'The Drifter', a three-string electro/acoustic cigar box guitar is on its way to a new home in Carlsbad , New Mexico.
I got a call a couple weeks ago from a fella to ask if I would build a guitar like the 'Revelator', which is resting in the hands of Carlton Gill-Blyth in Ireland.
The basis of the guitar is an Arturo Fuente Queen B cigar box for a body. The neck is walnut with a seven degree scarf joint to slant the stylized headstock just enough for proper string alignment tension at the Corian nut. A maple fingerboard with 21 hand set frets finishes off the neck.
Accenting the area above the open-back geared tuners on the headstock is a new issue US New Mexico quarter coin, which I thought would be proper given the intended destination, and the guitar will always be worth at least two-bits.To push sound around, I chose to recess a paint can lid into the top for the resonator, topped with a floating bisquet bridge made of laminated Spanish cedar, maple and coconut palm, on which a Corian saddle rests. Two screen-backed nickle sound hole covers let acoustics out of the box, and if that isn't enough to scare the dogs off, a coconut palm-topped TotalRojo hand wound magnetic pickup complete with box-mounted volume control can take over through an amp, which will definitely get rid of any stray critters. The tailpiece used to anchor the strings is a simple stainless door strike, which lends itself to the clean and sanitary style of the top. Added nickle corner covers on box top and bottom completes the design and protects the body.
But what about the back, you might ask?
Well, a little web surfing and the attached art became the choice to set this guitar apart from others, since I build no two alike.
There are a couple other little nuances that make this build complete -- a custom Spanish cedar output jack surround, a custom knob for the volume pot, and a custom cedar neck pocket cover.