'The Raven'

I don't often build cigar box guitars to be electric only, but 'The Raven', which is created from a black Studio Tobac cigar box, is an exception.

The box is not very thick, only about an inch and a quarter, which doesn't leave much room inside for the sound to bounce around.  So, with that in mind, I decided to install a single-coil magnetic pickup near the bridge, and to forego any acoustics.

The box is really 'clean' and nicely formed with rounded edges and lightly embossed lettering on the top, so it made for a real cool looking creation.  The scarfed cherry neck is a simple straight-on design with a walnut veneer on the headstock.  Old style open gear tuners adorn the headstock, and a hand shaped Corian nut leads the hand-fretted maple fingerboard, which is followed by the covered pickup with hand crafted walnut veneer surround (it looks yellow inthephot, but it's really walnut).  A volume control is wired on-deck to allow for easy sound adjustment.  The saddle and bridge is a combo of an old key I had laying around mounted to the surface of a small piece of Spanish cedar.  The string arrangement is a through-body design with a custom made Spanish cedar retainer.  Like all of my three-string guitars, I used the 5-4-3 (A-D-G) strings from a regular acoustic set, for this build, too.  The Strat style jack plate works with the thin box, and wood strap buttons finish off the guitar.   It is tuned to open G (G-D-g) and sounds great through my Belicoso CBAmp, and awesome through the Crate.