Cigar Box Guitar Build Spotlight: Bob’s Axe

This guitar, actually a one-string diddley bow, is a special one to me. It’s the third one I finished. My brother in law Bob gave the unique box to me, so I decided I would use it to make him an instrument. As usual I spent some time thinking over my options for the type of guitar I would make and its design.   I decided it was rather small for a guitar, would probably look out of proportion. Then I remembered, before he passed away, Bob’s Dad had given me a whole milk crate full of assorted axe and hammer handles that were probably factory seconds. They must have already been 30 plus years old and all had great patina to them. At the time he gave them to me I wasn’t sure what I would do with them, but couldn’t pass them up. So they sat in the attic of my shop for years.

Using the axe handle as a neck had its challenges

First off the axe handle had a bow in it side to side and it was too short for the typical neck-through design. Fortunately the bow was concave on the side I used as the front, because I really wanted the grip end of the handle to face as it does. With some cutting, chiseling, rasping and filing I was able to square off the end that would normally go into the axe head so I could glue a piece of wood to it to make it long enough to pass through and reach the end of the box. Because it was going to be fretless the bow was no big deal. Also, because the handle is not a simple straight piece of wood, I had to get the handle centered to the cigar box in a way so the string would essentially kinda run down the neck as well as the center of the cigar box.

Fitting everything inside the box

In the pictures you’ll notice the open part of the box is much smaller that the box itself. This made it challenging to get not only the neck in there and braced, but also to run the wiring for the piezo pickups (2), the jack and the volume and tone control pots. Getting the pots in and installed into the cavities on the side of the box took some drilling and finger gymnastics to pull off. It might be hard to notice in the picture, but I cut a clearance recces in the neck for under the cigar box top, between the pickup and where the neck enters the box, so the box top could still act as a resonator.

Appointing the finished product

Once the main parts of the diddley bow were assembled it was time to add the stuff needed so it would play. The tuning machine and string were repurposed from a yard sale guitar. The hinge used as the tail was from a whole assorted box full also scored at a yard sale. The nut was the tip of a deer antler I had been using to make my own nuts for some other builds. The bridge is a rusty nut and bolt from working on one of my old cars, could even have been the Dude Van. And the sound holes are just simple tarp grommets. I used a 15” scale and used one of my laser cut fret templates I bought off C.B Gitty to position and burn-in the fret markers. I like being able to hang my instruments as I work on them and after they’re done, so a rusty hook finished it off and kept it looking old.

In addition to making this axe diddley bow for Bob to play, I built it as a tribute to my father in law. He too had a cool shop and could build or fix dam near anything with repurposed stuff.   I was always amazed at his Yankee ingenuity and the ingenious ways he figured out and did things. Having had and raise 11 kids he had self-taught skills and talents honestly learned out of necessity!