This is how much it cost me to build my first three builds:
- my first cigar box guitar- a 1 stringed diddley bow cost me £28.50
- my second cigar box guitar- a 3 stringed fretless guitar cost me £25.50
- my third cigar box guitar- a 4 stringed fretted guitar cost me £115.50
| 1-stringed diddley bow | unfretted build | fretted build | |
| cost of tools I needed to buy | £0 | £0 | £28 |
| cost of materials I needed to buy | £28.50 | £25.50 | £87.50 |
| total cost | £28.50 | £25.50 | £115.50 |
How Much It Cost Me To Build A 1- Stringed Diddley Bow
It cost me a total of £28.50 to build my first 1-stringed diddley bow. This includes all the tools and materials I had to buy.
Tools I Used For Building My Diddley Bow
When I decided I wanted to build a diddley bow, I looked around the house to see what we already had that I could use.
We are quite thrifty at home and try not to buy anything on a whim. My husband and I both have quite a few hobbies and all the accompanying equipment that goes with these hobbies.
In our house we had general DIY equipment:
- Screwdrivers
- Chisels
- Files
- Hammers
- Drill and Drill Bits
- Hand Saws
- Sandpaper
I didn’t buy any extra tools than what we had in the house. The most expensive tool I used was an electric drill and I would have found it very difficult to install the machine head without one.
Materials I Needed To Buy For Building My Diddley Bow
I didn’t have a suitable box but I found a small vintage keepsake box on Facebook marketplace. It may have been a cigar box at one time but it had a transfer print on it when I bought it. It cost me £10
The box didn’t have anything to keep it closed so I bought a cabinet hook and eye type fastening from our local small DIY shop. It was £3
I didn’t have any machine heads and I first just used a screw. I then realised it was really hard to tune a string using a screw so so I bought a set of cheap machine heads from Amazon. They were about £15 but I only used one so I had five left for future builds, so I will count this as £2.50.
I already had an old amp so I wanted to add a piezo with an output jack but I wanted to keep this build as simple and cheap as possible so I bought a cheap piezo pre-wired to a jack but without a volume control from my local music shop. This cost £13. With hindsight this was not a good buy, I could have bought a better one with a volume control for less.
Materials I Already Had For Building My Diddley Bow
I needed something for a guitar neck and I found an old broom handle that I sawed to the right length.
For the bridge, I used an old nut and bolt that I found in one of our “bits ‘n’ bobs” drawers. I used a screw to act as a nut.
For the string, I used the E string from an old pack of guitar strings I had lying around ( I have played 6 string guitar for several years) If I had to buy a set, I would have bought a cheap set of phosphor bronze acoustic guitar strings from Amazon. I could have bought these for about £5
I used a rivet to poke the string through the tailpiece. I already had some in my craft room that I had used for fabric with a punch.
Costs Breakdown Of Building My Diddley Bow
Total cost of materials for a 1-stringed diddley bow was £10 (box) + £3 ( cabinet hook) + £2.50 ( machine head) + £13 (piezo) = £28.50
I bought no tools so the total build cost for 1-stringed diddley bow was £28.50
How Much It Cost Me To Build A 3-Stringed Fretless Guitar
Total build cost of my 3-stringed unfretted cigar box guitar was £25.50
Tools I Used For My Fretless Build
Once again I used our basic home DIY tools
- Screwdrivers
- Chisels
- Files
- Hammers
- Drill and Drill Bits
- Hand Saws
- Sandpaper
I didn’t buy any extra tools.
Materials I Already Had For My Fretless Build
I didn’t have a suitable wooden box but I found a small rectangular biscuit tin.
I know some of you might say that this is not strictly a cigar box guitar since it uses a tin for the body. Some people might call it a Canjo although they are usually made from open ended cans. I like to think of a cigar box guitar as a handmade instrument made using already existing or made from scratch materials.
To make the sound holes I used a drill , punch and then round files to make the edges safe. I used some car body repair mesh to cover the holes from the inside. This was again in one of our “bits ‘n’ bobs drawers.
For the bridge , I used an old nut and bolt that I found in one of our “bits ‘n’ bobs” drawers.
I used a long screw to act as a nut. I sawed off each end and filed it down to make it safe.
For the strings, I used the 3rd , 4th and 5th A, D and G strings from an old pack of guitar strings I had lying around ( I have played 6 string guitar for several years) If I had to buy a set, I would have bought a cheap set of phosphor bronze acoustic guitar strings from Amazon. I could have bought these for about £5
Materials I Had To Buy For My Fretless Build
I needed something for a guitar neck and I bought a scrap of Sapele, a hardwood, that I sawed to the right length. It cost £7
I used 3 machine heads from the set of cheap machine heads from Amazon from my diddley bow. They were about £15 but I only used three in this build so I am counting this as a cost of £7.50 .
I learned my lesson from buying the piezo for my diddley bow and spent £11 on a pre-wired piezo with output jack and volume control on Amazon. See the resource page for details of the actual model I used.
Costs Breakdown Of Building My Fretless Cigar Box guitar
Total cost of materials for a 3-stringed unfretted guitar was £7 (neck) + £7.50 (machine heads) + £11 (piezo) = £25.50
I didn’t buy any extra tools than what we had in the house.
