subject: A Cedar Chest for my Cigar Box Guitar [print this page] A Cedar Chest for my Cigar Box Guitar A Cedar Chest for my Cigar Box Guitar
I was chatting with a friend of mine the other day that builds cigar box guitars from scratch. I market Quality Cedar Chests and he was wondering if I could supply him with a custom made unfinished chest for his creative little gem. At first I thought he was crazy because I didn't know such a thing existed. After he showed me some pictures of the current one that he is working on I quickly became very interested. I began to share with him that I've always had a fascination for simple wood boxes and cases. I shared with him how I had once purchased a cigar starter kit on line a while ago that came with a free beautiful cigar case that was now just sitting around my house collecting dust. I never wanted to get rid of it because it just seemed to perfectly constructed and beautiful to waste.
From looking at the pictures the guitar body itself was the cigar box with a few small holes drilled in it for resonance along with a guitar neck attached it really looked like a functioning musical interment. I started to think of all the benefits of an instrument such as this. I do quite a bit of over seas traveling and was thinking that with the small body of this guitar that this little beauty would transport so much easier than the larger bodied guitar that I have now. Then there is always just that added satisfaction of knowing that you actually built something yourself, that you put it together and that you could take it apart and repair it if necessary. I had always been terrified to attempt such a thing. My theory is that if you start with mostly small parts that you can find around the house then the worse case scenario is that you are out those small simple inexpensive parts, but at least you could try again without encoring too much cost. I mean the alternative of wanting to take apart or adjust a purchased guitar would leave you out at least a couple hundred dollars if you ended up screwing something up.
I was interested to find that there were other options that you could include with a cigar box guitar to improve it's functionality. He was telling me how you could install small electronic pick-ups in the cigar box that would allow the cigar box guitar to become not only acoustic but also electric.
I'm actually considering getting involved in producing such a product and marketing it on line as well. So you may read in a later post how I've created a cedar chest for my cigar box guitar!
