My first cigar box banjo- front

A few months back, I purchased Todd Treadway's "Cigar Box Banjo" CD. I fell in love with the sound, and couldn't believe the beautiful, mellow sound that a cigar box could produce. BTW, Todd's pickin' is top notch! I started looking for some cigar boxes and actually found some at "Second Chances", a local thrift shop that supports the SPCA. I decided that I would build one out of as much reclaimed materials that I could.

I made the neck out of an arm rest from a broken recliner that was heading for the dumpster at work. The fingerboard was made from a "mistake" that was made several years ago when making a left-handed neck. I shortened the fret board and reshaped it. Since I cut away the "mistake", it now has a 19.75 scale length. I cut away too much wood from the back of the neck, so I added some scrap curly walnut and ebony to fill in the mistake. (If you look at the back of the neck up-side- down, it looks like a Parker ink pen!)

All of the pearl is from pieces of "waste" pearl. Sometimes when I saw out book matched inlays, an interesting pattern is left behind in the waste pearl. If It catches my eye, I save it in a special box. I went thru this box and found some that would work on the finger board, with a little extra sawing and grinding. I also added some abalone dots made from some waste pieces. The "Walker" emblem is one that I sawed out several years ago, and it cracked. I didn't want to use it on a "good" banjo, but I hated to throw it away, so it was in my box. It was put to use!

I made the side dots from a piece of white plastic that came off of something that was thrown away years ago, but I saved the white plastic dowel that was in it. The bridge was one that was saved from a banjo repair that had sanded down feet, that I found in my junk drawer. I glued a piece of maple veneer to the bottom of it, and it worked perfectly! The screws for the tailpiece are some that I scavenged from phones that are non-repairable before I discard them at work. The string nut spacer and pip were made from bone.

I did buy the strings, and I bought the tuners from eBay ($10.98).