Artisan Woodworks

Cigar Box Guitars

This was a fun project, creating actual usable musical instruments. These Cigar-Box guitars are functional electric guitars with 3 or 4 strings. All are made differently to enhance the experience of the builds. In all, I made 7 guitars, all on the Fender scale. Many of these have traditional electric guitar pickups, but several also have piezoelectric pickups which adds a great deal of flexibility/invisibility.

The overall plan was to create a unique birthday present for my brother, who is an avid guitar player. Ultimately he received a cased set of 2 guitars, and an indoor/outdoor amplifier that can be plugged into a wall or connected to a car-battery.

Several of my "rescued" local timbers were used in these builds including Cherry, Osage Orange, Walnut, Quartersawn White Oak, and Maple. Additionally some exotics were used such as Purpleheart, Black Palm, and Zebra Wood.

These guitars have a number of unique and scavenged materials as well as traditional luthier materials. My favorites include my Wrench bridge, and my bolt "nut".

Finally, since I'm left-handed... most of these were built for Lefties which are very, very hard to come by. All but 2 were built for left-handed players, and one was restrung for a righty (so it's upside down).


Fret boards were all built on the full-length Fender scale with traditional luthier techniques.

This is the final gift selection. It includes 2 CBG's, a 12v. - 3 watt amplifier, a storage compartment, and padded Cherry carrying case. Additionally, I included a 12v. power supply, 12v. battery connector, and guitar-amplifier cable. All were included in a chenille lined cherry case with brass hardware.