My darling husband Pete is building his seventh ukulele out of a cigar box. Most are concert scale; this one is a tenor. When gathering materials, he looks for cigar boxes that will accommodate the bridge of the instrument.
Polishing with Tru-Oil gun stock finish. “This one is more show than go,” he said.
Box originally contained “25 cigars hand made in Spanish Honduras.”
The lid becomes the back of the ukulele, and the front of the box is removed and replaced with Engelmann spruce wood. Sometimes he adds a pickup inside.
Decorative inlaid fingerboard came from Vietnam. Pete put in the paua mother of pearl from Aotearoa around the sound hole.
The black tuners called Pegheds are geared, a little more sophisticated than straight pegs.
All the ukulele needs now are strings!
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