History of the Cigar Box

A cigar box guitar is stringed instrument that uses an empty guitar as its resonator. Most cigar box guitars only use 1-3 strings and don't use frets on the neck. Cigar box guitars were made mostly by people in poverty tracing all the way back to the 1800s during the Civil War. They were first made by black Americans living in poverty during the Depression who couldn't afford real instruments and would make instruments out of any materials they could find. Once cigars started to be sold in smaller boxes that held 20 cigars instead of 100, guitars fiddles, banjos and violins started being made by jug bands and used to make blues music.

How To: Make a Cigar Box Guitar

To make a Cigar Box Guitar you will first need the following materials:
-Wooden Cigar Box, Guitar Strings, screws and 12 1" finishing nails, a Piezo electric device, amp, tuning pegs, and a piece of 3 foot long 1x2 (preferably poplar)
-Tools: Drill, saw, wood glue, sandpaper

Cigar Box

Strings, Tuning Pegs, Piezo Device, Strings

Steps to Making a Cigar Box Guitar:
1. Make noches on the wood and the cigar box where you would like the neck of the guitar to be placed. Line it up so that there is about 3 inches for the bottom of the neck to the box (this is where the strings will be coming up from). Cut the box as deep as the wood is thick so that the wood can fit snuggly and line up perfectly with the lid of the cigar box. You can use sandpaper and a wood file to smooth out the wood.

2. When the neck fits snuggly and evenly with the cigar box drill sound holes into the box (guitar body) so that the sound can resonate. Caution: do not drill holes where the neck will be, try one on each side of the neck. Be careful not to crack the wood of the box while you do this.

3. The Neck. To make the top of the neck look as nice as possible start by marking the neck 4 inches down from the top. this will be were the headstock (where the tuning pegs are attached) ends and the fretboard begins. Drill 3 holes for the tuning pegs then shape the headstock. When drilling the holes make 2 on the left side and one on the right. The two on the left should not match up with each other exactly, other wise the strings will interfere. Offset them slightly.

4. Next on the neck, string 3 holes at the bottom of the neck. These should be the same distance and look as the 3 at the top of the neck. Go back to the top of the neck, under the headstock and make a grove in the wood, this is where you will put a bolt to be your bridge so that the strings will rest slightly away from the wood.






5. To attach the neck to the body use the wood glue to fuse the the neck of the guitar to the lid. Once it dries and you can use nails to secure it, as long as you make sure not to crack the box.

6. Now it is time to string the guitar! It is recommended to use acoustic guitar strings. One of the most generic types of tuning you can use are A (A,E,A') or G (G,D,G').

Waves On a String
Guitar strings are fixed at both ends and vibrate. These vibrations are called standing waves. The definition of waves are:

       v = f 

Where v is the speed of the wave (velocity), f is the frequency (measured in Hz) and the lamda sign is the wavelength. The fundamental wavelength of a standing wave on a guitar string is twice the distance between the bridge and the fret and all strings have the same range of wavelengths. However, just because they are the same length does not mean that they have the same frequency or pitch. This factor is determined by the tension of the string and/or the mass of the string. 

HOW DO STANDING WAVES TRAVEL IN A GUITAR?

         When playing a guitar the disturbance of the air and the vibration of the strings spread out and create a traveling sound wave. This is caused by a small vibration in your eardrum. The number of vibrations per second- Hertz (Hz) depend on cycles per second; high frequency for high pitch and low frequency for low pitch. We can hears sounds from about 15Hz to 1000Hz. The highest string on the guitar, an A string, can is 440Hz and the lowest string, an E is around 83Hz. The vibration of the string can differentiate depending on a few factors. The mass of the string will change the speed of the vibration. On most guitars the strings get thicker from high to low. The frequency of a string can also be altered by changing the tension of the string. More tension the higher the pitch. Also, there is the length of the string. When musicians use a capo (an object used to hold the strings firmly down to the neck of the guitar) or just use their fingers, they are shortening the string, thus making the pitch higher. 

          The Body of the guitar is used to transmit the vibrations from the strings into the air. The top and bottom of the guitar are place apart from each other so that the sound waves can vibrate up and down with space. However, the body does not amplify the guitar. We use an electric guitar with an electronic amplifier to amplify the sound. An amp uses electrical power and little energy to convert the sound into a powerful signal. In an acoustic guitar the energy from the sound comes from purely the vibration of the strings that are created when your finger plucks them. 

Harmonics and Overtones of a Guitar

Harmonics are the varieties of frequencies that are present in a guitar. The main pitch you hear, called the fundamental is the lowest tone and has one single arc from top to bottom. The higher pitches you hear when you pluck a single note on the guitar are called the overtones. When played together these sound as if they are one single note and called Partials or Harmonics.

Oscillation

When a string Oscillates it is set into its free motion by an impulse, in this case, the string being plucked. Watch the video to see how a string oscillates in slow motion. 

Transverse Wave Along A Guitar String

Making an Electric Cigar Box Guitar

There is a simple and cheap way to make your cigar box electric. You will need a $3.00 Piezo Transducer from Radio Shack and a 1/4" output jack. Glue the transducer to the inside of the cigar box lid and drill a hole for the jack to be inserted. You may have to play around with where to place the transducer to make the sound the richest. 

The Piezoelectric Transducer

The Piezo Transducer is very useful as a standard of frequency. Attaching a piezo element onto an object that vibrates (such as a Guitar) causes the vibrations to bend and send electric power to the piezo element to bend in the other direction. The different shapes of these elements can affect longitudinal and transverse waves. The piezo transducer is used as a pickup device to converts the vibrations of sound from an instrument to an electrical signal that can be amplified, broadcasted and recorded.

resources:
google images
Samuel Hokin- Bsharp.org
cigarboxguitars.com