2024 Double Neck Cigar Box Guitar Build-Off Winners!

The 2024 Double Neck Cigar Box Guitar Build-Off saw dozens of entries from all over the globe.  There were only two main rules: 1. The instrument had to have at least two necks.  2.  There had to be a cigar box somewhere in the build.  Our judges were Reverend Peyton of Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band, Del Puckett, Steve Arvey, Hambone Skinny, and Michael Bianconi of Southern Fire Guitars.

Here are the winners, as chosen by our judges:

First Place - $250 C. B. Gitty Gift Certificate and all the bragging rights: Dylan Chegwidden

A favorite of the judges, Dylan Chegwidden’s cubist style double neck features multiple boxes in the body, handwound pickups and vinyl records!  Note the secret stash box for a guitar slide.  Watch his video that shows all the features and hear the awesome tones:

Second Place - $100 C. B. Gitty Gift Certificate: Daniel Hulbert

Social media's king of unusual ukuleles, Daniel Hulbert stepped up to the plate with his Quad-Neck Ukulele features four unique scale lengths and ZZ Top spinning action!  See it in action here:  

There was a four-way tie for runners-up, each receiving a $50 C. B. Gitty Gift Certificate.  Note: we originally announced there would be three runners-up, but added a prize because of the four-way tie!  Congrats to all four for their awesome submissions.

Ben Schwartz - Runner Up

The judges were taken by Ben Schwartz’ double neck with sympathetic strings. The guitar is simple looking but the performance set it over the top.  Notice how he plucks and strums the extra strings on each side of the bridge in this performance of The Beatles' Norwegian Wood.

Russell Smith - Runner Up

Lights...dragons...wings...this is the ultimate Game of Thrones cigar box guitar!!!  Russell Smith wild axe features detachable necks with bat wings, embedded lights and wild artwork.  It is a 3-string bass on top and a guitar neck on the other.  It has a built in cigar box for all the electric, guitar picks for the body, LED lights for the eyes and flame.  The body it can also divided into 2 separate guitar and left or right hand.

Mike Barton - Runner Up

Above: Mike Barton’s hot rod also brought in a runners-up win. “Pictures are of my double neck cigar box guitar entry. All wood components were handcrafted by myself. The 6 string neck is made from teak wood with a maple fret board. This neck has a 2 way adjustable truss rod. 3 string neck is made from mahogany and maple. This has a 1/8" x 1/2" steel reinforcement rod, and a handmade maple and walnut fret board. Pick ups are mini- humbuckers. Oliva cigar box with electronics box made from an additional cigar box. Handcrafted curved leg rest made from laminated walnut.”

Jeff Mello

Jeff Mello’s “Microwave Dave” - This Cigar Box Guitar was designed and built by Luthier Jeff Mello for Microwave Dave to perform with at the 19th Annual Cigar Box Guitar Festival in Huntsville, AL. 

The cigar box has been reinforced as a solid-body electric guitar. The 25” scale, 1.5” wide 3-string neck is crafted with locally harvested Maple wood and features Walnut inlay on the fretboard. The headstock features a nuclear symbol inlay of abalone. The side fretboard ‘Roadrunner’ inlay markers are crafted from Wenge wood. 

The 6-string neck is 2 inches wide at the nut and was constructed by Big Lou Guitar Necks in California and embellished with abalone inlay by Jeff Mello at The Cigar Box Guitar Store. The electronics mimic that of a Gibson Les Paul with P-90 pickups of 8.1k-ohms at the neck and 9.87k-ohms at the Bridge. Sprague .022uF and .015uF “Orange Drop” capacitors were installed on the Bourns 500k-ohms tone control potentiometers for the bridge and neck pickups respectively. There is a single coil, 6.5k ohm ‘ghost’ pickup positioned at the 3-string neck beneath the pickguard. A 5-position toggle switch allows for individual or blended pickup selection. The wiring has been shielded and the strings have been grounded to minimize 60Hz hum. The custom pickguard was inspired by the original Amana Radarange microwave oven.