This A- Z guide is designed to help you find your way around the cigar box guitar. I hope it will help you to know what’s being talked about when you are reading articles.
Box Corners For A Cigar Box Guitar
These are pieces of metal shaped to fit over the corners of the box. They help to anchor the lid to the box and stabilize the box itself. They are attached to the box with very small panel pins.
Box corners come in different colours and it’s nice to tone them in with other metal parts of your build.
If you are looking on line for them, be aware that very cheap ones can be made of very thin metal and will end up being decorative rather than adding much stability.
Bridge On A Cigar Box Guitar
The bridge is the thing that holds the strings in the correct place as they pass over the box. It often has a saddle on the top unless a bolt or similar is used as a bridge as the bolt can sit directly on the box. The bridge and saddle are sometimes used almost interchangeably because we talk about cutting slots in the bridge when technically it’s the bridge saddle. But let’s not worry about that too much.
The height of the bridge is important because the strings need to be high enough off the fretboard so as not to buzz but low enough to not go out of tune as the string is pressed down to make a note.
A fretless guitar which will be played with a slide needs what is called a higher action. This means that the strings are further from the fretboard. The bridge in this case will need to be slightly higher.
Since the strings pass through slots in the bridge/ saddle it needs to be made of something strong. Bone or some synthetic plastic equivalent is often used. A metal bolt can be used as a bridge.
If you are making your own bridge by sawing and shaping bone, you need to be very careful that you wear an adequate face mask since bone dust is very bad to inhale. In fact, a good facemask is a really essential piece of kit with sanding wood as well as bone. Very small particles are linked to lung cancer, so please take care of your lungs and wear a suitable face mask.
I have written an in-depth article here about the bridge on a cigar box guitar
Cigar Box
Some people would say that you have to use a cigar box to make a cigar box guitar but personally I am not so much of a purist. Early cigar box guitars used cigar boxes because that was what they had available. They were a good sized wooden box ( usually wood but sometimes thick cardboard nowadays) that made a suitable sounding instrument with some found wood and metal fence wire.
Other small wooden boxes, such as jewellery boxes or small wine boxes can be successfully used. Some builders like to make their own wooden boxes so that they can get exactly the right sized box for their needs. I wonder if this is especially true in the UK. I have tended to make the boxes I use because I have found that it’s more difficult to get wooden cigar boxes than I would have hoped.
Until I find a good supply of cigar boxes I think I will mostly continue to build my own. The last one I ordered from ebay turned out quite a lot smaller than I’d expected.
The other reason that people might prefer to build their box rather than buy it is the style of cigar box called licence plate cigar box guitars.
These are made from a metal car license plate and they need to have a box with the right dimensions to fit the license plate.
I have written an article here about the different types of body on a cigar box guitar ( coming soon)
Fretboard
This is a thin piece of wood stuck onto the neck to which the frets are attached. It’s usually made of a hardwood because softer woods will mark with the pressure of the strings.
Fretless guitars do not need fretboards but some people like to install them nevertheless.
Frets For A Cigar Box Guitar
Frets are the lines marked onto the neck to indicate which note is played when a finger ( or guitar slide) is pressed down.
For what is known as a fretted instrument, the fret lines are marked with a piece of fret wire. This is a piece of wire that is embedded into the fretboard leaving a line of metal sitting just proud of the fretboard itself.
Fret wire is not like regular wire. Rather than being rounded, fret wire is shaped a bit like a T shape in cross section. The rounded wire sits on the fretboard to make the fret and the upright of the t is hammered into the fret slot, which is a shallow thin line cut into the fretboard.
Some builders like to add a drop of superglue to keep the fret wire in place. I prefer not to unless one of the wires is a bit loose.
Fret wire comes in a ” silver” colour or different ” gold” colours. It’s nice to decide if your build will be based around silver or gold tones because then you can tie in the fret wire colour with the colour of the machine heads and any box corners and metal tailpiece you use.
Fretless instruments have the fret lines marked in some way ( eg with pencil, pen or pyrography) to show where the slide needs to be positioned to make an in tune note.
For slide playing , the slide needs to sit directly on the fret line, whereas for finger playing the finger needs to be placed just behind the fret line.
I have more detail in my article on the number of frets for a cigar box guitar
Headstock
This is the slightly wider part of the neck, right at the top, above the nut. The machine heads are positioned on the headstock.
The extra width of the headstock can be achieved in two different ways:
- The neck starts out as a wider piece of wood and the extra wood is removed from the are where the fretboard sits or
- The neck is made from a piece of wood that is a similar width to the fretboard and extra “wings” of wood are added to accommodate the machine heads.