Total build cost of my 3-stringed unfretted cigar box guitar is £25.50
How Much It Cost Me To Build A 4-Stringed Fretted Guitar
It cost me £87.50 to build my fretted guitar
Tools I Used To Build My First Fretted Cigar Box Guitar
For this build I used the tools that we previously owned, but we did decide to borrow and buy a couple of big tools. My husband and I are both makers and decided that we would like to expand our range of tools.
Here is the list of tools I used:
- Screwdrivers
- Chisels
- Files
- Hammers
- Drill and Drill Bits
- Hand Saws
- Sandpaper
- Wire Cutters
- Mitre box
- A fine panel saw for cutting the frets
- A Bandsaw
- A Planer Thicknesser
- A Belt Sander
Extra Tools I Bought For This Build
You can see that making a fretted instrument requires some more specialised equipment but I could have made this for much cheaper. I intended to use this build as a big learning experience and invest in some useful tools.
I bought a panel saw for £28 because we didn’t have a fine enough saw to cut accurate frets. You will need to consider buying one if you don’t have anything suitable.
The bandsaw and planer thicknesser cost another £600, but we will use those on lots of future projects, not just guitar building. We did not need to buy these big pieces of equipment but decided to invest.
I have put details on the resources page for the three items we bought, the panel saw, bandsaw and planer thicknesser.
We were lucky enough to borrow a belt sander. This really helped with speeding up building the guitar neck and fretboard.
Materials I Bought To Make The Fretted Guitar
I didn’t have a suitable box but I decided to make one from a cheap offcut plank of ash from a local timber yard. It cost £15
The box didn’t have anything to keep it closed so I bought some box corners from Amazon. These cost £8 for 8 and I only used 4, leaving 4 for another build. Details are on the resources page . I will count this cost as £4
I needed something for a guitar neck and I decided I would hand cut one from a piece of ash. It was again an offcut and was about 3″ x 3″ x 20″ and cost £15. Since it was so short I couldn’t build a through neck so I used tenor ukulele strings on this build to minimise the pressure on the string fixings.
For the strings, I bought a decent set of tenor ukulele strings. These were double length so I have a spare set or enough for another build. These cost £16.50. I could have used classical guitar strings but I wasn’t sure if the lower wound strings would provide too much tension.
For the bridge , I bought a pack of two bone bridges from Amazon( details on the resources page ) and mounted it on a saddle that I hand carved from a scrap of Sapele. I shaped the other bridge to act as a nut. These together cost £6
I bought new machine heads from Amazon. They cost about £14 but I only used four so I had two left for future builds.
I needed fret wire and bought some from eBay. It was in long lengths that I had to cut and cost about £15
I bought an offcut of walnut to make a fretboard. This cost £8 and had enough wood for four fretboards so I will count this as £2. I wouldn’t have been able to cut this without the bandsaw but I could have made it thinner with the belt sander alone. It was much quicker with the thickness planer though.
Costs Breakdown For Fretted Guitar
Cost of materials for my 3-stringed fretted guitar was £15( box wood) + £4 (box corners) + £15 ( wood for neck) + £16.50 (strings) + £6 ( bridge and nut) + £14 (machine heads) +£15 (fret wire)+ £2 ( wood for fretboard) = £87.50.
Cost of extra tools I really needed to buy was £28 (panel saw)
Total cost for fretted guitar build = £87.50 + £28 = £115.50
How I Could Have Cut My Costs For The Fretted Build
This was a learning experience and I wanted to make my own box, neck and fretboard so we bought expensive tools to help with this. Even so, it still took a long time to shape the neck .
If I’d bought the box , neck and fretboard from a cigar box guitar supplier rather than starting from scratch, they could cost under £30.
I used a bandsaw and planer thicknesser for shaping the fretboard and the fine panel saw to cut the frets. I could have bought a pre fretted fretboard mounted on a neck for about £50.
Buying a kit and parts from a specialist supplier could make the total cost as little as £80
What You Can Expect To Get In A Cigar Box Guitar Kit
Many kits are sold for unfretted instruments and a kit costing £60 will typically consist of:
- cigar box
- neck
- machine heads
- strings
- nut
- bridge
- rivets/ eyelets for strings to attach
- box corners
You will need to add the cost of fretboard and fret wire for a fretted build.
Amplification will cost a little more, but can be as little as £11 if you go for a re-wired piezo pickup.
Materials I have Used To Build My Cigar Box Guitars
- boxes- wooden and metal
- wood for necks- hardwood
- wood for fretboards- hardwood
- guitar machine heads
- guitar strings
- bridges – metal and bone
- nuts- metal and bone
- box corners
- rivets
- piezo pickups- prewired with volume control and output jack
- fret wire
An Absolute Beginner’s Tool Kit To Build A Fretted Instrument From Scratch
This is an absolute minimum that you will need if you are not making from a kit.
- Screwdrivers
- Chisels
- Files
- Hammers
- Drill and Drill Bits
- Hand Saws
- Sandpaper
- Wire Cutters
- A fine panel saw for cutting the frets
Extra Tools I Have Bought For Building My Cigar Box Guitars
We already had a selection of DIY tools but since starting to build cigar box guitars we have bought:
- fine panel saw
- band saw
- planer thicknesser