# Building a CARDBOARD acoustic



## DUY1337GUITAR (Jul 22, 2010)

I posted this on the ReRanch forum and thought I might as well share here, too.

So I found this lovely blog on this guy's homemade acoustic guitar build: 
Building an Acoustic Guitar in your Kitchen 

And then I found a retired luthier building an acoustic from 2000 popsicle sticks: 
 

And then all of a sudden, out of summer boredom, I got this crazy idea of building an acoustic guitar out of cardboard. I'm probably not the first, but I never saw it on the vast internets yet. 

I started about 2 weeks ago with a lot of doubt, but now I'm halfway and it's looking pretty good. I'm not going to post a video with all the photos I have until I'm finished, but I'll show you guys the main ones. I really hope this will turn out successful  









































































Don't be deceived, that thing holds up pretty well. I'm hopefully working on it more today, and I'll post more pics later.


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## DUY1337GUITAR (Jul 22, 2010)

walked about 4 miles total today to the bus stop to get to the mall and Guitar Center with my buddies. Spent $8.99 on nylon strings... I hope it will be worth it. 

Anyways, photos





Headstock is huge, like I said









Bridge and nut 





Attaching the headstock 





Gluing the dowels together to form the base of the neck 





If I'm able to, I'll post more pics tonight. Otherwise, I'll see you guys after my long-awaited vacation :3


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## tekkadon d (Jul 22, 2010)

thats looking mighty fine =]


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## Justin Bailey (Jul 23, 2010)

this is gonna be friggin awesome


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## Hollowway (Jul 23, 2010)

Wow, that's innovative!! Thanks for all the pics, too!


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## dreamermind (Jul 23, 2010)

somebody loves icecream very much


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## Sebastian (Jul 23, 2010)

That's a great idea !

Keep the pictures coming


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## Kapee (Jul 23, 2010)

Haha, looks great. 

Moar pics


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## DUY1337GUITAR (Jul 23, 2010)

So sometime between 1-2 AM in the morning, I took out the nylon strings to see how long they are. I was planning to string it through the bottom end of the guitar where I would add a piece of wood to make it look like in the pic below: 





However, the strings are too short... but after a few minutes of thinking, I solved my problem. I will make something that will be similar to this (but not exactly): 





I sketched out my plan before going to bed because now I'm on vacation. Can't wait to be back and work on the guitar again


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## jats (Jul 25, 2010)

love it!


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## DUY1337GUITAR (Jul 25, 2010)

Alright! Finally home from vacation. The WiFi at the place I was staying wouldnt let me go on YouTube... and it was also slow. 

Tomorrow, I'm going to get back on track and start building. I may have some pics to show you guys, I'll check my cam after I take a break.


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## DUY1337GUITAR (Jul 26, 2010)

I was sawing a slab of wood with my coping saw and my arms are tired... so I'll just take a break and post some photos. 































More later


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## DUY1337GUITAR (Jul 27, 2010)

Who wants more? 














































How's it looking now?


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## Hollowway (Jul 27, 2010)

Have I mentioned that you're a mad scientist? I fully support your madness!


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## jymellis (Jul 27, 2010)

this is my dads buddy. he sells these box bass guitars as a kit 

Bogdon Music


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## DUY1337GUITAR (Jul 27, 2010)

Hollowway said:


> Have I mentioned that you're a mad scientist? I fully support your madness!



bahaha, heck yes I am. Look at what my first attempt at painting a guitar looks like:





Since then, I couldnt stop the cravings of building things.