Adding wood for the wings of the headstock allows for some nice looking effects. Different woods offer some contrast especially as several upright layers can be used as long as they are glued securely.
Heel On A Cigar Box Guitar
The heel is an extra depth of wood on the the neck where the neck meets the box. This gives extra strength to your build, again minimising any neck warping under the pressure of the strings.
There are two choices when it comes to adding a heel to your build:
- Either make your neck from a thick piece of wood and carve away the excess for the main body of the neck or
- Add a piece of wood to the bottom of the neck where it meets the box
Builders tend to find their favourite way of building and then replicate that method. As a beginner you might even omit the heel completely. Your guitar neck may warp a bit but your very first build will probably have a few issues and you might think it’s better to try to iron out these problems with each subsequent build.
I omitted the heel on my first couple of builds, then tried carving a neck with an integral heel for my next build. This was partly because I was experimenting with a neck that did not go all the way through the box. It was a lot of work to cut away the excess wood and shape it but very satisfying.
For me personally, I like to experiment with design rather than just follow directions to the letter. It might take me longer to build something that is a great instrument, but I feel like it’s really personal and unique to me. I wouldn’t recommend this method if you are someone who just wants to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible because you will get pretty frustrated.
Machine Heads
These are also called tuning pegs and are the metal geared pegs that the strings are attached to. There are open backed and closed back tuners.
Since the machine heads are made of metal, they are either “silver” or ” gold” coloured. Sometimes the closed back have a piece of coloured plastic- black, white or or brown usually. This colour can tie in with the colour of the handle part of the machine head which again can be silver, gold, black, brown or white.
It’s a good idea to tie in the colour of the machine heads with the rest of your build to make a cohesive looking instrument.
Machine heads for a three string cigar box guitar tend to be arranged with two on one side and one on the other of the headstock. Alternatively they can be put all on one side like a Fender headstock.
There is more detail on machine heads in this article about putting on new strings
Neck Of A Cigar Box Guitar
The neck of a cigar box guitar is often called a through neck because it travels through the box and comes out the bottom end. This style of neck makes it much easier to securely attach the strings since they can be attached to the bottom of the neck itself through holes bound with metal rivets.
Alternatively, a tailpiece can have the strings attached to it. This tailpiece is attached to the bottom of the neck.
The neck is usually made of hardwood to prevent warping under the stress of the attached metal strings. Useful neck woods are Ash, Sapele, Maple and Oak
The piece of wood that you select for your neck needs to be properly dried ( do not try to use green wood for instance) and nice and straight. Small defects can be removed in the planing and shaping of the neck, but don’t make life too difficult for yourself with a bit of wonky wood.
How Do I Know How Much Wood I Need For A Through Neck?
The piece of wood needs to be long enough to account for the headstock, fretboard, the box length and the tailpiece . The scale length is the length from the nut to the saddle, but the actual piece of wood you will need needs to be longer than the scale length.
wood length for through neck = length of headstock + length of fretboard + length of box + tailpiece
eg wood used in my 63cm scale length cigar box guitar = 12cm + 40cm + 28cm + 4cm = 84cm
eg wood used in my guitar with a scale length of 25 inches= 4 3/4 inches + 15 3/4 + 11 + 1 1/2 = 33 inches
Nut On A Cigar Box Guitar
There is a more in-depth article here all about the nut on a cigar box guitar
The nut sits at the top of the neck and like the bridge is made of something strong like bone or a synthetic equivalent.
A metal bolt can be used as the nut or some builders like to use the “zero fret” nut. This is a piece of jumbo fret wire installed in the position of the nut and acting as the nut.
All fret positions are marked accurately from the nut so be especially careful when you install the nut to prevent the whole instrument having bad intonation ( not playing in tune) I have an article here on solving intonation problems.
Pickups For Cigar Box Guitar
This is the part of the cigar box guitar that amplifies the sound when the guitar is plugged into an amplifier.
There are two main types of pickup:
- Magnetic pickup ( including single coil and humbucker)
- Piezoelectric or piezo pickup for short.
These pickups work in different ways and are best suited to two different types of sound.
A magnetic pickup is what is used on traditional electric guitar with nickel strings. This is made of magnets, usually one per string. However in the case of a humbucker there are two magnets per string. The magnets are mounted vertically and detect the movement of the metal string above it. This change in the magnetic field is passed to the amplifier as an electrical signal.
