OuijBG: The Devil’s Workshop
In Works of Labour or of Skill I would be busy too: For Satan finds some mischief still for idle Hands to do. — Isaac Watts 1715
At the start of the year just a few weeks ago I was going to write an introspective rumination of 2019. However, upon reading the rumination I wrote last year introspecting 2018 I found that almost all of what I wrote then still applies now. 2019 bogged me down with work and health problems and I let everything derail. One of the most depressing failures was Drawlloween. Drawlloween was always a benchmark for driving myself but it was the first time since starting it that I didn’t get through it and haven’t made the time to make it up.
That said, despite the creative black hole and the hospital visits, I did make some strides at the soul crushing dayjob. This finally puts me in a bit of a better place than I had been. So, instead of continuing to wallow in abject despondency I’m just planning on staying busy.
Just for the Hell of it, and too keep the creativity going, I apparently developed an obsession which meant I needed to make a Cigar Box Guitar, even though it’s more of a Ouija Board Guitar that isn’t really made from an actual Cigar Box. I got all of the pieces and parts and threw it together pretty easily. I expected this to turn out much shittier than it actually did, but I’m actually happy how it came out. At least it doesn’t look like the hack job on the outside that it really is.
I got the box and neck pre-made for the most part. The neck was already fretted to a 25.5″ scale and the box had the Quija design burned in and the Violin slots cut. I had to notch the box to fit the neck and trim the neck to fit the box. While I’ll probably continue to get pre-fretted necks I am planning on manually burning my next box by hand. Either that or just do a print transfer of a drawing. Or…print transfer a drawing that I’ll use as a guide to burn in? Either way, it will be more original and I’m planning on making the whole build a little more elaborate.
The wiring was really easy, just a Piezo pickup taped to a notch carved in the neck that extends through the whole box with a volume knob and a standard 1/4″ jack. The box itself was so shit-cheap that drilling large holes for the ports actually splintered the wood as much as drilled through. I didn’t worry too much about making everything smooth and pretty on the inside, as long as everything fit and didn’t fall apart, I was content.
There were a few times that the whole freaking lid almost split, but after it all went together I expect it to mostly stay intact. It’s strung with a set of Southbound guitar strings tuned to open G as you often do with a CBG. I was actually surprised that it tuned as well as I did. The tuning keys are cheap and the bridge is just a floating piece of wood that I notched to hold the strings. Took a while to get the bridge placed right to get a reasonable intonation but it actually turned out pretty damned good. The action is high enough for a slide and good enough to fret.
I do plan on making a couple more of these for fun, one with a fun drawing on it with more elaborate hardware and maybe a 3 string Bass Box. I’ll have to get more creative with that one though which means that it could end up being fretless unless I can find a 30″ scale CBB neck with frets somewhere.
For my sanity, I need to keep making, drawing, creating, and playing. As they say “Idle Hands are the Devil’s Workshop”.
