Beginner Cigar Box Guitar

Step 10 The Nut and the Bridge

The Bridge
If you have no clue what a "bridge" is, look at this picture. For cigar box guitar purposes, it consists of 2 parts:

1. The part that anchors the strings (in the bridge pictured here, there are little black pegs holding the strings in place.) I used a 3" hinge.
2. The part the strings pass over (in this picture, it's that thin white line.) I used a small piece of trim.

To anchor my strings, I used a 3" hinge predrilled with 3 holes. For the other part of the bridge, I used a 2.5" piece of trim - similar to quarter round, but it had a 90 degree angle on one side and the other side was curved.

I carved notches in the trim piece for the strings to fit through. The notches should be in line with the holes in the hinge.

The strings tie through the holes in the hinge. Technically, the other piece of the bridge doesn't even need to be glued in because the string tension is supposed to hold it in place. But I glued mine in anyway.

The Nut
Here's a diagram of an acoustic guitar. The nut is on the neck, near the tuning pegs.

I used the same type of trim for my nut as I used for my bridge. This was a mistake. But - the nut is supposed to have a low profile..probably not even a 1/4" off the fretboard. My nut was way too tall, which holds the strings really high off the fretboard.(ie: the "action" is really high.) A high action is good for slide guitar, or even for bowing with a violin bow, so maybe I'll try that before I replace my nut with something thinner.

Discontinuuity used a nail with the end cut off as his nut, which seems to have worked out great.

Attaching the bridge & the nut
Just glue them into place!