Lunchbox guitar

My daughter and I built a guitar out of a lunchbox this weekend. It actually sounds better than the cigar box guitars I've built. For frets, it uses toothpicks.

If you decided to listen to this sample of how it sounds, please remember that I am a horrible guitar player.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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ROSSINDETROIT

That is an awesome lunchbox. Does it still play with a PB&J and some Goldfish Crackers inside?
grimc

There’s something wrong with a lunchbox that’s all about a candy.

Nothing wrong with that gee-tar, though. Add a lot of noise to the mp3 and it could be a lost Robert Johnson track. Expected some buzzing from the handle/hinges, but I assume you taped them down? And what are the strings tuned to?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QN6WUG7WMBDAGUPFVSJ6HJAS2A Darth

That’s cool! And I agree with grimc. Sounds like Robert Johnson.
Susan Carley Oliver

I’m going to be envisioning all the container-based objects in my household now as potential guitar resonators.
http://twitter.com/parker_vmg3 parker_vmg3

sooooooooooooo cool. eat your heart out seasick steve.
geobarefoot

Way to go, Mark! Looks and sounds great. I just finished shaping the necks for a pair of cigar box ukes. Never played a ukulele, but I will be soon.
http://twitter.com/guitarblogger Tony Hogan

Oh very nice idea…providing the sandwiches are not too soggy , the sound will probably be pretty much the same. If there is too much tomato, what you might have to do is put those little silicon gel bags in there like i do to all my acoustics because i live in a very humid enviro. A great look really
http://www.facebook.com/people/Paul-Zorn/100002040125800 Paul Zorn

OK you definitely need to make a instructable for this its awesome…
WaylonWillie

hey, that thing has tone…. nice job!
John Delaney

I bet it would sound really cool if you put some water in it. Like when you strike a metal bowl filled with water… perhaps if you raised the action way up and played it like a lap steel. Now I want to build a pedal steel out of a mixing bowl.
- Erik Betti
  
  ^ that is a KILLER idea … maybe a metal lap steel with a reservoir for water? i like! nice tone outta that lunchbox, too!
Meadslosh

I had to stop to say that I love Dots.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

What size and sort of lunch box is it?

Full size metal, or one of those smaller novelty ones?
http://www.facebook.com/dpease Dave Pease

Dots are the greatest gumdrops evar invented. Nice guitar.
the spacebase

Very nice. I think this finally brought cigar box guitars across the “I want to build one of these” threshold. Where should I read up on fret placement?
http://jakespurlock.com Jake Spurlock

Great guitar Mark! Sounds fantastic. Have you ever added a piezo pickup to a cigar box guitar?
mcscruffington

Nifty. Good to see you’re passing along your Elven traditions.

Ref:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/311944/june-08-2010/mark-frauenfelder
Josh Mortenson

I love the candy-colored fret markers. If you took away a couple of the toothpicks, you could have a Lunchbox Appalachian Dulcimer and play some Joni Mitchell’s “California” or “Carey”.
Oh Candy get out your caneAnd I’ll put on some silverOh you’re a mean old Candy
But I like you fine
- Marktech
  
  Oh Candy get out your cane And I’ll put on some silver Oh you’re a mean old Candy But I like you fine
  
  “We-e-e-ll, I was snacking at the crossroads…”
Rephlex

Very cool!
Once again Boing-Boing has resurfaced forgotten T-Shirt silk screening ideas. >.<
SamSam

It sounds great. Instructible, please!

Enquiring minds want to know: does the neck go all the way through the lunch box? Are the strings at the base attached to the south end of the neck’s wood? Are there any resonating holes in the lunchbox?
jeligula

I’ve heard much worse, Mark. Not bad at all.

- Classical guitarist
Bryn Davies

Using toothpicks for frets works really well – to be honest with you, I’ve had more luck getting a good level action quickly using them (or nails, or whatever) than using my expensive fretsaw and proper fretwire (why is this? I don’t know.) They don’t stand up to the same amount of punishment, but so what? You can just re-glue them or as @google-aae0aa337d3182aa2bba674fdc056381:disqus mentioned, convert / upgrade to a diatonic fretted instrument.