Building a cigar box ukulele as therapy

This little uke's genesis was originally documented across numerous posts in the Cigar Box Guitar Facebook group. I've gathered the story all in one place to make it a little easier to follow...

Why did I want to build my own ukulele? After all, there are loads of them out there. And the cheap, brightly-coloured, strung with fishing line offerings in almost every music shop and toy store can be bought for less than the price I paid for a set of good quality strings and a decent bridge!

I think it's back-story time.

I'm a composer and a guitarist (as a hobby) and, according to my friends, I'm better than average at it. If you'd like to judge for yourself, here's one of my guitar tunes...

I'm also undergoing treatment for Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I was diagnosed on 9 May 2014 and my chemotherapy started three weeks later. Pretty much immediately, a couple of side effects of the chemo kicked in and had quite a dramatic effect on my playing. I have constant pins and needles and a general loss of sensation in my finger tips. I also have little to no control over my little and ring fingers if I try to stretch them more than a couple of frets.

As you might imagine, for someone who puts quite a lot into his guitar playing, this was quite depressing. I would almost go as far as to say that my reaction to not being able to play my beloved instruments was more dramatic than when I was told I have cancer!

There was a cheap soprano ukulele hanging in our hallway. It's been there, gathering dust, for years, a leaving present from my colleagues when I shifted jobs. One afternoon, I grabbed it in my desperation to play something, ANYTHING and tuned it up. I dug out a book of chords my dad had given me and sat down with it. And to my eternal joy I found I could actually play the thing! The short scale and the narrow neck presented no problems for my spastic hands.

It wasn't too long before I hit Ebay to look for something better quality though. While not an "instrument snob", I fully appreciate that there's a certain price to quality ratio that dictates just how "good" an instrument can possibly be.

I was really fortunate that I began my ukulele voyage of discovery and acquisition during the World Cup! I kept my eye out for ukulele auctions that had been (foolishly) scheduled to end during the big games. So it wasn't long before I'd built a respectable collection, from soprano to baritone, of decent instruments for very little money. :-)

My other guitar-related hobby is designing and building valve amplifiers. In fact, the guitar track I linked to at the head of this blog is one of my amplifiers being pushed hard. And not too long ago I built one into a cigar box for a very good friend of mine. The CBA build is blogged in detail here... Before my diagnosis, I'd been planning to build another one for myself but just hadn't got round to it. While I was having a tidy up in my little studio ahead of a friend's planned visit from the US, I came across the box I'd bought for the amplifier. Something about its size and proportions just screamed "ukulele" to me - and the project was born.

Making a neck seemed to be the major obstacle. I have all the gear to do it (I've made a few full-size six string guitars over the years) but I didn't have a suitable piece of wood. I'd also been warned by my oncologist to be careful about cuts, grazes and burns and the real dangers of infection during my chemo!

Attic to the rescue. In a forgotten corner of the attic I have a pile of "that'll come in handy one day" instruments. Among them was a soprano uke with an intact neck and a smashed body (I think the neighbour's kids had been using it to beat each other senseless). Just what I needed! Now the big job was to remove the bits of body from the neck so I could see what I'd have to work with.

Fingers crossed the factory had used some sort of hide glue, or at least something that would soften with heat and moisture. Luckily for me it was. It took quite a bit of patience, a scraper and a couple of pans of steaming hot water, but I ended up with a neck I could see myself using.

Okay. Now I have a neck and a box. Time to introduce them to each other and find out how they're going to get along. I'd already measured the scale length of the neck (346mm) and judged the position of the heel joint and twelfth fret by eye. But it's always reassuring to measure it to make sure. ;-)

Now I could see it all working, the next job was to mark out a centre line, then cut a slot in the lip around the edges of the box to allow the neck to fit flush. It's worth mentioning at this point that the "top" of the ukulele is the "bottom" of the original box. The reasoning being that I wasn't quite sure how I was going to mount the neck - and I'd also had thoughts about possibly adding internal pickups. Having the hinged lid as the back of the uke meant I'd be able to get in there and tweak as needed.

As you can see from the pics, the sides of the box are quite thick. I wasn't sure that they'd be thick enough to have the strength to bear up under the tension of the strings though. Rather than mess about, I cut a chunk from some scrap white oak and glued it into the neck end of the box. This would be my reinforcing block. I decided that I wasn't going to just glue the neck to the box, I was going to run a couple of wood screws through from the inside of the box into the heel of the neck. This wasn't just for strength but also to avoid having to set up some sort of jig to clamp the neck while it was gluing. With screws into the heel, I only had to worry about a clamping the fretboard to the top of the uke while the glue set.

