Making a Cigarbox Ukulele

[ed]

My wife got me an awesome gift for my birthday this past September, a cigar box ukulele kit from http://www.papasboxes.com/. Here's the last video in the series of building it. I would strongly recommend this kit, or his built ukes to anyone interested. It looks and sounds great.

I think I'll take what I've learned from this and make an amplified lunch box ukulele this winter. You can check out the whole process at this tumblr blog I made to document building it. http://cbu.tumblr.com/

[Steve Grisetti]

Well worth displaying in your living room, Ed! It looks as nice as it sounds! Great fun!

[ed]

Thanks Steve, mrs. ed would have to correct you though. It's hanging in the "family room", which is distinct from the "living room" in that it has a television. I've been corrected on this often.

[Steve Grisetti]

Oh, THAT'S what you call the room with the TV!

Mrs. Steve insists that the room with the TV is called the "den" -- which sounds awful Brady Bunch to me.

Our living room is the front room with all the nice furniture that nobody ever sits in because there's no TV there.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Our living room is the front room with all the nice furniture that nobody ever sits in because there's no TV there.

That reminds me of my Gran's parlour. Best furniture, best tea service. Room only used on special occassions or for visitors. It was always cold and a bit musty smelling. Probably used that room only three or four times a year.

[ed]

Our living room is also the "music room", so it does get a fair amount of use. It's also where our dog likes to sleep, usually on the coach he's not supposed to be on

[Bob]

It's hanging in the "family room", which is distinct from the "living room" in that it has a television. I've been corrected on this often....
...It's also where our dog likes to sleep, usually on the coach he's not supposed to be on

Same here, Ed!

[ed]

I plugged the cigar box uke into my Smokey's Amp, although I had to keep the sound down because the girls were yelling at me. Sounds better at max volume. The song is from a TV show from the 70's. I really like playing this uke.

[momoffduty]

Watched a few of the howto series and very good instructions. The tune sounds familiar, which 70's show?

[Steve Grisetti]

Very cool, Ed!

It reminds me, I remember reading a few years ago about people building laptop computers in unusual cases too. I've always thought it would be cool to walk into Starbucks with an old grade school lunchbox, open it up to reveal that it's actually a fully functional laptop and start surfing the web.

[Chuck Engels]

A friend of mine back in 1970 created what was the first Boom Box I ever saw.
He took a metal took box, added a 8 track from a car, and two motorcycle batteries. He cut holes in the ends of the box and mounted speakers there. He could go a few hours before having to recharge the batteries, it was very cool (and very heavy).

Some people are just full of ideas and can actually bring them to life.

[ed]

I can't take credit for the amp, I bought it instead of making it. It wouldn't be that hard to put together though. You could get all the parts at Radio Shack probably. Smokey's Amps have been around since the 80's, and are pretty popular with blues musicians. They are best as a preamp, but are a pretty good practice amp because of it's portability. I'm giving one of my brothers one for xmas, and I'm making an i-mic for it .

A lunch box uke is my next project Steve. I already bought the lunch box, a Sargent Pepper one

It's the "Happy Days" theme mom.