Cigar Box Guitar

Step 4 Carve the Tuning Head

First you will need to lay out where you want the strings, frets, nut, bridge, and tuning pegs on the neck.  I used another guitar to measure where I wanted the frets, but this fretboard template (part 1 and part 2, tape the two together)  would work if you don't have another guitar or if you want a shorter fretboard.

For spacing the strings, measure and mark every 7.6 mm across the neck.  You can calculate this with the following equation: string spacing = width of fretboard / (number of strings + 2).  Now you can start to lay out the shape of the head and the position of the tuning pegs.  If you have individual tuning pegs, you can make whatever shape of head you want.  With the three-in-line tuning pegs I have, I decided to do an angled head so that each tuning peg lines up with its respective string.  You could also use a violin-style tuning pocket.   See the picture below for a general view of the head layout I used.  Drill holes all the way through the head for the tuning pegs, being careful not to knock any chips out the back.  Don't be too worried though; the tuning pegs will cover up a lot of imperfections.

Now it's time to cut out the head.  I used an electric jigsaw, but you could use almost any kind of saw that is capable of making small-radius cuts.  Be sure to keep everything square and level.