Traditional Cigar Box Guitar by Mark Frauenfelder
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
PROJECTS: cigar box guitar makezine.com/21/cbg traditional cigar box guitar by Mark Frauenfelder 76 Make: Volume 21 Hand-rollEd MuSic Five years ago, MAKE featured an electric Cigar Box Guitar project (Volume 04, page 76). The project’s author, Ed Vogel, designed a simple instrument using only parts you’d find at a hardware store. I made one myself, and had a wonderful time playing it. Last year, I decided I’d like to make a more traditional cigar box guitar. I soon found Cigar Box Nation (cigarboxnation.com), a fantastic online hangout for homemade stringed instrument enthusiasts. The photos, videos, and MP3s posted by these happy strummers and pluckers were inspiring, and the variety of guitars in the photo galleries was astounding. I joined the group and was warmly welcomed by its mem- bers, who kindly answered my newbie questions about frets, choices of wood, and other aspects of guitar building. In a matter of days, I had built my first cigar box guitar (or CBG for short). I’ve now built more than a half dozen CBGs, and I guess you can say I’m hooked. Because every CBG is built by hand, using different found and scrounged materials, no two sound alike. I love the suspense of not knowing what kind of “personality” a CBG is going to have until it’s completed. Here’s how to make a plain-vanilla, 3-string CBG that requires a minimum of tools and parts, yet sounds great. Set up: p.79 Make it: p.80 use it: p.85 Mark Frauenfelder ([email protected]) is editor-in-chief of MaKE. Photography by Mark Frauenfelder Mark Frauenfelder by Photography Make: 77 PROJECTS: cigar box guitar makezine.com/21/cbg a String, a Stick, and a box A cigar box guitar is much like a regular guitar except it usually has fewer strings. Before buying parts for one, rummage around in your junk drawers. A plastic comb can be cut and used as a bridge. An old cabinet hinge can serve as a tailpiece. A bolt makes for a dandy nut. TheH photo section of cigarboxnation.com shows ingenious and oftentimes humorous examples of CBG builders’ resourcefulness. H a The cigar box serves as the instrument’s body and resonating chamber. It doesn’t necessarily have G g The nut supports to be a cigar box. You can use a wooden craft box, a the upper ends of the boxy tin can (like the kind turpentine comes in), or strings so they can anything else with flat, light, solid surfaces that will G vibrate freely. push the air as they vibrate. I used another piece from the b At the lower end of the box, a simple cabinet wooden barbecue skewer, but hinge serves as the tailpiece that holds the bolts also work nicely because strings’ bottom ends. The strings pass through F their threads prevent the strings the screw holes on one face of the hinge, which from sliding sideways. holds back their end barrels. The other faceE of D the hinge attaches to the end of the box. H F tuning pegs and strings can be scavenged from an c The strings stretch over a thin, E D old guitar, or purchased at blade-like bridge that transfers their a music store or online. vibrations to the guitar’s body. For this guitar, I used a piece of wooden barbe- cue skewer, but I’ve also used a thin paintbrush handle with good results. d The guitar’s neck can be a Fret Spacing piece of oak or maple. Don’t use a A string’s frequency is inversely proportional softwood that bends easily or your to its length; if you halve the string’s vibrating neck will bow (especially if you length by fretting it at its midpoint, it vibrates use 4 or more strings or crank twice as fast. Musically, this means it plays up the tension). one octave higher. Western music divides the octave into 12 equal intervals, so you E The scale length can determine the distance between A (distance between the adjacent frets by successively divid- bridge and the nut) is up to ing each length by the 12th root of you. Most guitars have a 2. This is an irrational number, A scale length somewhere and any rounding error accrues between 24" and 25½". C with each division, so you’ll need If you want to make a cigar to carry it out with a lot of digits. box bass, try 30"–34". Using 1.05946309436 should be safe. C F Frets determine the B For example, starting with a 24" string note a string plays, by gives you string lengths of 22.653", 