Red Zero 1 is the first of 6 cigar box guitars I will be building using this box. I purchased these boxes from Deadwood Tobacco Co. in Deadwood South Dakota.
The box is a Red dragon motif on top of the lid, where I cut in 2- 1″ sound holes with Brass Tarp grommet trim.
Neck is a 32″ piece of White Oak with 1/4″ round-over routered design from body to the nut, which has been stained with Watco Dark Walnut stain and sealed with Varathane Clear Gloss.
Red Zero 1 is a 24″ scale cigar box guitar.
The fret board is a 17″ piece of Padauk, which has been left its natural color and sealed with Varathane Clear Gloss. Fret markers are a silver colored plastic bead which I purchased at Micheals Crafts.
The beads are numbered indicating each fret mark 3, 5, 7, 9, and 12.
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The bridge is a 1-1/2″ piece of threaded rod, with the nut consisting of 3, 5/32 metal screws. Tuning pegs are Black Chrome fully sealed and locking pegs. The pegs have been counter-sunk into neck.
Strings are bulk steel .012, .016, .020
Tuned to Open G
G -D -G
Red Zero 1 is a through body design the tailpiece is 1- 1/2″ piece of the neck that protrudes out the bottom of the body. String guides are 6- 3/16″ aluminum rivet heads. Also like the fret board the tailpiece trim is a 1- 1/2″ piece of Padauk!
Red Zero 1 has a head-stock design I will call the “Mike Orr” I found this design in Mike Orrs’ book Handmade Music Factory: The Ultimate Guide to Making Foot-Stompin Good Instruments
This book is an excellent resource and Mike has included in the Appendix, “Patterns and Templates”, which comprise of 6 Scale Templates, Slide Guitar Plans, Head-Stock Angle Diagram, Bridge Diagram and Measurements. Head-Stock Patterns And Stringing Diagrams, and more.
The 2 wings of the head-stock were cut from some scrap Pallet wood I have leftover from other builds. The picture doesn’t show it but the Pallet wood is quite a bit darker than the White Oak neck wood. Which really stands out, I Stained the wings with Watco Dark Walnut stain and sealed with Varathane Clear Gloss.
Once dried I glued onto neck and marked out peg holes and counter-sunk the peg holes.
Wiring harness is a CB GITTY EconoHarness 250 pre-wired with Tone/Volume and Jack. The pick up is a 1 1/8″ round Piezo disc placed under bridge. Tone/Volume knobs are retro Black/White knobs.
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If you have any comments, questions please don’t hesitate to send them along and I will do my best to answer. I will be posting more of CB Guitar builds.
So until next time take care, and happy building and remember
All you need is 3 strings !!
Butch