Different Types Of Body For A Cigar Box Guitar

Written by Kim in Building and maintaining a cigar box guitar,General Info And Helpful Hints,Slide

Even though they are called a cigar box guitar, the bodies for these handmade guitars can be made from a variety of different materials:

  • cigar box
  • handmade box
  • wine box
  • wooden jewelry box
  • metal tin
  • license plate
  • hubcap
  • tambourine
  • solid
  • shovel

Cigar Box

Traditionally, cigar box guitars have cigar boxes as their body. This made use of something that was in plentiful supply in America where they were first built. However, living in the UK in the 21st Century, there is not a ready supply of cigar boxes going spare. 

You either have to import them or buy from someone who has imported them. When you are buying online, it’s easy to be disappointed by how small some of the boxes are. The last box I ordered was much smaller than I expected and better suited to keeping my plectrums in than making a guitar!

In the spirit of how the first handmade instruments were made, it seems sensible to me to look around for a modern day alternative to use as the box, whilst still remaining true to the original builders.

I know some builders will disagree with me and say that what I’m building are not really cigar box guitars, but I’m OK with that. It’s the fact that the instrument is handmade, either with a handmade box or a re-use of a box that was used for something else, that makes this instrument so special for me.

Things I Learned While Making A Handmade Box

When I have made a couple of wooden boxes by hand, I was on a very steep learning curve. I learned that making a rectangular box is not an easy thing for a beginner woodworker. These are the main things I learned:

  • I learned to measure and cut accurately to make the pieces fit together well. I had to recut a few pieces that were not exactly the right size.
  • I also learned the importance of cutting accurate angles. If right-angles aren’t exactly right, the box corners don’t fit together.
  • If you are using hand tools, you need a bit of strength too. Sawing with a handsaw was not quite as easy as I’d hoped.
  • Arranging the cut pieces into the box and gluing and pinning or screwing the box together accurately is another skill.
  • Finding a way to keep it in place while the glue dries is another difficulty- I managed to find a special clamp called a band clamp that holds a box square. Here is a link to my Stanley band clamp on amazon.co.uk and here on amazon.com

Advantages To Making Your Own Box

There are several advantages of making your own box:

  • You can make exactly the size you want and so you can choose your scale length easily.
  • You can also make a box to fit a particular graphic if you have one already.
  • You can plan where to put any bracing inside the box.
  • You can cut sound holes in the box lid before assembling it if you like, although this means placing the lid somewhere across a span that you can cut into.
  • If you make a mistake with cutting holes in the lid, you can replace it easily ( I have made use of that tip when I cut the sound hole completely wrong).
  • You can match the neck wood to the box wood more easily.

Disadvantages To Making Your Own Box

  • It takes extra time to build your instrument and it’s not as easy as it first seems, unless you have woodworking experience.
  • It’s not necessarily cheaper to buy the wood and make a box.
  • I used thin plywood for one of my boxes and because it had got damp, the layers delaminated so I had to cut it again.

Trying To Make A Shaped Guitar Body From Layers Of Plywood

As you can probably tell from the title of this section, this did not work out well for me. The picture above is how it looks and to be honest it doesn’t look too bad to me but how it plays is a whole different story.

I had the idea to cut thick plywood into guitar shaped pieces, glue them together and hollow out the middle to make a traditional guitar shaped box. Here are some of the problems I had:

  • Firstly, the plywood had got a bit damp and had delaminated so I had to recut sections.
  • Secondly cutting curves when you’re not skilled at woodworking was very tricky.
  • I tried with different handsaws, including a fretting saw.
  • Even with an electric bandsaw this was very hard.
  • I decided this easiest way to hollow out the middle was to cut the middle layers out and then cut the middles out of the middles- I cut another line about an inch inside the outer curves- this was even harder than cutting out the outsides
  • When I glued two of these outline pieces on top of the solid base, it was hard to keep all these layers stacked vertically without them sliding everywhere. Even with lots of clamps!
  • I needed to do a lot of filing and sanding to get the edges level.
  • I cut the slots for the neck and made the huge mistake of gluing in the neck. I will NEVER glue in another neck- you’ll see why in a bit.
  • This body I had just created was soooo heavy but I ploughed on regardless.
  • I glued the lid on and started positioning the nut and bridge and began attaching the strings.
  • Bearing in mind that I had spent hours and hours shaping the neck and installing frets, I was so cross with myself for gluing in the neck because no matter the height of the nut and bridge, I could not get the action low enough to play as a fretted instrument.
  • Since I had glued it in there was nothing I could do to alter the angle of the neck in comparison with the body.
  • The intonation was terrible even though I had spent a lot of time accurately cutting and installing the frets.
  • This was because to stop fret buzz I had to have the action really high.
  • This meant when I fretted a note, I was pushing the string down so far that it played out of tune. See this article on intonation.

