Travel Cigar Box Guitar

Hi,
I needed a small instrument in a hurry that will fit in a backpack. I know I could have taken a soprano uke but lately I've been playing a bit of 3 string CBG so just knocked up a smaller quick and dirty version. Had a small cigar box in the shed so kind of just chucked things together. Had to stiffen the box to take the string tension. No fancy work here not even knobs for tone and volume. Just enough to have a playable instrument. After this trip I will likely rebuild the thing using the hardware. Off to the UK tomorrow.
Regards
John

That’s a beauty John!
Have a great trip!

Thanks Cal.
Regards
John

Hey Orraloon, that is amazing, what a beauty. I am impressed. What scale length is used. Are all CBG's similar scale lengths.?

Paul

Hi Paul,
With CGBs you can make them any way you like. Any scale length and any number of strings. That said the general rules of music theory and what is practical still has to apply. In this case I wanted something I can take in a backpack on a plane. I used to travel with a concert sized ukulele as that is about as big as is allowed for carry on in a plane. Thats about 15 to 16 inch scale length. This CBG is 16 &1/2'' scale length. Normal guitar is around 25'' scale length. As it uses a pickup and is played through an amp the acoustic part is not critical (like an electric guitar) but still loud enough unplugged to practice with. I was going for as much scale length as the overall instrument length would allow and to get an open G tuning using guitar strings. For good acoustic sound the bridge needs to be further forward and of course a cigar box rarely gets good sound on its own. Its hard to sound good and look funky without some electric help. Anyhow if you feel like building something there will be plenty of advice on this forum to guide you through. About 6 years ago I was on here asking the basic questions how to get started on instruments. I now have musicians playing my creations at gigs.
Regards
John

Hey John, thanks for that info, this is very fascinating to say the least. I've made 10 guitars all from scratch so I have a lot of bits and pieces laying around in a couple of boxes. Pickups, frets, knobs, pots, etc etc. I'll have to have a go at one of these. I imagine when you decide on your scale length there is a formula to work out the distance between frets. I've got a jig made up to cut the frets on a Les Paul scale length, but this would be back to the drawing board.

Needless to say your CBG has tempted me. I wasnt going to make any more guitars but I am now currently making a Telecaster, but thats another story.

Have a great flight to the UK John, and thanks for your info.

Paul

Paul,
Google fret calculator. The Stewmac site has one thats good. Tons of stuff on line too on building them.
I have made a couple now from left over bits in pieces. Have fun with it.
Regards
John

Beautiful! Have a good journey.