but please don’t sue me
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by cody robinson
Ready your drummer jokes Keep the beat with this stompbox made from an old wooden cigar box
C
igar box stompboxes are a quick and easy way to get into the world of building your own instruments, and they’re a handy way to keep the beat when you just can’t seem to keep a drummer around. (Hey, we’ve all been there.) The fun part of this project is the fact that you can use any of a million things to make it, and each variable can change the sound dramatically. Even if you bought all of these parts new, it would be difficult to spend more than $10, and it’s such a simple design that you could keep changing it until you find the sound you want. A different box? Different padding materials? A rubber mat to place underneath the box? That’s the part of the project that is up to you. It’s meant to encourage you to explore the possibilities, and I hope it does. Otherwise I totally wasted an afternoon. That was quality Facebooking time I’ll never get back. CODY ROBINSON is the production director at the Denton Record-Chronicle as well as a local musician. He’s never met a power tool he couldn’t use or a warranty he couldn’t void. His e-mail address is cbrobinson@dentonrc. com. Amp and used sneakers not included
Materials
Directions
small cigar box piezo buzzer 1/4-inch mono input jack drill and a 5/16-inch bit electrical tape flathead screwdriver soldering iron (optional) facial tissues
1. Remove the lid from the box. Most are held on by small hinges that are nailed into the body of the box. You should be able to pry these hinges off with a flathead screwdriver. Just be careful not to damage the box; it’s likely made of very soft wood. 2. Once you have the lid removed, decide where you’d like to mount the input jack. The side of the box usually works best. 3. With your 5/16-inch bit, carefully drill a hole for the jack. The hole should be slightly smaller than the jack, allowing the threads of the jack’s sleeve to screw into the soft wood for a stronger hold. If it’s a
March 2012
tight fit, widen the hole a little by inserting a rolled up piece of sandpaper and twisting it around to clean up the rough edges. 4. When you’re ready to mount the jack, remove any washers or nuts from the jack and screw it into the hole from the inside of the box. Once it’s installed, twist the retainer nut back onto the jack from the outside. 5. Connect the two wires on the piezo to the terminals on the 1/4-inch jack. There should only be two terminals on a mono input jack, though some come with three. If yours has three terminals, leave the one in the middle empty. For this application, it doesn’t matter which wire goes to which of the other two terminals, just that each wire goes Little d After Dark
to a separate one. Test that you’ve made the right connections at this point by plugging a 1/4-inch cable to the jack and connecting the other end of the cable to an amplifier. 6. Once you’re certain it’s wired correctly, disconnect the cable you used to test and solder your connections in place. If you’re not comfortable with soldering, twist the wires onto the terminals and tape them. 7. Now it’s time to mount your piezo to the cigar box. For the sake of simplicity I’ve found the following method to be the easiest for a beginner: Fold up a facial tissue (or TP, or a whatever soft paper or foam you might have) to a square that’s about a quarter-inch thick and
roughly the width of your piezo. Place it against the surface of the bottom of the box and put the side of the piezo with a single hole in center against the padding. Make a second square of tissue the same way and place it on top of the piezo, so that it is sandwiched between the two squares. Holding it securely in place, and tape it all to the surface of the cigar box. If all goes well, you should be able to flip your box over, plug it into an amp, and suddenly, just by tapping your foot on the box, you’ve become your own drummer. Go ahead and insert your own drummer joke here. I’ll wait.
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