Latest project - Cigar Box Guitar

John Pollman said:

Tom,
it's a wooden cigar box and this one has three strings. I went into a local cigar shop and they have lots of different sizes and styles of some pretty nice boxes. They sell them for $2!

I built the thing to the specs that came with the instruction sheet in the hardware kit that I bought. When it was complete, it worked but there was an issue with the neck and head stock that was causing a problem with the nut and bridge. When I got the nut installed low enough for the action to be comfortable, the strings wouldn't stay in place on the nut very well. The tuning pegs needed to be lower.

The neck is normally just completely straight according to the instructions. But I decided that it would look nice if I put an angled head stock on it just like a regular guitar. So I got to work and modified the neck a little bit. Because I had already finished the neck, the joint where I glued a block to the back of the neck to make the angle is kind of visible. I think I'll make a completely new neck and be able to have the seam almost invisible. I just cut a wedge of maple and glued it to the back side of the neck and let it dry. When the glue was cured. I plugged the original tuning peg holes with a hardwood dowel. Then a little sanding and finessing, and I drilled new holes and reinstalled the tuning pegs. Now it looks and functions much better.

Here's what my mod looks like...

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Jay Caughron said:

Wish I had seen this post earlier I now have the same problem and will have to do the same thing

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Vaughn McMillan said:

Jay, you may be able to pull the strings down onto the nut with something similar to the string retainers Fender uses:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Hardwar...raditional_Fender-style_String_Retainers.html

Here's how a string retainer is used to keep the strings pulled down toward the headstock:

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