Electric Cigar Box Kalimba

Have you ever wanted to rock out with your own thumb piano? This instrument sounds great played acoustically or plugged into an amplifier. Let's build!

• Cigar box
• Spring Steel to cut metal tines
• A short piece of metal pipe or tubing
• Piezo pickup
• 1/4" Jack
• Metal clothes hanger
• 3 bolts (#8), with 3 washers and 3 nuts

1. Make Soundhole. Measure center of lid. Use a 2" hole saw, or choose an appropriate size, depending on how big your cigar box is. Clamp to the table to secure for drilling. Go slowly and gradually as you drill the soundhole. Sand around edges to make smooth.
2. Measure center of top of box for jack. Drill a pilot hole, and step up to a 3/8" hole.

1. Cut the pipe to the desired length, just smaller than the width of the box's lid. The pipe I found was from an old curtain rod. The best tool for the task is a tubing cutter, but a hacksaw would work as well.
2. Using a straight edge and a marker, draw a straight line down the length of the tube.
3. On the line you drew, mark the center of the pipe and 1/2" from either side. Use a vise and drill press to drill 9/64" holes for a #8 bolt (slightly larger than the bolts). Go all the way through the pipe.
4. Remove any metal burrs around the holes with a metal file, bench grinder, or Dremel.

1. Using metal snips, cut metal tines approximately 3" long.
2. The material I used is spring steel used for instruments, but you could also cut pieces from a metal rake, bicycle spokes, or other firm wire.
3. Using a bench grinder or Dremel, round over the edges of each tine and remove rough spots.

1. Cut two pieces of wire from a metal clothes hanger to the same length as the pipe, using needlenose pliers.
2. Use a Dremel to remove rough parts.
3. These pieces will act as saddles under the keys of the kalimba.

1. Use wire strippers to expose more of the wire.
2. Solder the black connection of the piezo to the inner pole of the jack, and the positive to the outer pole.

1. Use awl through holes in the pipe to mark holes in top of lid, approx 1" from top.
2. Drill holes for pipe with 1/8" bit.
3. Sand all rough parts.

1. Put a small dot of glue on the bronze side of the piezo pickup.
2. Glue it directly below the metal bridge.
3. Clamp it while it dries.
4. Push the jack through the hole in the top of the box and tighten the nut from the outside.

[Note: You may wish to center the piezo and only use two bolts. I opted for a second piezo pickup instead.]

1. Attach the pipe with nuts and bolts.
2. Use a crescent wrench to hold the nuts below the bridge and screw the bolts from the top.
3. Slide the metal tines under the pipe and put the metal wires underneath the tines to act as saddles in front and back. The pressure from the pipe bridge pushing down on the tines is enough to keep the saddles in place.
4. Tune the instrument. Long tines = lower pitches; short tines = higher. Most thumb pianos expand outward ascending stepwise from the center.