Hand Crafted Bone Guitar Slides by MojoBone

Custom engraved bone guitar slide made by MojoBone Works.

I have been checking out Randy's slides for awhile now and have heard great things about them from players and builders alike that have been fortunate enough to order one.

Randy is a true artist; utilizing his impressive carving skills to create some of the most attractive, comfortable, and functional bone slides I’ve ever seen in my life.

One player/builder of Cigar Box Guitars said, "After hearing so many players say such great things about these slides, I decided that I wanted to try one for myself. I’ve been experimenting with a lot of different sounds lately and actively working to improve my guitar playing and as part of this, I wanted to check out the sounds that I could get from different slides (all I ever used was brass). I’ve been interested in bone for a while now as it had been explained to me that there is really no substitute if you’re trying to achieve a roots-era 20’s to 30’s sound."


You will never see another slide shaped like this one unless you order one from Randy yourself. Top to bottom, it is absolutely incredible. The slide itself is good and meaty with plenty of weight behind it but the part that wraps your knuckle is carved quite thin and you barely notice that it’s there when you’re playing. The whole thing is polished as smooth as glass. Those notches along the side make a perfect resting place for your other fingers, and he even goes so far as to texture the inside of the slide with grooves in order to give your slide finger extra tactile grip.

On top of all this, every slide that he sends out comes with some adhesive moleskin that you can wrap around the inside to ensure the right fit.

Randy also includes a custom made bone pick – something he could probably get as much as $10 for. He just likes to throw them in.

This will give you an idea of MojoBone Works artful slides. For more information on MojoBone Works slides you can email Randy at farmish@comcast.net

Finished Cuesta Rey Cigar Box Guitar

Alright after a little “fine tuning” so to speak I finally have my latest build the Red Cuesta Rey Cigar Box Guitar to where I like it!

I ended up completely redoing the fret nut and replacing it with of all things a brass toilet bolt. Why you may ask? Simply because it was large enough in diameter to fill my needs. I used a hacksaw blade to deepen some notches in the threads to hold the strings in place.

Completely remaking the bridge was another piece I wanted to change. I ended up using a nice piece of scrap wood called padauk. Padauk has a reddish or orange color to it. I chose padauk because of the overall red background in this particular Cuesta Rey cigar box.

Using my fret saw I placed a cut diagonally across the wood and glued a piece of fret wire in place. From there I sanded off any excess wood so that a slope was created from the edges up to the crown of the fret. This allows the strings to come in contact with the metal fret wire and not the wood.

A bonus I wanted to share with you in having to go find parts for the retrofit. I ended up at my local family owned “non-big box” hardware store. I made new friends, found a potential source from one of the clerks for antique cigar boxes and found the store sells old brass cabinet pull knobs and handles. These knobs and handles look great on CBG’s!

In this particular build I purchased a larger Cuesta Rey cigar box for the main guitar body and a smaller Cuesta Rey cigar box of the same style for parts. I used parts of the smaller box lid to dress up the guitars headstock. I also used a piece of the bottom of the smaller box to dress up the tailpiece.

I did not add a fret board this time around but relied on the natural beauty of red oak that the neck is made out of. The neck was shaped by hand. Since I intended this CBG for all slide work I did not include frets. I did, however, inlay multi-colored wood veneer strips in the correct fret positions.

All in all I am very pleased the way my little red Cuesta Rey cigar box guitar turned out. She sounds great when plugged into an amp!