"Project Goose" - W4WVK Cigar Box Hybrid Guitar/Bass (Personal Build)

 

While building cigar box guitars, it occurred to me that one of the coolest things I could do is be able to perform with them myself, demonstrating these are not just "guitar-like instruments" but are indeed fully functional guitars in every sense. And what better an opportunity to use one of my mad scientist creations than in W4WVK, where being a mad scientist is a prerequisite, in a power-duo where my one instrument and my two hands must provide both guitar AND bass duties simultaneously? 

So this one had to share at least SOME things I like about my Gibson and Epiphone SG guitars, but also had to be personalized and have its own identity. 


I went with a "Flying V Custom"-style neck with a mid-60's profile chunky neck loaded with some TonePros Kluson vintage tuners, for the ultimate cool factor. Also thought I'd do the custom truss rod cover since this one was built specifically for the band.

Taking my favorite Oliva cigar box and giving it a raw mahogany spine/center-block, I wanted this to be a tone monster with some hidden features that are just as cool as the visible ones. The heavily-modified neck pickup is just for "bass", and is on its own volume pot, to the "ring" of the TRS output, while the bridge humbucker is paired with an MGB Lucky 13 hidden "ghost pickup" on the 3-way toggle, ran parallel with a pair of piezo discs, all with their own volumes and routed to the "tip" of the TRS output. A push-pull pot for coil-splitting the bridge pickup, and another that activates my "booger drive" passive clipping effect. 

On this one I wanted it to REALLY stand out AND be as familiar and versatile as one of my favorite SG's, so it had to have the short Maestro vibrola (like you find on vintage SG Juniors and Specials, along with the coolest of the Firebirds and Flying V's!), and for tuning stability I went with a roller-saddle Nashville style tune-o-matic bridge. Perfecto!


All in all, this one's the fanciest, schmanciest CBG out there, and is a most interesting performance tool. I called it "Project Goose" because I knew I'd be wrapping it up around my son's birthday when I was close to finishing it, and one of his nicknames is "Goose".

Location: W4WVK Studios

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