Cigar Box Guitar

14.04.2019

Recently, I attended an incredibly enjoyable workshop class. Making a guitar out of a cigar box. Guitars made from cigar boxes can be seen frequently in cigar magazines and websites. Having the chance to make one of these guitars, which has attracted my attention from a while, was pretty fun, even though I haven't had a guitar background until now.

Making guitar from cigar box, cigars date back to the time of the American civil war. To aid the military, Lincoln taxes on cigars, and for easy taxation, he enacted the introduction of cigars, which until then were wrapped in different materials, from leaves to animal skins, in standard boxes. After this point, the "problem" arises of what the empty cedar boxes will be. The first cigar box guitar painting made is also recorded as a single-string box guitar drawn by a soldier during the civil war. The post-history ... until today, different people and craftsmen make all kinds of cigar box guitars.

Oddbox (Interesting Boxes) Guitars is a company that makes guitar from both cigar boxes and different boxes. They make guitars from the boxes that their customers want, from gas can to jewelry box.

We started by abundantly sanding the stem of the guitar. After all, it was most important that our hand didn't have any splinters where it would slide up and down. Especially when I was little and actually still, I pulled and pulled quite a bit from the splinters due to my dry hands. I can say that I made an extra effort for myself. Then we started to prepare the main piece, the box, the body of the guitar. We opened the place of the magnetics, drilled the volume and tone pods and of course the socket holes. Then, since the handle will pass through the box, we cut the side walls of the box, the places wide enough for the handle to enter. Of course, while doing these things, your teacher, Eric, was telling us again and again to move quite calmly and slowly. Because the cedar box is sensitive, excessive force or a hasty move could ruin the box and therefore the guitar.

Next, we adjusted the handle so that its magnetic part can enter, we put the pods and the magnet in place, and screwed the handle to the case. Finally, we screwed the tuners into the head, attached the strings, and, thanks to Eric, we completed the tuning of the guitar. After all the stages, the guitar was completely ready to play. Of course, when you describe all the steps so short, it seems like it passed very quickly, but it took from 10 am to 5 pm to complete the guitar, with 1 hour lunch break. Of course, it was the first time for all of us, it had an effect too. However, I must say that it is not very simple.

As I mentioned above, since I have never played guitar before, it is now time to learn how to play this guitar, albeit simply. Cigar box guitars were mostly used for playing blues. Frankly, it has a nice sound that I have not guessed, because our teacher Eric showed it quite nicely.

When the guitar was finished, the next result came out. Besides the guitar we made from the Montecristo No.1 box, they also had a Behike and guitars made from a Robaina box that Eric brought with him. He gave us a little concert with them, and frankly, he raised my enthusiasm for me to learn.

Besides, there are many different books on the market about cigar box guitars. About guitars made from these boxes, I first reviewed the book "An Obession with Cigar Box Guitars" by David Sutton, in which David Sutton gives over 100 cigar box guitar samples and features. David Sutton also has another book where he shows how to make guitar from scratch. If you are interested, I recommend it.

I know we all have too many boxes over time and we just can't afford to throw away some of them. Now we know what we can do with this method, at least, to empty boxes. Especially if there are some of us who know how to play the guitar, I can imagine that it will be even more fun for them.

Enjoyable smoking ...