A coiled pickup is usually installed under the strings just where they start to pass over the box. Sometimes they are hidden underneath the lid itself or in a casing that obscures the visible metal parts.
It’s not impossible to use a pickup from a six stringed guitar on a three stringed instrument, but you will get a better sound if you buy a pickup made especially for cigar box guitars.
Piezo pickups work in a different way, detecting movement in the box lid itself which is caused by the movement of the strings on the bridge. This means that the strings do not need to be magnetic and can even be made of nylon. Phosphor bronze strings are often used if the pickup is a piezo.
Some builders like the best of both worlds and install a piezo pickup directly under the bridge and a magnetic pickup nearer the neck. The pickups can be wired to a switch to enable one or other or both pickups to be operating at the same time.
I have a more detailed article here on pickups and one here on a beginner’s guide to amp settings
Pot For A Cigar Box Guitar
Pot is short for potentiometer. This is part of the wiring of a pickup that affects the volume of the guitar.
It is adjusted with a volume control knob. Not all guitars with pickups have a volume control knob and it’s not too big a problem because the volume can easily be adjusted on the amplifier itself.
Saddle Of A Cigar Box Guitar
See the bridge above. Some builds do not have a saddle and have the bridge resting directly on the box itself. One of my very first builds used a nut for the bridge and I rested this directly onto the box.
When I made my first four string without a through neck which I put ukulele strings on to minimize the stress on the string attachment, I had quite a lot of trouble attaching the bridge and saddle to the box.
The first time I installed the strings, it pulled the bridge and saddle straight off the box. I found out the hard way why through the box necks are used! Even with nylon strings the force was just too great. I ended up having to reattach the bridge and saddle with screws and glue with an extra piece of wood under the box wood for stability.
Feel free to learn from my mistake. I will not be attempting any more builds without a through neck, not just because of the problem with securing the bridge and saddle but also because attaching the neck to the box was another big headache.
Straps For A Cigar Box Guitar
If you will play standing up, it’s handy to get yourself a guitar strap. These come in various materials including leather, denim, nylon and woven fabric. Some players even use a piece of string.
Straps are often adjustable with a sliding buckle to adjust the length of the strap. If you watch guitar players on video, you will notice that some like to play with the guitar quite high up on their body, whereas some prefer to have it slung pretty low. Experiment with different lengths until you find a length that suits your body and your playing style. Different guitars may work better with shorter or longer straps.
Besides the length of the strap, the width of the strap is something to consider. Some heavier guitars may be more comfortable to hold and play on a slightly wider strap that doesn’t cut into your shoulder so much.
I’ve written an article here on how to choose a strap
Strap Button
If you will play standing up, it’s handy to have a strap button installed on the edge of the box near the tailpiece. The hole in the strap then pits over the strap button.
A second strap button can be installed either on the neck or on the opposite end of the box. Some players ( including me) prefer to just tie the strap onto the neck just above the nut.
Strings For A Cigar Box Guitar
If there was one thing I knew about building cigar box guitars before I started it would be don’t buy cheap strings.
The difference in sound of decent quality strings in comparison to cheap ones is amazing. For those in the Uk I cannot recommend highly enough the strings from chicken bone john. Taking off the cheap strings i had started with and replacing them with his Zilpha hex core has transformed the sound of my guitar. I will be upgrading all the strings on my guitars as soon as possible.
A cigar box guitar often has three strings, sometimes four and very occasionally more. Diddley bows of one or two strings are also fun, especially for beginners. Diddley bows are a bit easier to build and it’s very easy to pick out a tune, though obviously they are not suitable for chord playing.
There is an article about putting new strings on your cigar box guitar ( see above) and there is some info in this article about the different sounds that different strings make.
Tailpiece On A Cigar Box Guitar
This is the often end of the neck where it protrudes beyond the box.
Alternatively, it is a piece of metal attached to the box, wrapped over the edge sometimes. This provides extra support for attaching the strings. All kinds of metal hinges can be useful as tailpieces, particularly if they have the same number of screw holes as strings.
The tailpiece is attached firmly to the box and through to the neck wood below for extra stability. The strings pass through the holes in the metal and the end stops on the strings prevent them being pulled back through.
Wiring For a Cigar Box Guitar
You can buy pre-soldered pickups but be aware that some pickups will require some basic soldering skills and a soldering iron. Magnetic pickups need to be attached to earth to reduce the hum from mains electricity. When the strings are touched the background buzz should reduce. If it doesn’t you have a grounding problem.
There is more information about this in my article on pickups ( see above for the link)