Another cigar box uke

Between Christmas and New Year 2019, I made my first box uke, a concert scale instrument using the lid of an Indian jewellery box. The other half has now also been made into an instrument and will be posted in a day or two.

Since then, I’ve made two proper cigar box instruments, one ply and one solid mahogany-there’s no need to guess which sounded better! I’ve also bought a few assorted boxes on Ebay: here’s the first instrument from that group, a tenor.

It was a large coffee table cigar box (£15 inc postage), made in maple and decorated in poker work with a handsome frog on the lid.

The top of the lid became the uke back, the rest of the lid was discarded. The box was too deep so got cut down. The solid maple base was thinned and became the soundboard with walnut binding. It has a patch and 2 fans.

The neck and fretboard started life in China and were joined to the box with a loose/floating tenon. The last photo shows its size compared to a standard tenor.

Strung with Seagur high G, it’s loud, bright and punchy and has lots of sustain.

Making a few box instruments alongside the laborious task of finishing standard/proper ukes keeps me sane!

Nice one! That's a great box - oodles of character.

John Colter

Love it! the bottom of that box was that nice clean maple? Wow. After you took the top off, did you just cut the bottom off at the seam and then cut down another maybe 1/2" or so? Looks like you took the top off and them maybe shaved just the top off without the lip and also shaved maybe 1/2" or so from the top before gluing everything together?
Ebay has all kinds of interesting boxes

captain-janeway said:

Love it! the bottom of that box was that nice clean maple? Wow. After you took the top off, did you just cut the bottom off at the seam and then cut down another maybe 1/2" or so? Looks like you took the top off and them maybe shaved just the top off without the lip and also shaved maybe 1/2" or so from the top before gluing everything together?
Ebay has all kinds of interesting boxes

Click to expand...

I was fortunate that the top of the lid was glued and already partially separating, so it came apart easily. The box had material removed both above and below the 'cigar' inscription as there is also artwork on both ends which was best retained by so doing.

I have learned from previous boxes that bases are often nailed in place (and not glued). To avoid splitting, the nail heads were ground off before carefully prising off the bottom. The bottom was reduced to 1.8mm thickness and the nail holes around the edge disappeared when the wide binding was done.

I was keen to retain the maple as a soundboard since I have previously used maple for back and sides (classical guitar) but never as a top. It turned out OK. The maple was almost quarter sawn. Had it been flatsawn, I'd have probably found something else for the top.

Very nice. I've been wanting to have a go at a cigar box uke, so I searched and found a nice large Avo box on ebay. I had to search a long time to find a suitable one at a price I was willing to pay. I also have a slotted Amazon neck and cheap slotted tuners laying around. Should be a fun, quick project, although from the pictures of my box, I may have to thin the sides.