While the reinforcing block was gluing I turned my attention to the neck. It was a lovely gloss black. And it HAD to go. The black simply didn't look right against the rich brown of the box. Out came the sandpaper.

That's more like it! Baby oil and Liberon Black Bison would take care of the finish on the neck. To my eye the contrast works. And if it hadn't, I was going to stain the neck. ;-)

Time for some soundholes. In my head, I always knew it was going to be a mirrored pair of Dragondreams' logos. It's become a bit of a thing with my builds. Hey, I have the logo tattooed on the inside of my left arm, so why shouldn't it appear on my builds? :-D

I printed the design on my inkjet, then taped it over the box with a piece of carbon paper sandwiched between to transfer the design to the box.

A couple of dental burrs and a Stew Mac microrouter attachment for my Dremel sorted out the cutting. From these pics, you can see the slot I had to cut in the edge of the box so the neck would fit flush.

Time to glue the neck to the box. I use Titebond Original wood glue. It just does the job nicely.

And here's the view from inside the box to show where I screwed through into the heel of the neck.

Time to mark up for where the bridge is going to sit. I bought a bridge from Ebay for this one. The next one I will probably look at making my own separate bridge and string anchor, but the lines and proportions of this box just said it needed to be a one-piece bridge.

I clamped my long rule to each edge of the neck and drew out the lines, measured where the saddle ought to be, drew that line in, then marked out the centreline through the body right up to the nut. Doing it this way meant that any errors I'd made while gluing the neck would be accounted for and the bridge would sit in the centre of the string run.

I measured, and measured, then measured some more! Then, and only then, I glued it all up and clamped it all down. :-)

While the bridge was gluing, I thought I'd add a bit of a logotype to the headstock. I was feeling pretty lazy, so out came the Sharpie and I just scrawled "DD" (Dragondreams) on there. Out came the Dremel again.

I filled the slots with a dark coloured wood filler and waited for it to harden.

Then sanded it smooth. Rough and rustic. And in keeping with the overall feel of the build.

Once the bridge had set solid it was time to run a couple of gash strings and check the action. The saddle as supplied was way too tall.

But being plastic, it was simple enough to file and sand until I'd got the height I wanted. The plan is to make a bone saddle eventually using this plastic one as a template.

So. She's finished as far as the acoustic build goes. Time to string her up and let her settle down for a while. It's at this point she got her name "Dat'll Do" - which goes nicely with her "DD" logotype.

Having a 5mm thick top, I expected her to be fairly quiet. I could get out the router and thin the top down from the inside, then worry about adding bracing. Or I could leave it. The tone, despite the lack of volume, is gorgeous. I decided the best way forward was to add a couple of piezo elements so I could amplify her when I want to play loud. Quiet is good for late at night when the house is sleeping too. ;-)

I had a couple of spare "Belcat" transducers sat in my parts box. I'd used these on a parlour guitar in the past and was quite impressed with them. So out came the double-sided tape and a battery-powered amp, a cup of decent coffee and a LOT of trial and error. After an hour I was happy that one transducer each side of the bridge was the place where I was getting the best balance of tone.

Glue gun time.

There's ample space in the box for a pre-amp and battery pack, but I was happy to go with a simple passive volume control. But I fitted a three pole jack socket so that I can use it to switch a battery on and off at a later date without having to do loads of rewiring and resoldering. I also don't like rattles, so the glue gun got used to hold all the wires down.

Almost there. It just needed the "right" volume knob. And as luck would have it, I had a pair of zebrawood knobs sat here. One of those just looked perfect for the volume control, and the second will be there if I decide to add a the pre-amp and a tone control.

A very rewarding build! And, quite possibly, my personal favourite instrument. :-)

Things I would have done differently? I could have got away with bigger soundholes, but it is what it is now.

Well, it's now 1st August and I got round the small sound hole issue by simply drilling a load more holes. While not hugely louder, her voice has certainly gained in tonal quality and depth!

And NONE of my commercially-made ukes have been out of their cases for a week since this little beauty first became playable. :-)

Number two is on the drawing board. It's going to be a little different though. Watch this blog space!