Alan Matta, cigar box luthier

There should be a name for luthiers that use cigar boxes
as their source of wood for bodies. There are people who make
cigar box ukuleles, cigar box guitars, and cigar box violins. There
was one craftsman who asked Winston Churchill for his empty cigar
boxes and made a very fine violin out of them.

In Long Beach, Washington, a town just North of Astoria,
Oregon (on the Columbia river), there is a luthier
who makes ukuleles as well as three string and four string tenor
guitars. His name is Alan Matta, and he uses whatever he can scrounge in cigar boxes and materials. Each instrument is
unique. They all come with a piezo pickup so you can plug them
into a small amp, or if you want to rock the neighborhood, your
Marshall stack.

cbg-2