This Cigar Box is is now a Guitar

Here lies a purposefully repurposed cigar box guitar. A classic build for the home enthusiast and my first project built out in the frigid garage in the dead cold of winter. The cost was low, except for a streaming supply of pocket warmers used to unclench my mitts in the middle of long pushes of the chisel. Outside…snow, wind – so fierce the trees would bend backwards to hide behind their own trunks, rabbits – always lots of rabbits, and hibernating mosquito eggs waiting a precise wait, until about 20 minutes ago before I sat down to write this post – to nab me in my backside as I strolled the prarieland with my girlfriend. Inside…music blaring. Country? No. Classic Rock? No. A precise blend of 90’s electronic dance music – as any qualified Craftsman would know – this is the best choice for doing fine woodworking with a delicate touch.

The cigar box guitar is by no means an original idea of my own, there is plenty of literature on it here and here and here. I first heard about this incredible object of finery after reading through a very thought provoking book on what is wrong with sitting at the computer all day, then going home and watching T.V. all night – it’s called Made By Hand by Mark Frauenfelder. He goes on to explore the fact that he is basically wasting his life away doing remedial tasks and not having anything to show for it at the end of the day. If you are at all getting into this New Craft Movement, you should definitely start with this book, as I did, then go on to make this guitar.

Today I sat outside on my back porch, in a lounge chair, with my cigar box guitar. I strummed, I picked, I dabbled in a few riffs. I attracted the birds, a few deer came up and licked the salt off of my forearm, and even the mosquitos all sat down in a row just beyond a tuft of fur on the mane of a little mouse. It was a good monday.