"Train I Ride" (trad., arranged by wayf)

A few posts back, I wrote about my experiment in building a cigar box guitar. I just wanted to share a few photos of the prototype for my design. While this is certainly not a completely original design, there are elements here that are unique. I have been spending quite a bit of time fine tuning and “tweaking” the instrument, but there is still a great deal of work ahead of me.

A few words about the instrument’s construction:

The instrument is designed with a high string action, which makes it playable only with a metal or glass cylinder or bar used as a slide. I have designed it this way because I am fairly positive that most of the original cigar box guitars were built in this manner as well.

The neck is a 3 foot long 1x2 Red Oak board which runs all the way through the Cedar cigar box (which measures roughly 8 ½  x 6 ¼ x 2 ¼ ).

I used a piece of a Cherry wood dowel to make the bridge by flattening one side. The string nut at the end of the neck is made from a smaller Poplar dowel which was flattened on two sides and notched out for the strings. The headstock is covered with a piece of Deerskin suede.

The song you are hearing is being played on the instrument pictured here. It is not plugged in to anything, and there are no effects added to the recording. You are hearing the natural, acoustic tone produced by the instrument. (Pay no attention to the horrible vocals, please.)

Personally, I'm amazed at the tone and volume that this little thing achieves.

As an added bonus, the smaller strings vibrate slightly against the wooden nut, producing a slightly “sitar-like” effect when the string is plucked hard enough.

I have the sincerest of plans to post a few more songs in the coming days and to drop in on your blogs that I have so heinously ignored for the past few months. Until then, I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Let me know what you think, okay?

Peace, wayf