Fretted And Fretless Cigar Box Guitars- What Are The Differences?

A fretless Cigar Box Guitar has no fret wires installed. Without fret lines, it’s difficult to play in tune, so frets are usually marked even on a fretless guitar. A fretless instrument is often played with a guitar slide and the action tends to be slightly higher.

Should I Choose A Fretted Or Fretless Cigar Box Guitar?

If you are sure you only want to play slide guitar, you are better off with a fretless instrument since this is easier to play without the complication of avoiding fret buzz.
If you are sure you do not want to play slide guitar, choose a fretted instrument with a nice low action to make it easier to play.
If you are undecided, go for a fretted instrument with a medium action as this gives you the option to play with or without a guitar slide.
If you are building your first instrument I recommend going fretless for your first build. You can always add fret wires later on, but omitting them to start with will make your build a lot easier. There are so many things to learn on your first build; installing the neck, the machine heads, the nut and bridge and marking the frets too. That’s quite a lot of work to get to a playable instrument.
Alternatively you can buy a pre fretted neck from a cigar box guitar specialist.

I have written an article: How Do You Begin To Play Slide On A Cigar Box Guitar?

What Are Frets?

Frets are the lines on the guitar fret board that show where different notes are played. The length of a string affects the pitch of a note on a stringed instrument. By pressing down at different places on the fretboard, we raise or lower the note.

On a fretted instrument, fret wires are installed. These not only mark where the note changes, but shorten the length of wire that can vibrate when a finger is pressed down just behind the wire.
On a fretless instrument, the place where the wires would be installed are instead marked in some way. The simplest way is with a pencil or pen, but using a pyrography tool is more permanent.

The Positioning Of Frets On The Fretboard

It’s very important that frets are marked accurately whether fret wires are installed or not. Inaccurate measuring will lead to the instrument playing out of tune with itself and there is no easy fix for this.

There is a mathematical method for working out where to position the frets, but this is made much easier by fret length calculators such as this one from Stewmac.

Before you use a fret calculator, you need to decide the scale length of the instrument. This is the distance between the nut at the top of the neck and the bridge placement on the box itself.

The 12th fret is halfway between these two points since halving a string length will make it play an octave higher.

Once you have established your string length, measure all distances from the nut. In other words, don’t be tempted to use the measurement between frets to actually mark them. Any small errors in these measurements will lead to larger and larger errors as you go up the neck , making it more and more likely to play out of tune.

Marking The Bridge Position On A Cigar Box Guitar

When you have marked your frets and installed the neck, mark on the body the place where the bridge should go.

I like to mark it temporarily until I have completed setting up and stringing the instrument. This is because the final position of the bridge and saddle might be slightly different.

A guitar bridge is often put at a very slight angle so that the bridge position of the middle string is exactly at the scale length, but the bass string is set slightly further back and the highest string slightly forward. This allows for the fact that the different gauges of the strings need very slightly different scale lengths. We are only talking tiny differences here.

Once the guitar is all set up and tuned and I am happy with the intonation ( that is the tuning of the instrument to itself) I mark the bridge and saddle position accurately and permanently. This is important because the bridge on a cigar box guitar is a floating bridge, not glued in position, but held in place by the string tension.

Fret Wire Cross Section

Although it looks like fret wire is just normal round wire, it is actually shaped with something called a tang. This is what gets pushed into the fret slot and holds the wire in place. Attached to the tang along its length is a rounded length of wire that makes what we actually see above the fretboard.

What Are Fret Wires Made Of?

Fret wires are usually made of a nickel alloy but can be made from stainless steel. They can be silver or golden or brass colored. When you choose your fret wire, it’s worth thinking about what the rest of the metal on your cigar box build will be so that you can match the colors.

Fret wires are made into rolls but it is more convenient to buy pre cut lengths. They are sold in bundles of wire about a foot long or short lengths designed to fit one fret. I prefer the longer lengths as this works out more economical I find, but a kit from a specialist cigar box guitar supplier may contain shorter lengths.

What Is Jumbo Fret Wire?

Jumbo fret wire is an extra heavy gauge of wire which makes more prominent frets. Some cigar box guitar builders prefer to use this on their builds whereas some only use it on a zero fret and bridge.

A zero fret is effectively a guitar nut made of metal. Using a zero fret gives a good low action ( this means a smaller distance between the fretboard and strings making the instrument easier to play).