I haven’t broken this guitar for firewood- I am keeping it as a reminder of how bad a builder I was and how far I’ve come now. But it is virtually unplayable. I’ve tried with a slide but it’s so heavy. That’s just given me an idea- perhaps I’ll try it as a lapsteel. I’ll let you know how that works out.

Using A Found Wooden Box

There are several kinds of boxes that have had a previous life and would make a great guitar:

  • Presentation wine and beer boxes come in all shapes and sizes with hinged and sliding lids. One designed to hold a couple of bottles is probably a good size for an average guitar, but you could make a short scale instrument, maybe even a ukulele size with a small box and use the larger boxes as a bass.
  • I used an antique wooden jewelry box in one of my first builds. It wasn’t very big, but it was a good size for me and I bought it for under £10.

Using A Metal Tin

I have made use of a metal biscuit tin as a guitar body.

Metal is obviously different to work with than wood and whilst there are some advantages, there are disadvantages too:

  • The sound that comes from a metal tin is a lot brighter than it’s wooden counterpart.
  • Cutting metal requires different blades and drill bits and you need to be wary so that you don’t cut yourself on the sharp edges produced.
  • Whereas covering sound holes by placing mesh inside the box is a nicety for wooden boxes, it’s a safety feature for metal tins if there’s any chance that a small child will have a play.
  • Note that the mesh needs to be securely fixed as it’s a great temptation for little fingers to push on that mesh ( note to self to reattach mesh more securely on my biscuit tin build)
  • The large round or angled sweet tins of the type that are available at Christmas make a good sized body for a guitar. It’s a shame that they are gradually being replaced by plastic tubs which would not make a good sounding acoustic instrument, but could make an interesting electric guitar, if a bit weird looking.

Other Ideas For Cigar Box Guitar Bodies

License Plate Guitars

An alternative is to replace the wooden lid of a wooden box with a metal lid, such as a metal license plate or advertising signage. These can make use of personalized plates that mean a lot to someone or can just look good. The sound they make will be brighter and more resonant than a wooden box. See this article on resonator cigar box guitars.

Hubcap Guitars

Some builders use metal car hubcaps as the body for a guitar. I have no experience in this but I suspect it  is not an easy build, since the hubs themselves are curved. They either need to be paired to make a completely metal box or fixed to a wooden back.

Tambourine “Banjos”

I have a large tambourine with a skin on it which I’m intending to make into a banjo/guitar. I have bought banjo strings as I’m expecting it to sound more like a banjo. I’m thinking of making it four string and tuning it like a banjo to make use of any available banjo tab.

Solid Bodied Cigar Box Guitars

A solid wood electric cigar box guitar is also possible. This would need an amplifier to work since there is no hollow box to amplify the sound acoustically and no lid to attach piezo pickup.

I haven’t tried making one yet but from what I know about electric guitars, I don’t think this would be an easy build:

  • The solid body wood need shaping to fit the electronics for the pickup.
  • An adjustable bridge would need to replace the usual floating bridge

Electric Cigar Box Guitar From A Shovel

Some builders use shovels to make electric cigar box guiatars, using the handle as the neck and the blade to accommodate the bridge and pickup.

Justin Johnson is someone to search for on YouTube if you want to hear how this can sound. Bear in mind that he is a fantastic guitarist and has his instruments built especially for his requirements.

It’s an interesting challenge to build a shovel guitar and one day I’d like to have a go, but I feel I don’t have the necessary skills just yet.

Choosing a shovel with the correct angled handle for a neck seems like the first difficulty. Then there’s the difficulty of working with a metal body.

Also the neck being a round pole makes it difficult to think about how to space the strings. I know this because of making diddley bows with a broom handle. I just used one string on the diddley bows, but I guess a thicker handle could accommodate 2 or 3 strings.

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