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Department Store Special Inspired Custom Made Cigar Box Guitar - $250 (Piedmont Area)
condition:
excellent
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Featuring the Arturo Fuente "Queen B" cigar box, I wanted to make this one kind of like one of those electric guitars you might've gotten from Sears or Montgomery Ward in the 60's, with the stamped tailpiece, simplified single saddle bridge and a pair of unique-sounding pickups. Honestly, folks, I nailed it, by some stroke of sheer luck.
I went with a pair of fixed-casing "toaster" style pickups, the kind that are usually top/surface mounted, but due to their height, I decided to try something a little different, so I cut out holes in the lid for the pickups to pop through. This allowed me to use my standard center-block assembly, which was great, because in the past I've had to do wild things to allow for clearance of the pickup height on these pickups (mulitple neck shims, modified bridges, etc)---not here! By mounting them with their ring bases sandwiched between the lid and the center-block, it knocked off enough height to allow for the standard assembly and standard bridge. Nice. And just look at how clean they look with only the chrome toaster covers poking through! The sound? Very uniquely voiced, with a certain midrangey wooliness teetering on being microphonic with overdive that you just have to hear. Definitely nails the sound of some department store special guitar with nonstandard style pickups. Lo-fi, raw, and a little bit untamed. As satisfying for garage rock or indie music as some blues or even some nasty funk.
I used vac-chromed knobs to complete the "wood-n-silver" look, capping the three volume controls (neck, bridge and passive under-the-lid piezo), and master tone control. Somehow this piezo turned out to be quite loud as well, and makes for its own trashy "acoustic" tone, as well as being able to blend in with the magnetic pickups.
I also will say that playability-wise, it's got nice low action and plays great with its comfortable 25.5" scale neck, even with the "assembly process" strings on it. I was surprised how well it plays, to be frank, mainly because with this style bridge you just never know how it will get along with the neck.
If I thought I could use this guitar in any of the projects I'm a part of, I'd be adding it to my arsenal, it really shocked me how well it turned out. Very proud of this one! Give it a good home...
*NOTE: The bridge is currently NOT screwed down, because it may need to be adjusted to intonate properly when you receive it and put new strings of your gauge of choice on it---and yes, I always recommend new strings and personal adjustments when you get your instrument---once the strings on these get through the initial alignment and adjustment processes, they're pretty much had, plus you might prefer a different gauge, after all. I will include two mounting screws with the guitar so that once you get it dialed-in to your preferences, you can fix it in place, although it will also work perfectly fine as a "floating" bridge too.