Instrument Part – The How-To Repository for the Cigar Box Guitar Movement!

Sound Hole

Sound holes are openings cut or drilled into the sound board (top) of an instrument to let the sound vibrations escape, which increases the acoustic volume of an instrument. Sound holes come in a wide range of sizes and shapes.

On a traditional acoustic guitar, seen in the top portion of the photo, sound holes are usually round and centered in the upper part of the instrument. On cigar box guitars, as shown in the lower part of the photo, the number, shape and size of the sound holes can vary widely, from simple drilled round holes to fancy F-hole style openings (such as are seen on violins).

There is a lot of theory and debate that goes into what is the right side for a sound hole. In general on a cigar box guitar a single sound hole about 3/4″ in diameter is usually sufficient, though builders will often use more or larger sound holes for aesthetic purposes, and usually this doesn’t do any harm.

Sound holes can be left bare, as shown in the photos to the left, or can have various covers placed over them or inserts placed into them. A popular sound hole insert on cigar box guitars are simple metal grommets, sink drain filters and other metal pieces.

Saddle

The saddle is a piece of material that either rests on top of the bridge, or is built into it. Traditionally on acoustic gutiars saddles are made of bone, but on cigar box guitars they can be made from a range of other materials including metals (brass, stainless steel, aluminum, etc), wood, corian, plastic and more. The saddle and the nut form the two parts on the instrument where the strings touch, and the distance between them determines the scale length of the instrument.

In some cases, such as when you use a simple bridge such as a threaded rod, that piece serves as both the bridge and the saddle.

The top photo shows what a saddle on a traditional tenor guitar bridge looks like. The strings are held in place by bridge pins, and go up and over the bone saddle.

The bottom photo shows a bridge/saddle arrangement on a cigar box guitar, where the saddle is a piece of brass bar stock set into a piece of Peruvian walnut. A saddle may have a rod piezo pickup under it, allowing the guitar to be amplified.

Fretboard

A fretboard is a thin piece of wood (usually in the range of 3/16″ to 5/16″ thick) that is glued to the top of a guitar neck, and which has metal frets mounted in it at predetermined spots. Fretboards both strengthen the neck, by adding an additional layer of wood, as well as making it easier for a cigar box guitar builder to “dial in” the string action height. Fretboards can be made out of pretty much any wood, though usually the harder hardwoods are preferred for durability. Rosewood and ebony are two woods traditionally preferred for fretboards in guitars, though cigar box guitar builders can and do make use of all sorts of other things. A fretboard usually is either placed right up against the nut at the top of the neck just below the headstock.

Fretboards may have additional decorative elements besides the frets, including either drawn on or inlaid fret location markers, side markers, decorative inlays and more. The most common frets to have marked on a fretboard are the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, seventeenth, nineteenth, and on up in that pattern.

Sometimes on cigar box guitars, necks are fretted without having a separate fretboard glued on. Often this portion of the neck is still called the fretboard or fingerboard.

Bridge

The bridge is the part on a guitar that rests on the body (or sound box) of the instrument, and holds the strings up in their correct positions. Bridges come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and forms, especially on cigar box guitars. Some may have a separate saddle piece, while others do not. Some of the more popular bridges used on cigar box guitars include threaded rods, wooden bridges, banjo-style bridges, mandolin-style bridges, electric guitar-style adjustable bridges, and more.

Usually a bridge will have some sort of notches or grooves to help hold the strings in place. The placement of the bridge and the nut are what determine the scale length of the instrument, as well as the action height of the strings.

Nut

A nut is a piece of hard material placed at the top of the fretboard area, where the neck joins the headstock. On traditional guitars, the nut serves two purposes: to hold the strings in the correct position, and to hold them at the correct height (which determines the action of the instrument).

The placement of the nut and the bridge determine the scale length of the instrument, since they control what the vibrating length of the strings will be.

Nuts are traditionally made from bone, but on cigar box guitars can be made from all sorts of materials: bone, plastic, metal, wood, and even synthetic materials like masonite or Corian.

Neck

The neck is usually a long thin section of a guitar that runs between the body of the instrument and the headstock. Necks vary in width, length and materials, depending on the size and style of a particular instrument. Necks may be unfretted, have frets set directly into them, or may have a separate fretboard attached.

In some instruments, such as mountain dulcimers, the neck runs on top of the full length of the instrument. In other instruments, such as a standard canjo, the neck also serves as the body.

On cigar box guitars, necks can be bolted to the box, run through it (neck-through style) or be mounted on top (neck-on-top style).

Headstock

The headstock is the area at the top of the neck. Usually this is where the tuners/machine heads are located. On cigar box guitars, headstocks can be angled via a scarf joint, or can be recessed. Headstocks can be the same width as the neck, or might be wider (such as is almost always seen on traditional acoustic and electric guitars).

Some guitars are built as “headless” models, where there is no headstock to speak of, and the tuners are located at the bottom of the instrument.

Zero Fret

A zero fret is a piece of fretwire mounted into a stringed instrument fretboard, which is installed in place of a nut. The zero fret can be either the same size as the rest of the fretwire on the fretboard, or it can be a larger size.

The reason for using a zero fret is that it makes getting the string action just right a lot easier than using a standard nut. Because a zero fret only performs one of the roles of a traditional nut (setting the string height) some other method is needed to position the strings.