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## DUY1337GUITAR (Jul 27, 2010)

jymellis said:


> this is my dads buddy. he sells these box bass guitars as a kit
> 
> Bogdon Music




I remember seeing a video of something similar, surprised about about how well abundant cardboard can sound


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## Sebastian (Jul 27, 2010)

Great work so far


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## BigPhi84 (Jul 27, 2010)

Hey, you're that Viet from youtube, right? I remember seeing your finishing vids on youtube about 6 months ago, and saw the Vietnamese Newspaper underneath the guitar body. I also remember reading your name, and at first I thought it was DIY1337GUITAR for Do-it-yourself-Leet-guitar, but then I did a doubletake and realized that it was dUy. I've heard that there are a lot of Viets in Oregon. I wonder why. Nice Cardboard concept. I'll be following this thread.


Always drinking that Yeo's Sua Dau Nanh,
Phi ^_^


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## Stealthdjentstic (Jul 27, 2010)

Good stuff, keep going!


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## highlordmugfug (Jul 27, 2010)

Cool idea. Can't wait to see the finished product.


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## DUY1337GUITAR (Jul 27, 2010)

BigPhi84 said:


> Hey, you're that Viet from youtube, right? I remember seeing your finishing vids on youtube about 6 months ago, and saw the Vietnamese Newspaper underneath the guitar body. I also remember reading your name, and at first I thought it was DIY1337GUITAR for Do-it-yourself-Leet-guitar, but then I did a doubletake and realized that it was dUy. I've heard that there are a lot of Viets in Oregon. I wonder why. Nice Cardboard concept. I'll be following this thread.
> 
> 
> Always drinking that Yeo's Sua Dau Nanh,
> Phi ^_^



Yeah there are lots of Viets on the west coast (Washington, Oregon, and California). I think it's because this is where Vietnamese refugees settled in (by boat transportation) when they fled from the dangers of the Vietnam War. My dad was one of them.

lol I used to drink Sua Dau Nanh all the time when I was a kid, but now I drink Yeo's Chrysanthemum tea and basil seed drink.


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## DUY1337GUITAR (Jul 29, 2010)

So guys, I assembled everything and it's playable now 

I threw in the nylon strings I bought, had to get used to the method of tuning but it worked out fine. This thing actually sings! I didn't think it would resonate so well. 

I carved out the dowel that supports the guitar neck underneath the face of the guitar so that it would not touch the soundboard, except for the area where the bridge is placed. This allowed the front to resonate and I'm happy that it worked out.

Unfortunately I snapped the high string because I messed up while tightening the string and got part of it squeezed between the bolt and wood, so it thinned. I tried fixing it and retuned but the damaged part snapped... so I guess I have to buy another pack of nylon. 

Right now I'm gonna do some finishing touches. I have lots of pics, but I'm too lazy to upload right now. I'll get it later tonight or tomorrow at noon.

In the meantime, can you guys listen to this original that me and my friend made. I pretty much made most of the leads and the synth strings, and my friend did the rhythm and drum tracks and also the solo at the end. We need a title for the song, so we'd appreciate if you listen to the entire track and suggest a title. The track is actually a MIDI exported from Guitar Pro 5, so it's going to sound crappy, but it'll give you an idea of what it sounds like. 


Song is still being worked on, so don't go critical if it sounds like it's "missing" something.


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## DUY1337GUITAR (Jul 29, 2010)

Okay I have lots of new pics. I can't show you all of them but I'll give you the interesting ones 































































Here's a solution to the snapped high string



:


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## aiur55 (Jul 29, 2010)

How does it sound??


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## DUY1337GUITAR (Jul 29, 2010)

aiur55 said:


> How does it sound??



It actually resonates and sounds like an acoustic. Warm tone, yet some brightness in there (surprisingly). It doesnt really sound "boxy" or anything, it sounds quite nice. 

You know when you pick up an acoustic and it makes a soft hum? That happen with this guitar when I was stringing and I was kind of surprised that it did. 

I played a nylon string guitar before but I can't remember how loud it could go, but this cardboard guitar is definitely louder than I would expect. Good enough for bedroom levels, I wonder how it would sound if I was to hook it up with a piezo and preamp.


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## anthonyferguson (Jul 29, 2010)

That, sir, is awesome. I demand a video!! NAO.


