Cigar Box Guitar

My First Cigar Box Guitar

“So I went ahead and made me a guitar.

I got me a cigar box, I cut me a round hole in the middle of it, take me a little piece of plank, nailed it onto that cigar box, and I got me some screen wire and I made me a bridge back there and raised it up high enough that it would sound inside that little box, and got me a tune out of it. I kept my tune and I played from then on.”

© Lightnin Hopkins

The only difference is that I coudn’t find any good enough cigar box for my cigar box guitar.
So “I got me a tea box…” just for $5.

The second difference is that I want it electric.
Pickup.

  1. I’ve got a small foldable magnet and a wire in the closest electrical store.
  2. The top and bottom covers of the pickup made from the pieces of some expired discount card and glued to the edges of the magnet.
  3. Then I’ve winded the wire around that magnet. Manually.
  4. I’ve added 4 screws on the top of the magnet thru the plastic top to make the pickup area closer to the strings. I don’t want the lower the strings that much so I can easily play with slide.
  5. And finally I’ve soldered it to the 1/4″ input jack.

The neck.
It’s just a regular poplar plank.
I’ve bought 4 cheapest peg heads I could find.
And I’ve glued the toothpicks as frets. Not too cool. But it’s just to point out the positions. As long as I mostly plan to play on it with using slide.

Bridge.
I used the banjo bridge. But I had to cut the lower part of it to get a lower action. Otherwise the strings were way too high. Even for the side.
Oh, and too far from my self made pickup top. The sound was very weak in this case.

Here’s what I’ve got from it:

 

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