This DIY Shoebox Guitar Will Take You And Your Kid About 10 Minutes To Build

You dream of your kid following in the footsteps of legendary axemen like Jimi Hendrix, Slash, or Janice, but guitars aren’t cheap. Meanwhile, you have a huge stack of recycling just sitting there. What do these 2 things have to do with each other? Everything!

With just a shoebox and a few things you can pick up in that grocery store aisle with all the weird non-food things, you and your kid can build a (sort of) guitar that’s perfect for them to shred on. Will it give you a sense of their innate musical ability? Of course not! But it will give you a sense of whether or not there’s a huge rock star somewhere in that tiny body. That’s valuable information to have before you drop $700 on a new Gibson that spends their adolescence in the back of the closet, gently weeping.

Materials

• Sturdy shoebox with lid
• 6 colored rubber bands
• 12 split pins
• Image of Prince (The more majestic, the better)
• Extra cardboard

Tools

• Glue gun
• X-acto knife
• Ruler

Directions

• Glue your picture of Prince on the inside of the shoebox (this is the most important step).
• Cut a 3-inch hole in the middle of the shoebox lid using the X-acto knife.
• Fold extra cardboard into an arrow with small edges on each side. This will serve as a ‘bridge’ for the guitar’s strings, which will help improve the sound quality of your kid’s strumming.

• Glue the ‘bridge’ below the shoebox’s hole.
• Press 6 split pins into the side of the shoebox directly below the ‘bridge.’ Attach end of one cut rubber band to each pin.
• Attach the other end of the rubber bands with 6 remaining split pins on the opposite side of the shoebox above the hole.
• Make doves cry.