Cigar Box Ukulele

After looking at folk and homemade instruments lately I thought I'd have a go at making a cigar box uke. I've cheated slightly, as I have a knackered soprano uke that I got from a charity shop for £10, and I'm going to use the neck for my new instrument. Otherwise I've no previous knowledge of making a musical instrument. I did get the inspiration from the GUGUG guy on You Tube.

First of all I had to get a cigar box. This is a plywood one, as it's all I had. It was lined so I stripped it out as the felt would dampen the sound - if I get any!

Then detach the neck from the original uke. Not that easy without damaging it, but with a bit of careful picking and hacking away it came!

Next I marked up the location for the neck and sound hole using the top of the old uke as a template. I think I'll make the sound hole larger eventually, but first things first.

I also kept the bridge from the old uke, but I'll need to get some new machine heads as the old ones wouldn't stay in tune and it was a pig to get in tune to start with. Next I need to attach the neck and cut the sound hole - I'll keep you posted.