Sunday, October 24, 2010

The Cigar Box Guitar Project - Overview, Attempts One and Two

Once there was a man named Bob. After a time of pondering how to regain interest in practicing to improve his virtuosity on guitar, he thought of Flamenco. Henceforth he would be known as el Bobbo.

El Bobbo procured an instrument befitting his budding expertise. What it does not befit, however, is his overhead cabinet above his office desk. Because of this, practice does not occur during what would otherwise be the perfect time to practice (lunch). He pondered this point, as he does.

Of course, a travel sized flamenco guitar would be ideal. El Bobbo surfed the interwebs and found... nothing. There are few classical travel guitars available. What he found was too big, too small (no face plate for tapping), collapsed (a one piece solution would be better), and all were too expensive. Something that lives in the car or the office must be expendable.

In a flash of inspiration, he thought of Bo Diddley. After some research, additional pondering, and an unusually small amount of procrastination, he began his quest to build his own travel guitar.

He had no tools. Google recommended a list of tools, of which he ended up using only a few, and needed still more. This process continues. I think my father would say that never ends.

El Bobbo bought some pine at Home Depot and practiced with his new tools. He was unexpectedly successful and decided to build a whole guitar with what he intended to be scrap. Sadly, he was unable to tune the guitar he built.

He pondered for a little while, staring at the useless guitar each night before bed making mental notes about what he would change in the next attempt. He decided to go for it. He bought poplar for the neck and red oak for the finger board, he selected a pretty, all-wood box for the body, and set to work. So far, so good.

El Bobbo will post further results in a subsequent post.

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