Two-string Bass Custom Box Guitar
My journey of discovery around the whole cigar box guitar scene has been well documented on this site but as primarily a bass player I didn’t want the low end to miss out. There are a couple of nice clips on YouTube of people who have played around with one and two string bass models, but in general not a lot of information. Still the principles are the same as for the normal cigar box guitars so I headed into the workshop!
Background
As detailed in the three-string cigar box guitar post, the primary focus was to not use a cigar box, but to build my own custom boxes. The bass version was the first one I decided to complete, and other than using a longer piece of neck timber the process is just the same! I spent a bit of time thinking about tuning and eventually decided on G and D – it works well with the open G tuning on the guitar versions and allows for some nice droning sounds when playing the two strings together.
Construction
Again, refer to the three-string cigar box guitar post for details. The big difference with this one was the pickup configuration. Along with a P-Bass pickup, I also have a piezo mounted under the top. Each pickup is connected to a small switch designed to pick between the two. Sadly the piezo isn’t working that well, mainly because the top is too thick and isn’t transferring enough vibration for the pickup to work very well.
Performance
It works! The sound is very rich and full. That said I do need to spend some time working on how to play it as the “open” tuning does take a bit of getting used to.
What’s Next
While the sound with the P-Bass pickup is fine, in future I will experiment with using a ribbon piezo under the threaded rod.
The Rest Of The Family
Three-string cigar box guitar
Four-string cigar box guitar
Tony Levin might be interested!
Suggest you make a 4 or 5 string cigar box combination guitar/bass guitar. Three strings tuned to GDG with a piazo pickup centered under the guitar side. Two strings tuned to G D for the bass side with p bass pickups. Or go for the gusto make the box longer do a three string GDG combination with a switch between the piaezo pickup for the guitar side and two p bass pickups running parallel beneath the high G and D strings to make it a 2 string bass in this switched configuration.