Tenor Cigar Box Ukulele

Craig

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Please don't kill me for posting this in two different forums! :) I just wasn't sure where it should go. Anyway, here's three pics of my new cigar box ukulele from Tom Guy of Bluegrass Ukes.

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Could tell it was one of Tom's right off the bat, he's pretty distinctive. If you decide later it's not for you, please let me know! ;) Yours is especially striking in fact. :love:

Congratulations!
 
How are these usually built? Is the face of the instrument the bottom of the box? Can the top be opened, or is it sealed shut during the building process?
 
How are these usually built? Is the face of the instrument the bottom of the box? Can the top be opened, or is it sealed shut during the building process?

It seems easier to make the bottom of the box into the front of the uke, because of the depth of the sides makes it better to attach the neck to the body as opposed to the thinner sides of the lid. Unfortunatley the tops of the box are usually prettier. I've seen alot of them that can be opened, but I glued mine for a better sound.
 
Hmm... What about the "through the body" design I've seen during my searches? Are they even worth the effort? I have a couple of boxes coming (cigar brand called "Vegas," how could I resist?) so I'll know more, but I'm hoping to get at least one good instrument out of my trials.
 
I build all my with a through neck...mostly because I dont have a clue how to be fancy. I am just a musical hack hobbyist in all regards.

I'm sure you've seen my pics...I've never played one that's not a through-neck, but the action is great an nothing touches the soundboard. Depending on your box, your volume may be limited based on size of the chamber alone, but there's also thickness and paper blah blah blah (you know all this). The only argument is whether you think the neck-through absorbs or detracts significantly from the sound quality.

I'm sure you have a better ear for ukes than I do...all I own is a basic Lanikai Ck-teq. Its a nice ukulele for $300, but other than the asthetic which is an apples and oranges comparison, the only difference is that it is a little louder than my cbu. I'm sure that's because it has at least twice the resonating chamber. The shadow pickup also sucks compared to your basic $3.50 transducer fyi. I'm also certain that the neck-thru is going to be easier haha, but I dont have any skills in that dept yet so thats a given.

I will end with this...I play the ukulele all the time, but its never the lanikai.
 
Maybe I have, but I don't know if it was you or someone else. Can you provide a link to some pics? I'm still shopping for inspiration.
 
Maybe I have, but I don't know if it was you or someone else. Can you provide a link to some pics? I'm still shopping for inspiration.
Here's Tom's email address...bluegrassukes@gmail.com It's best to ask him.
 
One is a mandolin obviously, but the first is a 17" tenor. You can clearly see the stick through. That was my first build and I decided I dont particularly care to see the neck-thru, although it's rustic...its an ugly rustic imo. The intonation is tight, everything is great on it...really enjoy that one.

The next one is a 19 inch baritone. I decided to try some different soundholes, overall I really like this one. Overall its cleaner and a solid build with a few cool flames on the top...I just dont like the baritone strings, they seem floppy. I will make it a tenor, and possibly make a longer scale for baritones in the future.

The third one is yet to be complete...its playable, but only out of impatience. The tuners are all the same side, so they look cockeyed and I dont have any silver sound hole rims. I'd like to try some natural holes on both sides of the strings, but my drill chuck is bad and would only screw it up. I have some more descriptive photos of all of them if you'd like to see the neck design and how the action turns out. They are extremely satisfying to play...grassroots you know.

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I may have bitten off more than I can chew with the curved sides, but living in Vegas, I just couldn't pass this up.

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Maybe I'll start on some simpler straight sided boxes first.
 
cut the top off and put it on another box or build a body around it. Its more work..but still not as much as building one from scratch.
 
My boxes came today! I got two just in case I screwed something up. I think it'll be pretty easy to build with the box as is. I'll know more when my neck arrives. I plan on radiusing the inside of the neck block to match the curve of the box, or carving out a flat surface on the box to match the neck. I'm hoping to come up with a way of fastening it so I won't have to glue the box closed and I can open it up by just removing the strings. I think I can glue the neck and fingerboard to the lid, and maybe screw the heel into the lower half of the box. The good thing about this box is that the curves mean the wood is extra thick there, probably making an additional neck and tail block unnecessary.

I'm thinking of using a tie block for the strings on the other curved end, below the lid. Since the box is nicely radiused already, I think the strings can wrap around the lid, pass over a mandolin style moveable bridge and on to the neck using the string tension to keep the lid in place.

Once I get started, I'll open a new thread so I don't hijack this one any longer.
 
good luck man...you just said alot of things that I just dont have the skills to do. Maybe its my lack of skill...maybe both.

you should be able to pull something like that off...its gonna be sweet

how you gonna do sound holes? ever consider holes like a tamburitza...small punch style holes
 
well if you aint croatian, there's no real reason to have heard of it. I am not Croatian, but just recently came across the a tamburitza luthier in the area who also makes guitars. I would consider making one his class, but I have a distinct feeling that each culture's music has entirely different rules. I havent bothered learning western rules
 
wow dave, looks amazing! great job!
 
got to reading this and kinda felt bad about hijacking it...allow me to state for the record that the bluegrass uke looks awesome and I'm sure it sounds amazing. I've heard them on youtube...great craftsmanship. I hope you enjoy it.

Dave...looks great man. CBnation is a sweet place to resource some blue-collar innovations. I'm getting a little hacked looking at mine now...the black fingerboard and positional markers really makes something look legit, I either need to up the game or be content with the simple functionality of my (although not mine) design.
 
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