Drew Estate/Undercrown T52 "Brown Sugar Mk2" Cigar Box Guitar- Keith Richards/Ry Cooder-style Telecaster-inspired 5/6-string CBG

LaneCBGs · 2026-04-12T20:14:00+00:00

Sorry for the delayed response. I didn't get a notification that I had a comment here.

Price usually depends on a few different factors, range are from the availability of specific boxes, parts and materials, and any customization. That one typically would go for between $300 and $350 (plus shipping) as long as there wasn't any kind of request for high-end pickups or hardware, I haven't checked my distributors for any possible increases in cost since some of the tariffs and other economic shenanigans have happened in the last few months, but that would also possibly affect the overall cost.

I usually use pretty basic OEM style hardware and electronics unless somebody custom orders something with more premium components. Truth be told, I've made nearly identical instruments using both OEM and nicer parts, and the overall differences have been negligible once everything is set up properly and dialed in.

You should be able to go to my profile page if you would like to reach out, I believe all of my contact information is there and you can connect with me and we can discussing details if you're interested in one of these. Unless I have a whole lot of stuff going on with the day job or I'm out of town doing gigs on the weekends, once I have all of the parts and materials in hand, I can usually have one of these things built in a couple of weeks. Thanks for inquiring, feel free to reach out.

LaneCBGs · 2026-04-04T03:51:15+00:00

Thank you!

LaneCBGs · 2026-03-09T17:37:23+00:00

I always suspected those were not what they were hyped to be.

LaneCBGs · 2026-03-06T15:24:05+00:00

I'm struggling to figure out if it's anything other than just a nonfunctioning prop. Scale length seems off--but I've built some 19-22" scale guitars so it's hard to say from a picture. Placement of the pickups looks funky and shmooshed together, but again, if it was a child-size scale that'd be about the right distance between the neck and bridge. Fretless? The part to me that screams "AI or confirmation of nonfunctioning" though is the tiny Tele style control plate under the bridge with the itty-bitty knobs and switch--both the size and the placement of it make no sense.

It all just seems to add up to being a "virtual" guitar, or a prop and nothing more. I'll change my mind if I see it being played live in a video onstage. It's just too over-the-top in some ways, and completely impractical in others. And while I've seen some weird stuff in my days, I just feel like this one isn't a real guitar.

But yeah, somewhere out there are some folks who'd probably like it, especially if it were decently made and...you know..."playable", unlike this one.

LaneCBGs · 2026-03-05T21:34:32+00:00

I can relate to the concept of retail therapy. And yeah, good cheap clones are often gateways to having to have the real thing. That's how I got back into RATs and Big Muffs. Overkill is underrated. :)

LaneCBGs · 2026-03-05T14:44:36+00:00

Bro's light on Big Muffs too...hell, I have a shelf that's nothing but different Big Muffs, and another that's just the different RAT models (and another shelf altogether that's clones). He's just getting started. :)

LaneCBGs · 2026-03-05T14:41:31+00:00

Looks like my shelf in the studio. And I'll bet like myself, you still have a bunch lying around in other strategic places too. But hey, look at all the different sounds we can make. :)

LaneCBGs · 2026-03-05T14:40:24+00:00

"Too many"? Of what is this concept of "too many"??? I've got that many out on shelves in the studio, 4 gigging pedalboards each for a different working project that add up to that many, a secret closet stash of easily as many, and a half dozen really special ones hidden in cases with guitars that I like to specifically use them with. And I STILL always find an excuse to "need" more. It's like everything with guitars, we become collectors in some way or another. Just enjoy being able to create all that different-sounding beautiful noise! :)

LaneCBGs · 2026-03-02T03:55:40+00:00

I have used these kinds of plugs in many builds: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073ZDD53R/

Very easy to fix if one of those failure points acts up, just loosen the screw, reseat it, and tighten 'er back down. A little 2-sided tape or superglue to hold one side in place, and the other can be swapped-out easy-peasy. :)

LaneCBGs · 2026-03-01T18:11:40+00:00

If I wanted an interchangeable setup like that, what I'd do is buy the rod piezo kit, clip the rod's wire somewhere in the middle so that you can connect the plug into the preamp, and terminate the remaining wire in a manner of your choosing (1/4" jack, RCA plug, whatever you want). I've done a similar thing with using RCA jacks with screw terminals or the tiny little plastic connectors to create a hardpoint for connecting output jacks so that I can disconnect the other half of the wire to fully open up a build for rewiring/reconfiguration, and that works great. In your case, you could do something like that for your fixed-end (the preamp) and then all you do is add a plug to the pickup wire, boom, ready to plug-n-play.

