Making Music

            Everyone had a difficult time during the American depression years.  The 1930s saw a resurgence of homemade musical instruments. Times were hard in the American South, and sitting on the front porch singing away the blues was a popular pastime. Musical instruments were beyond the means of most people, but with an old cigar box, a piece of broom handle and a couple of wires from the screen door, a guitar was born. 

I have made a couple of guitars out of cigar boxes. My favorite one is a single stringer. I am a former band student and I learned music on the coronet. The coronet, of course, only plays one note at a time. Playing chords is not an instinctive thing for me

Until a grandson took up band, and needed a coronet, I used to keep the horn in the man-cave.  There I would occasionally relax in my old office chair and pick up the horn and blow some familiar old tunes. Having given up the instrument to a greater need, I was without a tune maker. This wasn’t good.

A Trip one day through central Oregon, on our way to Ontario, found us stopping at a tree shaded one-business village. The café/curio shop had a collection of nice sized cigar boxes. I bought a couple of the boxes with the intention of making a guitar. As I drove on the design began to form in my head.

The first cigar box guitar hangs in the man-cave and I often lift it down to see if it still plays a good tune. It is ugly, but it is happy with the notes that I strum. I wanted to build a three-string guitar so that I could teach myself some simple chords.

Recently I found myself without a woodworking project. I had some nice scraps so I decided this would be a good time to build my own home designed cigar box guitar. This instrument would be a three-stringer with a round, two inch thick body or sound box.

I began with 2 inch wide strips of 1/16 “ hickory to form the round walls of the body. After soaking the strips in the bathtub for a couple of hours they easily formed a circle when placed inside a 10” embroidery hoop. I let two of the loops dry overnight. When the hoop was removed, the hickory had taken on the circular shape I had wanted.

After laminating two of the loops I had a 1/8“ thick, by two inch wide wall. To the wall I glued a thin laminated piece to the bottom and a 1/8 “ thick surface to the top. Add the neck piece to make a 27” instrument, fashion a bridge and a nut, add three old tuners and I had fashioned my own cigar box guitar.  Now, I need to pay attention to the chord charts.