Why would a master luthier like Sam Kamaka, Jr. build a dozen ukuleles from old cigar boxes? Serious experimentation or personal amusement? William J Jehle expands an intriguing chapter in the history of the cigar box guitar in his search for answers. Full size measured drawing available here.

This notebook design is made from the scanned cover and blank pages of a well-read reference book from the shelves of The Cigar Box Guitar Museum. At over 100 years old, the edges are yellowed. The muslin covering the spine is nearly falling apart. It looks like it has returned from an adventure that started 100 years ago, that it might contain the plans for a steam powered super computer, or that it contains the cryptic notes of a time traveler. Armed with an overactive imagination, your inventions and ideas are wild and crazy enough to deserve a quirky notebook to store them in. That's what The Explorer's Notebook is all about -- dream big, take note, and the world will thank you.

For a month or two, I kept all of my junk mail just to see the bulk of it. When my curiosity was satisfied, I did not want to just throw it all away. I wanted other options. Recycling or reuse seemed like the best option, but what else could I do? The pages herein are pictures and scans of that junk mail arranged in the form of a notebook with a few ideas about what else could be done about all that junk mail added.

Spanning over 150 years of artifacts, this book is a collection of the history of the cigar box guitar, its origins and its changes in value and perception from the mid-1800s to the present.

Includes a complete set of 20 cigar box instrument plans.