We contacted our friend John Lowebow, who makes cigar box guitars and more. He sent the above list.
Most things are available at your local hardware store. The pickup, jack and guitar strings came from a guitar store. A next build will include diy pickups. The screws for to attach the pickup are # 4. The bridge and nut were cut from the smaller piece of wood.
Measurements are important. Here, a tape was used to measure the pickup height. On the next one, the pickup was used to mark string spacing.
Here they cut notches on both ends of the board where they marked for the strings.
After securing one of the string with a horseshoe nail, the other is secured. You can see Brian pulling down on the string to give it some tension. This is much easier to do with guitar strings but you can use the channel lock pliers to do so pretty well.
After the strings were put on, the bridge and nut where put in, which tightened the strings significantly.
The pickup was screwed down using the little screw, taking care to align the strings over magnets as well as possible. The two wires from the pickup connect to the tabs on the jack. Alligator clips work fine. Solder makes for better and cleaner connections.
Here, Brian and Marquette explain how they made one
