Steve’s cigar box guitar

Music
Steve’s cigar box guitar
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MAKE advisory board member Steve Lodefink made this totally snazzy cigar box guitar and posted pics to Flickr. To Dinosaurs and Robots, he sent the above pic of a cigar box amplifier experiment he tried. He writes:

I thought that it would be cool to build in amp inside the guitar, you know, so that I would not have to plug it in to an external amp, just turn it on and play. The speaker would be hidden inside.

An obvious thing that didn’t occur to me was that if you put the amp, speaker, and pickup together in a box, all you get is feedback (which is of course what happened) .

But I thought that you might like to see the picture anyway.

Oops, I guess they can’t all be winners…

Cigar Box Guitar photos on Flickr
Cigar Box Guitar Self Amplication Experiment

6 thoughts on “Steve’s cigar box guitar

  1. Mark Werner says:

    A straightforward build, but if your soundholes don’t match the approximate size of your speaker cone you’re bound to get feedback…

    Are you a member of Cigar Box Nation? If not, check out:

    http://www.cigarboxnation.com/

    A whole community of cigar-box (and other oddments) builders and experimenters. We have whole sections on amplification, amp-building, pickups, and the like.

  2. Just Wonderong says:

    Wouldn’t it be like funky electric guitar sounding with it built in?

  3. failrate says:

    IIRC, you can use the middle lead on the piezo with a cap (not much of an electronics guy) to actively remove feedback.

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

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