(Optional) Ordering Parts to Make an Electric Cigar Box Guitar

This is an optional step that cigar box guitar makers can take if interested in making an electric model.

A common piezo pickup with a 1/4 inch input. I have used many of these in my cigar box guitars with great results. (Photo courtesy of niceEshop.)

Electric guitars, in their simplest form, utilize a pickup system that uses vibrations from strings that are plucked to produce sound. These pickups typically are fed through a 1/4 inch input that is standard in audio technology, or more rarely an XLR input common to microphones. The input is connected via a cable of matching input type to an amplifier that allows for the electric guitar's sound to become exponentially louder.

Thanks to Amazon.com, piezo pickup systems are easily obtainable for very reasonable prices. The type pictured above is a common generic piezo pickup with a built-in 1/4 inch input. Piezos are disc-shaped contact microphones that utilize any and all vibrations they pick up, and therefore have a variety of uses. The acoustic Southbound String Co. strings will also easily work with these piezo pickups. The model depicted above costs about five dollars here.

If interested in making an electric model cigar box guitar (Especially after seeing how easy it is) go ahead and order the piezo pickup. We will install it later as we get closer to finishing our cigar box guitars.

In our next post, we'll begin preparing to drill some holes in our fretboards to prepare them for tuning pegs and strings.