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## DUY1337GUITAR (Jul 29, 2010)

tonywozere said:


> That, sir, is awesome. I demand a video!! NAO.



 tomorrow 



haha, my parents are home from work, and my brother is being rowdy again. I'll wait til it's quiet before recording because I have no idea how this will sound on my mic.


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## Raoul Duke (Jul 29, 2010)

That is so cool


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## eclipsex1 (Jul 30, 2010)

Awesome job. That's pretty amazing. I'm interested in how the tuners work (sorry if I missed something :x). Could you take some closer pictures of it, or explain how you did it?


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## highlordmugfug (Jul 30, 2010)

VIDEO NOW.



Please.


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## thewildturkey (Jul 30, 2010)

That is epic.


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## DUY1337GUITAR (Jul 30, 2010)

eclipsex1 said:


> Awesome job. That's pretty amazing. I'm interested in how the tuners work (sorry if I missed something :x). Could you take some closer pictures of it, or explain how you did it?



well i was hoping i could tie the nylon strings onto the thread shaft of the eye bolts but that didnt work out... so I just tied a simple knot through the hole of the eye bolts instead and just turn them to tune. And then there's the nut that tightens the eye bolts so it doesnt release.


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## DUY1337GUITAR (Jul 30, 2010)

highlordmugfug said:


> VIDEO NOW.
> 
> 
> 
> Please.



pay-per-view


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## Sebastian (Jul 30, 2010)

That is indeed awesome !

Video


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## Lord_Elixer (Jul 30, 2010)

Haha that is brilliant, I want one!
As for your song title...I think it should be "And so the pelican stares" ...or not, just some randomosity! :-D


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## Marv Attaxx (Jul 30, 2010)

Awesome 
Reminds me of my "broom of doom"-project, only even cooler


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## highlordmugfug (Jul 30, 2010)

Marv Attaxx said:


> Awesome
> Reminds me of my "broom of doom"-project, only even cooler


You never gave us clips or vids if I remember correctly.


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## Customisbetter (Jul 30, 2010)

this is so awesome.


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## Marv Attaxx (Jul 30, 2010)

highlordmugfug said:


> You never gave us clips or vids if I remember correctly.


Yeah, I know 
Things kinda fell apart after me and my buddy Flo built this. We didn't have the technology to record something cool. And shortly afterwards he had to move 800km away to go to university and I had to move 200km for the same reason while the mighty broom was laying around at my old house....
I still want to write a song with it...one day!!!


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## DUY1337GUITAR (Aug 4, 2010)

Okay... my friend finally sent me his original song. I was waiting on him because I wanted to put an acoustic song in this video (no, the acoustic you hear is not the cardboard guitar, a demo will come later). This video will just give you more pics for now.


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## clouds (Aug 6, 2010)

That's awesome. Your refinishing vids on the tube are also really helpful.


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## highlordmugfug (Sep 7, 2011)

*MAKE A VIDEO OF THIS GUITAR. >:|*


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## Quitty (Sep 8, 2011)

^^ This.

I'm waiting.









Still waiting.


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## samincolour (Sep 8, 2011)

Amazing!

Also, I learnt how to paint a guitar from your YouTube videos a few months back. Excellent work! 

Can't wait to hear this!


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## guy in latvia (Sep 8, 2011)

wow awesome +a billion on the video of someone playing this!


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## SirMyghin (Sep 8, 2011)

Someone probably melted this guitar with a hose.


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## theo (Sep 8, 2011)

but seriously... videos please


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## TheBloodstained (Sep 9, 2011)

I'm kind of tempted to build one of these! 
Could really use some kind of acoustic! ^^


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## Superwoodle (Sep 9, 2011)

Can it djent?

Make video


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## Swyse (Sep 9, 2011)

The guy who made this last posted more than a year ago. +1 post for me too.


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## degge (Sep 10, 2011)

Well that's a letdown, I really wanted to hear it


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