Finding Supplies For Cigar Box Guitars

When it comes to gathering the supplies needed for building cigar box guitars there seems to be two main categories: buying them or picking for them. By picking for them I mean finding them at yard sales, flea markets, thrift shops, or just scrounging for free stuff. Of course, many cigar box guitar builders are also a hybrid of the two. That’s the kind of builder I am.

Construction with repurposed stuff

A good number of cigar box builders like the challenge of building their guitars completely out of repurposed materials. My first two guitars, a diddly bow and a 3-string slide guitar, were built entirely from repurposed materials, mostly stuff I had already collected over the years even before I discovered this new hobby and passion. I admit I did buy the electronics and piezo pickups. However there are plenty of builders I found on the internet who even create these by repurposing parts from old radios, telephones, microphones, cassette players and similar items.

Sources for the stuff you need or want

Once I caught the bug for building and was doing the research needed to know how to go about building real playable instruments, I had a good idea of the kind of materials and parts I needed to add to my existing collection of stuff my wife refers to as “my junk”. I started gathering old and broken guitars at yard sales to collect things like tuning machines, strings, and guitar strap buttons. Another great source I found was what’s called the “Still Good Table” at my local town transfer station, or what I still call “the dump”. There are 4 or 5 long tables set up for people to drop off stuff and or grab stuff so it doesn’t all just end up in a landfill somewhere. My dump is open three days a week and sometimes I make it there all three days, even more than once a day sometimes! One of the guys who works there and another volunteer who’s a neighbor even keep an eye out for the stuff they now know I’m looking for. I told them I was looking for an old wooden ironing board to eventually make a lap steel guitar out of. The next time I went to the dump they already had one for me!

Wood for your necks

Another big item that can get expensive if you have to buy it is the wood for the necks. The most common material used for 3 and 4 string cigar box guitar necks is a hardwood 1x2 board, which actually measures ¾” thick x 1 ½” wide. Depending on how you build you may also need a fret board which is typically ¼” thick and the same width as your neck. These are both available as standard sizes at varying lengths at the two major big box stores as well as many lumberyards. Other cigar box guitar builders I follow say poplar, which is the least expensive common hardwood, is fine for a 3-string, but recommend something stronger like oak or maple for a 4-string to avoid bending due to string tension. I’m experimenting with a variety of woods. I even used southern yellow pine for that first fretless slide guitar because a possible slight bend wouldn’t be an issue playing with a slide only.

You can be a cheapskate too

I scrounge for a lot of my neck wood including repurposing furniture like bed rails and the mattress support slats. I get a lot at the dump and by dumpster picking. I have a hard time driving by a lonely dumpster without climbing up on its side to see what treasures might be in there. Below is a great video on using construction scraps by Del Puckett of Puckett Cigar Box Guitar. In the video he also describes the characteristics to look for in a good piece of wood for a neck. So far, he’s been my favorite go-to for cigar box guitar building training videos. He’s a cheapskate too!