21.382", restricting the length along 20.182", and so on. These lengths correspond to which it vibrates. I made them B fret distances from the nut of 1.347", 2.618", and using fret wire, but toothpicks or 3.818", and the 12th division takes the distance up to small nails with the tips and heads 12". Visit makezine.com/21/cbg for links to online fret clipped off will also work. Or you can go calculators that perform these operations instantly. fretless, which is great for slide guitar. SUPPLEMENT: Make: Magazine issue 21 - Cigar Box Guitar article. PAPERCRAFT GUITAR PICKS WEB: www.susankleinart.com Second fret/1.05946 Buildable paper guitar picks for use with your Cigar Box Guitar Portland OR based fine artist presents these delightful picks Susan Klein BONUS! First fret/1.05946 Illustrator Rob Nance created a ScaleSecond length/1.05946 fret/1.05946 sheet of Papercraft Guitar Picks Portland OR based fine artist presents these beautiful, angularly intriguing picks Matthew Craig to help you rock out in style with FirstScale fret/1.05946 length your new cigar box guitar! Scale length/1.05946 Get it at makezine.com/21/cbg. WEB: www.rnance.com Scale length Tacoma WA based cartoonist and illustrator presents these diverting picks Rob Nance Illustration by Rob Nance Rob by Illustration 78 Make: Volume 21 All artwork copyright © 2009 their respective creators. Feel free to use the artwork done by Rob Nance for any non-commercial use. SET UP. b J a c i K d l H M E F n g MatErialS [F] cabinet hinge with [NOT SHoWn] 3 mounting holes on each side Yardstick A decimal inch or [a] cigar box I buy them at millimeter scale is best, as my local cigar store for $3 [g] 1" wood screws opposed to fractional inches. each. You can also find them Phillips head Grip-Rite on eBay. Fas’ners work well. Wood saw [b] 1×2 oak or maple lumber, 3' length The actual [H] bamboo barbecue drill or drill press dimensions are ¾"×1½". A skewer or other hard, thin and bits for wood 6' stick (enough for 2 necks) rod for the bridge and nut. 6 costs about $10. Pick the A "×2" bolt also works well Phillips head screwdrivers straightest, flattest, clearest for the nut. (free of knotholes) piece you Hammer can find. [i] Super glue (optional) Marker or paint [c] guitar strings Standard medium-gauge strings work Sanding block and well. CBGs typically use TOOLS sandpaper of various grits open G tuning. I use strings 5, 4, and 3 (A, D, G) and tune [J] Hole saw, ¾" Files them to G-D-G. [K] Stanley Surform t square or carpenter’s [d] tuning pegs Elderly shaver from a hardware square Instruments (elderly.com) store sells a set of 6 (enough to Jeweler's file (optional) build two 3-stringers) for [l] Miter box hobby size $10. Sometimes they’re Pencil called “tuning machines.” [M] coping saw Sharpie or paint [E] Fret wire $10 at elderly. [n] Wire cutters com or cbgitty.com. You can Magnifying glass also use flat toothpicks or go fretless. utility knife Make: 79 PROJECTS: cigar box guitar makezine.com/21/cbg MAKE IT. BUILD Your CIGAR BOX GUITAR Start>> time: an afternoon complexity: Easy 1. MaKE tHE nEcK To begin, we’ll cut the neck to length, make the headstock (the part where the tuning pegs go), and saw off a rectangular slice so that the fretboard is flush with the cigar box lid. Making the neck and installing the frets are the most time-consuming parts of the build. Once you’re finished preparing the neck, you’ll be surprised by how fast the rest of the build goes! 1a. Using a wood saw, cut the oak or maple lumber to 36". You’ll have to cut it a little shorter later on, but it’s good to start out with more than enough. 1b. Saw off a rectangular slice from the lower end. This is the end that goes into the cigar box. Measure the length and thickness of the cigar box lid. I use the box itself as a guide, tracing along the oak stick with a pencil. Mark these dimensions on the wood, then use a saw to remove the part shaded red in the illustration. Also make a pencil mark 2¼" from the end. This is where your bridge will go later on. 1 1c. Mark the lines for the nut and headstock. Starting from the 4 pencil mark you just made for the bridge, make another mark 2 3 indicating the scale length (I decided on a scale length of 24½"). This second mark is where the nut will go. Make a third mark ½" farther past the nut. Make a fourth and final pencil mark 3½" beyond the third mark.