Johnny Cash calls it the Tennessee flat-top box. Essentially, acoustic guitars are just strings and a box that can resonate their sounds.

Drawing on a tradition that dates back to the first American country music, Winthrop resident Mel Cooke has been learning how to make a guitar from a real humidor for the past year.

After learning about these unique instruments in a documentary about country music by Ken Burns, he was inspired to start making these unique instruments.

"People in Appalachia don't have money. They can find old boxes. Some of them are made of tin cans," he said. "There are no rules, it's anything they can think of."

Cook said that is still the case today.

First, he started with a toolkit and Google. He found help and hardware from resources such as cigarboxnation.com-the site brought together many people with similar interests to Cook.

Now he has his own template and designs each instrument himself. He buys some boxes from websites such as Etsy and other boxes directly from the cigar store.

The design of the unique musical instrument is inspired by the humidor.

"I would sit there and play with them, where I want to put the sound hole, or what type of neck I want to put it on," he said. "...Some of these boxes are solid wood, and some are made of pressed cardboard."

All Cooke guitars have three strings, and unlike traditional guitars, there are no frets—just like violin or upright bass. They are also tuned to the open G chord. The strings are located above the neck, which is perfect for playing glass or metal slides.

Open tuning allows one person to play any major chord in the same way-using one finger to press or ban all six strings between two frets on a standard guitar, or all three strings on a Cook guitar.

"For non-guitarists, this is a very good guitar, and this is me," he said. He said that since learning to make guitars, he has also learned to play them.

The standard tuning for six-string and 12-string guitars is EADGBE, which is the E key.

"If you know how to play the guitar, you will learn it easily," he said.

The strings are connected to each end of the wooden neck, extending the entire length of the guitar at each end of the box.

Cook said that he has been involved in the woodworking industry for decades and does not consider himself a good musical instrument manufacturer. Most of his cigar box guitars are functional crafts or works of art. Of the 16 works he completed and sold at Methow Valley Goods in Twisp, some have been bought by musicians, while others have been bought by people looking for unique local art for their homes.

"It doesn't require a lot of professional tools; putting them together is mainly hand tools," he said

Cooke's finished products are sold at Valley Goods in Twisp. For more information, please visit methowvalleygoods.com/

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