Builder's Diary: Mike Willmouth's beautiful resonator cigar box guitar

We can make all the parts in the world at C. B. Gitty, but it takes a true talent to choose the right parts and the right placements to make something special.  Add to that, the eye of a brilliant builder and you have cigar box masterpieces such as the instrument above by Mike Willmouth.

Notice the extra scallop of the fretboard at the headstock.  The volume/tone knob and switch were placed at the lower cutaway side, giving the face of the box a complete wood look without any extra hardware.  He even added an extra fret at the butt end where the strings are fed up through the tailpiece, keeping them from chewing into the wood.  Beautiful all around...

We first saw this picture posted on Cigar Box Nation and asked Mike to give us a builder's diary of the whole process.  He gladly obliged.

My name is Mike Willmouth and I live in Miller Missouri (30 miles West of Springfield). I first got involved with Cigar Box Guitars after a friend of mine posted a video of someone playing a Cigar Box Guitar on Facebook, back in 2009. I thought to myself, that looks like fun – I bet I can make one. 

That started the journey, so this has lead to my 19th Cigar Box Guitar Build.

1. Box:  I used a Cohiba wooden Cigar Box and sanded it down to the wood. I was going to stain it but I liked the natural wood color so I just sealed it. 
2. Bridge:  The bridge was made by first cutting a groove in a 2 inch wide by 1/4 inch piece of popular, and then using a door knob drill bit to cut the circle. I then cut and inserted a small piece of bone for the top of the bridge.
3. Resonator Cone and Cover:  I used a cone and cover from C.B. Gitty
4. Gold Foil Pickup with wooden modifications:  I used a Teisco Del Rey-Style Clip in (bought at C.B. Gitty) that I took apart and made my own cover out of some popular. 
5. Second pickup - Piezo + wiring: I also installed a piezo transducer under the cone to give it that raw, bluey sound. I wired both pickups to a Radio Shack mini toggle switch (DPDT) so I can select the pickup that I want to use. I then connected the toggle switch to a dual stack potentiometer. 
6. Sound holes: The sound holes were cut by installing two door knob drill bits (two sizes apart) and then drilling down to a level to clearly see the double cut, then I removed the larger bit and finished drilling out the inside hole. I then hot glued window screen to the back side of the holes and the cone cover to give it a more finished look.
7. Neck:  The neck is made of red oak, with popular fret board cut to a 25.5" Fender scale . I did put a left over piece of zebra wood in between the neck and fret board to raise the fret board up a little higher. I then cut the fret lines and installed regular guitar frets. For the fret board markers I used a paper punch on brown guitar picks to make the dots, and then I installed black marker dots on the side of the neck. The open tuners were bought at C.B. Gitty too.