Cigar Box Guitar

   
     Ever since I started building instruments, I have wanted to make a cigar box guitar. The cigar box guitar was originally popularized during the Great Depression when few people could buy musical instruments. Instead of abandoning music, they resorted to making their own instruments out of any available materials. These usually included broom handles, wire, and of course cigar boxes. Traditionally the cigar box guitar has three strings, but it can have as many as six and as few as one. I used A, D, and G nylon guitar strings on mine and then tuned it to an open A tuning (A, E, A).  The book Hand Made Music Factory by Mike Orr has excellent instructions on making one of these instruments. Without the use of power tools, however, his design can be hard to follow. I made some alterations as depicted below to compensate for this.

 

Note: The distance between the nut and the bridge should be 25 inches. The drawing is not to scale.

Marquetry

   
     For those who don't know, marquetry is the process of cutting up veneers (super thin sheets of wood) and assembling them into a design. Although incredibly frustrating at times (I broke so many pieces for my first project that it was beyond repair), it can also be really rewarding. The project listed below is to make bookmarks. Good luck and enjoy!

       Materials:

• No.11 x-acto knife              
• protective mat
• protective glove
• woodglue
• wood sealant
• cardstock
• two veneers of contrasting colors

Making A Mountain Dulcimer

     Every year my old junior high had the students complete a learning project. The students pick a topic that interests them and then give a presentation to the class about it. For mine I decided to make an instrument called a mountain dulcimer. The dulcimer is the only folk instrument other than the banjo to have originated in North America. It is believed that Irish and Scottish immigrants in the 19th century were trying to recreate instruments from their homeland. However, they did not understand how these instruments worked and thus ended up with something completely different. I got the instructions from the book Making Folk Instruments In Wood by Dennis Waring, but made some alterations. I shrunk the scale length (distance between the nut and the bridge) to 19.5". Instead of hollowing out the entire neck, (you do this to lighten the weight on the soundboard) I drilled rows of holes half the depth of the neck. The luthier David Beede does this. I also replaced the plywood with maple and mahogany.

Making A Wooden Pen

     Two days before Father's day I remembered that I still had not made anything for my dad. So, I sat a while and thought until an idea struck me: I could make him a wooden pen. After settling on this idea a problem presented itself: I don't own a lathe or a drill press and all the instructions I found online called for one or the other. So, I sat and thought some more. This is what I came up with...