#1 resource for Cigar Box Guitars, Free Plans, How-To, Parts & More!

My first solo build - and first post

After designing a few CBGs and lap diddley bows that my husband brought to life with power tools, I made my first solo creation this week, and I'm smitten with my guitar style diddley bow.

While I've made 2 lap diddley bows and 4 CBGs with 3 strings with my husband on the power tools and me on design, this is the first one I've made on my own and first one with a round neck. The pickup is a piezo disc pickup pre-wired to a jack from cbgitty.com. I used 1/8" pop rivets for string ferrules, a Ping tuner, 1" pine dowel, a craft box (I know some purists may be annoyed by that), a slotted screw for the nut, a lamp nipple for the bridge, and tarp grommets for the sound hole covers. I sawed the dowel with a hand saw for creating flats for the tuner, then I used a drill with regular bits and Forstner bits for all the rest.

I've been a hobby guitarist for 16 years, but I'm totally new to slide guitar. This is so fun! I love the simplicity, and there is something amazing about playing music on an instrument you made yourself.

This video is a demo of a diddley bow (1 string cigar box guitar or CBG) I made on 12/30/15. https://youtu.be/vNHkUX8UAJI ;

I had to turn off the Christmas tree lights while using the Mustang amp because they were causing some electromagnetic interference and creating an annoying hum on the amp. Most of the music I played I learned from Juston Johnson tutorials. The long song I played was based on a tune by Elmore James.

8 members like this

Comment

You need to be a member of Cigar Box Nation to add comments!

Join Cigar Box Nation

Comment by Kurt Quinn on January 30, 2016 at 8:41am: Looks and sounds great, Janis! I recently finished my first build as well!

Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqwGDwbhPBk

Comment by Rusty Summer on January 27, 2016 at 6:57am: That looks a whole lot like my first CBG/Diddley Bow! Nice job and nice playing as well.

Comment by Janis Wilson Hughes on January 19, 2016 at 5:08am: Thank you for your kind words Primtive Acoustics, Jimmy The Dice, Marcelo Vid, & D. M. Clark! I appreciate it.

Marcelo & Grandpa, I'm a potter by trade. After several suggestions from folks I'm experimenting with building a stoneware ceramic CBG body. My first 2 prototypes are cooling in the kiln now from their first firing. Then I'll add some stains and refire them up to 2232F. It may take me a few tries to get something workable. I've made ceramic drums in the past and ocarinas (kind of like flutes), but this is new.

Robert Killen, the screw idea is from the book Handmade Music Factory by Mike Orr. It works well - I've used it on 4 diddley bow builds now. One thing to be careful about - if the string doesn't sit down tight in the slot and make a hard break between contact & no contact at the edge, you'll get a buzzy, flat sound. On 1 of mine I had to wedge a bit of tooth pick under the edge (toward the tail end not the tuner end) to create a hard break. It worked perfectly. Fixed it right up. Alternatively, I could back the screw out and put it in at an angle leaning toward the tuner a bit. It's great though because you can easily adjust the action with the screw height.

Robert Gregory - thank you so much! I also got the tarp grommet idea from Mike Orr's book Handmade Music Factory. I have also used extra large eyelets from the sewing store. Those are perfect.

Sorry for the delayed responses y'all! Life has been busy. :)

Comment by Robert Gregory on January 13, 2016 at 10:57pm: Great build, great photography and your video is superb. Excellent work, I have learned from this :)

Comment by Robert Gregory on January 13, 2016 at 3:55pm: Very nice clean work. I'm going to steal that tarp eyelet idea :)

Comment by Grandpa on January 9, 2016 at 5:59pm: Nice build Janis: I make my own oak plywood boxes for my license plate resonator guitars. No rules with boxes (or anything else on your builds). Just make it ,play it, enjoy it. Purists can go to Guitar Center and buy a ready-made "real" guitar.LOL. CBG is art, emotion, ingenuity. Also junkin' and inventin'. Keep building, keep enjoying.

Comment by D. M. Clark on January 9, 2016 at 10:54am: Very nice.

Comment by Robert Killen on January 7, 2016 at 6:15pm: Well done!

I love how you use the screw top as a string guide! I'm going to use that in my next build.

Cheers!

Comment by Marcelo Vid on January 5, 2016 at 12:22pm: Amazing, in some countries (like here in Brazil) is not easy to find a cigar box, then I like to see people making the box. And is very good to see someone that are learning with the Justin Johnson tutorials, I love his tutorials.