Cigar Box Ukulele

I recently started playing the ukulele. I was on a beach in Italy in April (at Paganello) and I met a few guys with ukuleles. We played against a team from New Zealand and they sang us a song, accompanied by a uke. Afterwards I went and had a look at it and decided that I needed to get one. So I bought a cheap soprano and started playing. About a month afterwards, I bought a not-so-cheap tenor and started playing a little better. And a month after that I decided I was going to try my hand at building a ukulele myself.

So I did a lot of reading online and came to the conclusion that building instruments is really hard. Who knew? I also came across cigar box instruments and decided that I would build a cigar box ukulele. The reason for this is that building a "normal" ukulele involves bending wood to make the sides and a lot of fairly intricate woodword to build a body that sounds decent. I have absolutely zero woodworking skills and so I decided to go with the cigar box approach because it would, in theory, be easier. Also, when I eventually make a mess of it, all I will have done is ruin an empty cigar box.

So I bought a few tools online: a saw, a spokeshave, some chisels, etc. Then I bought some more. Then I started building and I soon realised I needed more, so I bought some cabinet rasps, some clamps, a workbench, all kinds of files and plenty of very specialist tools for installing frets, etc.

As for materials, I built a test neck out of spruce, just to see if I could do it. I didn't make a terrible mess of it, so I acquired some lengths of mahogany and quite a lot of cigar boxes of various shapes and sizes. I ordered tuning pegs, pre-slotted fretboards and material for making bridges, saddles, nuts, etc. from various web sites and got cracking.

I haven't documented the process as much as I would like to have done, but I have taken a few pictures. Although the ukulele is still not complete, I will put some of them up here as a progress indicator (and also probably because I am procrastinating and probably won't get around to putting up more pics for a long time).

As a disclaimer, I should say that I have made multiple mistakes on this particular uke. I have learned quite a lot from the process so far and expect that the next one I make will look a lot more respectable! So if you are an experienced luthier, keep in mind that this is a first, self-taught attempt. Come back in 5 years and I'll have something worth showing off. :-)


This picture shows the first stage. A length of mahogany is cut into three blocks, which are glued together to form the heel of the neck. A section at the other end of the neck is then cut off at an angle and glued on to form the headstock. In this particular ukulele, I didn't glue any ears to the headstock. In hindsight, I think this was a mistake as the tuning pegs are very close to each other.


These pictures illustrate the process of shaping the neck. As can be seen, I used hand tools (a chisel for the rough shaping and then a spoke shave and a cabinet rasp for the rest). The end result is somewhat odd. Everything is slightly off centre. I suppose you could say it adds character, if you were feeling charitable! As with most things, I suspect that perfection comes after many imperfect iterations.

This is a shot of a shaped, unsanded neck. The headstock still needs some attention, but it is starting to look like a ukulele neck. Notice I left a block at the heel of the neck. It was my original intention to make a traditional dovetail joint for joining it to the body, but I made a couple of practise joints and they weren't up to scratch, so I ended up cutting off that block of wood and I will be attaching the neck to the body using bolts. I should probably also mention here that I'm not using a truss rod or anything. I don't know how necessary it will be on a neck this size (tenor) so I am experimenting.


These pictures show the pre-slotted fretboard (I didn't trust myself to get the slots right on my first attempt) and some fretting supplies. Luthier supplies are expensive!



Here is a shot of the neck with frets installed. They aren't 100% finished, but I think they look reasonable enough here. I added some mother of pearl dots in as an after-thought. I know absolutely nothing about adding dots and didn't even look it up online, so I'm not sure if I went about it right. I made some holes by hand with a drill bit, filled them with superglue and pressed in the dots, then sanded them flush with the fretboard (I think I should have done this before fretting!) I know they're all slightly off-centre but this uke is more about getting something built than aesthetics, so I'm not too bothered about it.


This picture shows the neck as it nears completion. The fretboard is cut down to size and glued on; the frets are all seated (although some of them still need some attention); the headstock has some tuning pegs attached, in a fairly haphazard manner (hopefully there will be no major issues when I string the uke) and the bottom of the fretboard is cut in a circular shape where it will meet the sound hole of the body. I also have a corian nut that hasn't been glued on yet.

This is one of the cigar boxes I acquired. It's a large-ish box, suitable for a tenor uke. I don't know what it's made of, but I like the look of it. It feels pretty solid and seems well-built.

Here is a shot of the cigar box with a sound hole cut. I used a special drill attachment for sawing holes. It came out a little rough, but I sanded down and it doesn't look too bad now.


Here is a preview of what the uke will look like. The neck and the bridge aren't glued on yet - they're just arranged into position to get an idea of what the finished product will look like.

And that's what I have done so far. I plan on attaching the neck early next week, assuming that the threaded inserts I ordered online are suitable for the job. Then I will glue on the bridge, make a few finishing touches and adjust the action of the strings and it should be ready to play. I will probably spray on some simple furniture varnish for now and consider something more elaborate for future projects. The cheapness of the varnish can seems somehow in keeping with the spirit of making an instrument out of an old cigar box.

And that's all for now. Stay tuned for more updates. Hopefully the next time I will be able to include a sound file of how it plays.