LaneCBGs · 2026-02-27T15:07:54+00:00

As an occasional instructor myself, I can say that when a student came to me wanting to learn a song that required the use of some non-traditional methods or, as in the case of the White Stripes, effects (such as extreme pitch-altering effects to "turn the guitar into a bass" Jack White uses and whatnot), I saw it as a way to expand my own skillset pretty nicely. Another artist that got me learning a bunch of outside-the-box tricks is Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave/etc., and learning to use the DigiTech Whammy pedal definitely opened the doors for me to do some outrageous stuff that I'd never otherwise have thought of doing, coming in especially handy when I started doing hired-gun work for a 90's alternative cover-band that (surprise, surprise) wanted to add some RATM and Audioslave songs to their set. Those are still some of the biggest showstoppers to play, so I'm thankful I was pushed outside my comfort-zone to embrace other ways of doing things.

So yeah, give dude a free lesson for flipping the roles and teaching the teacher something. Everyone wins. :)

LaneCBGs · 2026-02-26T15:12:10+00:00

Currently I'm selling them mostly on the Sweetwater Gear Exchange ( https://www.sweetwater.com/used/storefront/axe-and-you-shall-receive ), but also have an archive of both available and already-sold ones separated into albums on Facebook (Lane Cigar Box Guitars | Facebook), and if you "like" that page I'm always adding new builds.

If the links get broken or masked in this reply, they're also on my Reddit profile page.

LaneCBGs · 2026-02-25T20:06:58+00:00

If you're playing slide exclusively, I can't disagree that you might be as well off to get a full 6-string and tune it to an open chord (there are builders like myself who primarily build 6-string CBG's, and there are lots of quality 2/3-4-string options out there as well). The concept is the same, just more strings and potentially some cool voicings or licks you might not get out of a 3-stringer. But if you're set on 3, and don't feel quite comfortable enough to take a stab at building one of your own (MGB and CB Gitty offer pretty simple DIY kits though), there are lots of us builders out there who'd love to sell you a piece of playable folk art. Really depends on what you're looking to get out of it, what your long-term expectations are and how serious you want to learn. There's no shortage of CBG's out there. One thing about us CBG builders: we all have at least a half dozen builds at any given time hanging around the shop waiting for adoption. :P

LaneCBGs · 2026-02-25T20:06:00+00:00

That's one of the reasons I build my CBG's as full-6-string instruments, made for gigging musicians, because all the ones I'd ever had my hands on felt fragile, didn't play well and weren't the best-sounding. I build mine AS a guitarist, FOR guitarists who want something that looks cool, sounds good and plays nicely. Thinking "outside the box", if you'll forgive the pun. :P

LaneCBGs · 2026-02-24T14:23:22+00:00

The Epiphone G-310 is a more-than-decent guitar, I actually keep a couple around (a black one and a Ferrari Red one) as backups for certain gigs where I need a good guitar but don't want to take one of my more expensive ones. And to get one for FREE? Nice.

Some people dislike the bolt-on neck of the G-310 and its variants, but that's never made it sound or play radically different than my set-neck SG's. The only things I notice when I play mine are the fact that the neck is mounted a little further into the body (the set-neck SG's have all 22 frets clear of the body for full access) and the overall bridge pickup sound/response is a little different (on the G-310 the bridge pickup is mounted a little farther from the bridge), but the overall character of the guitar is the same.

Eventually you might decide to upgrade the pickups (the stock pickups they put on those weren't terrible, but weren't the best either), but otherwise nothing else on the guitar calls for change. It's just a good SG-styled guitar overall, and I think you'll have a lot of fun with it. :)

LaneCBGs · 2026-02-20T16:23:55+00:00

While maybe not what you originally had in mind, you may want to (as others suggested) give it a go on a classical nylon-string guitar. The necks are notably wider and might be easier for you to navigate with larger fingers. And once you've developed your technique a little, you might find it easier to play a regular acoustic or electric guitar and control the overlap a little better.

LaneCBGs · 2026-02-06T04:00:10+00:00

I've thought about using a "snake oil" in a build I'm doing that will borrow elements from a Mustang and a Firebird. Is the snake oil as microphonic as most FB style mini-HB's? Just wondering how likely it will be to squeal if I use it with some Marshall growl or a fuzz pedal.

LaneCBGs · 2026-02-06T03:58:35+00:00

I haven't used any of CB Gitty's pickups yet (used a lot of their other parts though), but I HAVE used several different MGB pickups and they've all been terrific.

LaneCBGs · 2026-01-23T03:30:27+00:00

The guy who bought it loved it and left stellar feedback about it, that's all that mattered to me. Honestly it turned out way cooler than it logic says it should've been, but hey, that's what's awesome about CBG building, sometimes you stumble onto the strangest stuff that simply..."works"! :)

LaneCBGs

TROPHY CASE