Here’s the latest cigar box creation. It’s a Ukulele I made for my sister in law Veronica:
I finished it a few weeks ago, but held back on this post as it was a Christmas present.
The top is Engleman Spruce. The tone is pretty good, but it isnt as loud as I would have liked. I need to plane the top to the proper thickness next time.
The original box top had a nice illustration on it, but it wasn’t really strong enough to support the bridge, so I glued the picture under the sound hole.
The neck is plain old red oak from the hardware store. I roughly shaped it on the band saw, then carved the radius with my spokeshave. This is the first time I shaped a neck the right way, (my previous cbg’s used a simpler neck style), and it came out quite nice. I’m currently building a full size guitar neck using the same technique. I’ll post a step by step as it progresses.
The Fingerboard is rosewood with poplar dots. No radius as its a Uke. The frets are mostly even (10 looks bent in the pic but I think its lens distortion). The headplate is walnut.
The tuning machines are open geared guitar tuners I purchased from a discount online retailer. They are pretty much crap, but they look pretty good and are strong enough for a nylon string ukulele. This set is chrome with brass gears.
The bridge is my own design. It’s based on some old acoustic guitar bridges I have seen. I made it by laminating some leftover fingerboard material together and then shaping with a dremel and a belt sander. The saddle is unbleached bone. Behind it is a length of fret-wire to prevent the strings from cutting in to the wood.
This is the first time I have done a traditional bridge attached to the guitar top. the top is reinforced underneath with a bridge-plate and fan bracing. poplar pins run through the bridge to the plate for extra strength. Next time I’ll take a few pictures while I’m building the thing so you can see what I’m talking about.
This was a fun project! I’ll definitely be making some more. I’d like to make some to sell. If anyone is interested drop me a line.
Still making bread. I’ve been making almost all the bread we eat. Its fun to experiment with different ingredients and techniques.
This morning's loaf
My daily bread is a mix of white and whole wheats with a little rye and some other stuff mixed in for variety. This one has rolled oats and some beer in it!
Made bread today. I’ve been trying this off and on for a while now and I’ve never really nailed it. This one isn’t perfect, but it’s good enough that I actually want to eat the whole thing!
The Halloween special that I worked on will be airing soon. A lot of work went in to this one and we are pretty proud of it. Ill post more definite info when I get it.
Its been a while since the last post. I haven’t had time to do much new work in the way of sculpture lately as my storyboarding job is keeping me quite busy. The season is winding down so hopefully I will have more time to spend on my personal work soon.
Season 2 of The Mighty B! (the show I work on) is premiering today ! Tune in to Nickelodeon at 5:30 for new episodes everyday this week. I storyboarded the episodes “Hairy Situation” and part one of the halloween special “Catatonic”
A local cigar shop hooked me up with a bunch of cool cigar boxes. I’m making a few more 4 string slide guitars to give to friends and maybe sell. Here’s the first of the new batch. Oak neck, mahogany fingerboard, cherry tailpiece, rosewood bridge and saddles.
As you can see I used a colorful Partagas brand wood and tape box. I managed to get the intonation right on this one and it sounds a bit better then number 1. The tone is much better then I expected. Dark and twangy. This will sound mean with some distortion!
The Strat style headstock has an image I cut from the inside of the box.
The Electric Guitar Project got me really interested in making musical instruments. I hope to make a nice acoustic guitar from scratch someday, but I have a lot to learn about building necks and tuning for good tone etc.
To gain experience I decided to make a 4 string cigar box slide guitar. This is the kind of home made instrument delta blues musicians would play back in the 20’s and 30’s. I figured it would be a good starting place to learn about neck building because the stresses are less with only 4 strings and since it is a slide guitar my fretting doesn’t have to be perfect.
Lydia let me have an old cigar box she used to use to display rings. the top was useless since she had cut a window in it, so I routed it off and glued on a spruce soundboard I have lying around. The neck is made of red oak from a local hardware store and runs through the body. The nut and saddle are rosewood and the fingerboard is cherry.
Here it is. It sounds pretty cool. kind of twangy. Very bluesy.
Ive been building this flat top Les Paul style guitar for the last few months. A recent injury kept me out of work for a while so I’ve had some time to finish it up. So here it is, Its wired up and sounds good! The hollow body is very similar to a Gibson, though its not based on any plans. Its a little narrower and deeper then a real LP I think. it would be interesting to compare the two side by side but I don’t have one. My giant, exaggerated F-holes and string-through-body tailpiece help it stand out as well. The back and sides are made from Poplar and the top is an Engleman Spruce acoustic guitar soundboard.
I’ve been able to make some progress on this project since my zipline related mishap. I’m only able to do a little at a time before I need to crash out on the couch with an ice pack, but it gives me something to look forward to and I don’t feel completely useless.
