put a 2" 1/4" brass screw into the neck in order to secure the neck. I also glued a thin piece of oak to the cigar box top where the bridge sits in order to provided some additional strength.

I decided to pass the strings through the cigar box top. To keep them from pulling through, I super-glued a piece of sheet metal to the box.

Looks good and sounds better than my first build!

Mini Amp (LM386)

I decided to build my own mini amp to well amplify my previously constructed cigar box guitar. After searching the internet, I decided to build the amp around National Semiconductor's LM386 low voltage audio power amplifier (data sheet).

My Finished mini amp (new cigar box guitar build sneak peak!).

I followed the below schematic from Make's CrackerBoxAmp. It is a fairly simple amp and one can purchase everything from radio-shack. Their schematic is also similar to the circuits in the data sheet and other schematic on the internet. The only thing I changed was that I power the circuit with 12v instead of 9v. It is possible to power this circuit with a 9v battery.

I scavenged a 4" 4 ohm speaker from a surround sound speaker and the grill to protect the speaker. I made the box out of 1/4" oak.

I also used a piece of sheet metal to hold the power switch, master volume pot, 1/4" input and LED.

 I also shielded the circuit board with metal tape.

Assembled box with 4" speaker.

Assembled circuit and wires.

Power input (left) and 1/8" audio jack for connecting an ipod (right).

It actually sounds pretty good!

CBG #1 Photos

Just a couple of photos I took with my new camera.

Time to start another one!

CBG #1 Fretting and Finishing

I decided to fret my guitar. I think it came out fairly well although some of the frets are not exactly parallel.

I first marked out the fret lines with my Gibson fret ruler with a 24-9/16" scale, the shortest scale on the ruler. I used a square to make the lines as parallel as I could.

I then used my fret saw with the acrylic stop. I practiced fretting on a scrap piece of wood and set the acrylic at the right depth. I then cut all the fret slots and hammered the fret wire into the slots and cut the ends off.

I finished the frets by filing down the ends of the frets and then used a straight piece of aluminum square tubing with 220 grit sandpaper taped to it to level the frets.

After the fret work was finished, I started working on the bridge. I used my Dremel drill press as a one axis variable height router to cut a slot in a 1/4" thick piece of oak.

I then used plastic from a cutting board to to act as the actual bridge.

I continued using my Dremel router setup to work the wood into the shape pictured above.

I then adjusted the height of the plastic and finally cut slots in the bridge for the strings. I am not going to glue the cutting board plastic in place, it fits tight into the slot but I did glue the oak base to the top of the cigar box.

I the finished up the nut made from the same cutting board plastic, but I did glue it to the neck.

The end result!

I tried to glue my family's crest onto the back. I don't think it turned out so great though.

Time to start on another one!

Fretting Tools

I decided to fret my first cigar box guitar, well at least attempt too. So I order some tools from Stewart-MacDonald:

• Gibson fret ruler with three Gibson scales on it
• Fret saw with an acrylic stop
• A fret hammer
• Medium fret wire

Hopefully everything will go according to plan....

CBG #1 Piezoelectric Pickup

I decided to use a piezoelectric buzzer from Radio Shack as my first pickup for my first CBG. I simply disassembled the buzzer carefully, making sure to not damage the piezo element. The circuit board contained in some of the buzzers is useless.

I then soldered shielded audio cable from Radio Shack to the piezo element. I am not sure why there are two outputs (white parts). I just assumed the brass part is the ground and the larger white part as the signal.

I then used a piece of cork to make the top flat so that I can sandwich the assembly in between two pieces of wood.

Next, I shielded the element assembly with metal tape. I just had it lying around, don't remember what it exactly is. Seems to do the job.

The finished electronic assembly. Piezo pickup, 10k-Ohm volume control pot with built in witch (not necessary, i just didn't read the box very carefully), and a 1/4" mono jack, all connected with shielded audio cable and grounded.

I created a sound post directly under where the bridge will be placed on the top of the box.

I then glued the piezo element to the back of the box and placed the sound post directly on top. The sound post is now slightly taller then the box edge so that when the lid is closed and the strings tensioned, the piezo element will be tightly sandwiched in between the back of the box and the sound post.

The box is wired and ready to go!

I made a plate for the 1/4" jack and reassembled everything! Surprisingly it actually works and sounds good!

Bottle Neck Slide

Since I do not have a fretted cigar box guitar yet, I made a slide from a wine bottle. It was actually surprisingly easy to do. I used a carbide cutting wheel on my Dremel to score a circle around the base of the neck on the wine bottle. I then tapped the neck with a hammer and the neck broke off right at the score. I then cleaned the edge of sharp points with the cutting wheel.

It fits perfectly around my finger since the neck of the wine bottle I used is tapered. It sounds pretty good too!

My First Cigar Box Guitar

I forget what inspired me to make a cigar box guitar, but it was fun and turned out pretty good. I have to get a recording of the sound, sounds surprisingly good. At any rate, here is how I built my first 4 stringed cigar box guitar.

I went to a local cigar store and picked out some cigar boxes, unfortunately they wanted $3 for each box. Oh well. I got a La Gloria Cubana paper cigar box, well paper for the lid and sides and cedar for the bottom.

I decided to use a 24.5" scale, which corresponds to the length between the nut and the bridge. Pictured above is the layout. I decided to use a pass through neck, so the neck goes completely through the cigar box.

After laying out the neck, the total neck length turned out to be 28".

In order to make sure the neck can hold the tension of the strings without bending to much, I sandwiched two layers of fiberglass cloth in-between two 1.5" x 0.5" pieces of polar with epoxy resin.

Its a composite neck now!

 Profile of the shaped neck.

I reduced the thickness of the neck in two places, one so that the neck pass through will not touch the lid of the cigar box in an attempt to allow for the lid to vibrate freely. I also thinned the playing part of the neck in an attempt to make the cigar box more playable.

The neck lines up flush with the cigar box lid.

Sketch of the headstock.

Headstock glued to neck.

Once I glued the headstock onto the neck, I realized that it was to thin for the tuners to fit correctly. So I glued a red oak veneer to the headstock. It makes it look nice too!

I then glued an oak fingerboard onto the neck.

I then applied a golden pecan stain and sealed the neck with polyurethane, sanded to 400 grit and glued the neck to the cigar box.

I then used my Dremel router to route the above slits into the cigar box lid for a sound hole. Unfortunately, the slits are not to straight.

I used a plastic cutting board to make a nut. I used my handy scaled engineering rulers to get equal string spacing.

I used 26 gauge zinc plated steel, lightly sanded to make a rustic looking tail piece. The two big holes are for screws to secure the tail piece to the cigar box. The four smaller holes are for the strings to be fished through.

It's assembled! It just needs strings and a bridge!

Strung!

I have been experimenting with bridge materials. I have tried a bolt and the cutting board plastic. So far I think I like the cutting board plastic best but I still want to try oak.