Making cigar box guitars with thin boxes.

Here's my approach to making decently playing guitar from a thin cigar box. The main points to watch are to keep the neckstick which passes through the box as deep as possible - filling the internal depth of the box and keeping any cut-outs or notches for pickups to the absolute minimum. The help this, make sure the surface of the fingerboard is at least 9mm above the front face of the box. This will do two things - it will allow the height of the pickup to be raised thus reducing the need to notch the neckstick too deeply, and will allow for a reasonably tall bridge, so that the action can be made playable low and at the same time providing a good break angle over the bridge saddle. To mount the neck like this it usually involves glueing a backstrap onto the neckstick where it passes though the body, or using a piece of timber sufficiently deep to allow the cutting of the neck with a raised top face and a thicker section through the box.

https://www.chickenbonejohn.com