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First Build

Well my first build went well, a pair of Diddly Bo's. (pictures to come soon).

I got the tuner's for free from a lutier who didn't mind thinning out his junk drawer for a good cause, and I got the cigar boxes for free from the owner of the tobacco store I patronize frequently.

They are face mount necks (similar to Uncle Crow's design) which makes it easy to open the box while still strung and staying in tune (I keep my slides inside when not playing).

The first time I tuned them up I had an annoying buzz, I thought it was possibly the break angle over the nut being less than 5 deg. But it turned out it was just the tuning knob was loose. A little tightening of the screw and all was well.

They are electrified, each has a piezo disk and 1/4" jack with no volume/tone knobs. For now the piezos are just taped in place with blue painter's tape, but I will be experimenting with placement and sandwiching them inside of something to see if i can reduce the feedback.

I used 1/8 in rivets with the nail popped out for grommets in the tail to anchor the strings and that worked fabulously.

I have already promised to build a CBG for the owner of the tobacco shop, a nice little bribe to get more cigar boxes for free.

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Comment by Joe Caruso on July 7, 2014 at 5:14am: Thanks for sharing - a different way of attaching the neck to the box which I had not seen until now.

Comment by JL on July 7, 2014 at 4:45am: So here are some pics of my first build, a nice simple pair of diddley bow's.I built one and my girlfriend built the other.

1/4" bolt for the nut. These tuner's are a tad long, not much break angle over the nut.

But they are working well so I'm leaving them be. Next time I'll think about a shim to the back of the headstock, or an angled headstock.

1/8" snap rivots for the ferrules, 1/4" bolt for the bridge.

the lower one in this picture has a deeper box and sounds a little nicer to my ear.

Neck is face mounted to the box with a reinforcing cleat behind it.

Piezo pickup and 1/4" jack courtesy of Radio Shack. It was fun to break the disk out of the buzzer, but I will order raw disks for future builds.

Painter's tape is working very well for mounting the piezo, while I prep for some 'experiments' with felt/leather/cork/etc to see what can reduce feedback from the amp without killing the sound.

Comment by Sawbones on June 26, 2014 at 1:36am: Cool,cant wait to see.I have a couple smaller boxes I'm going to do a didley bo w/,just have too many going on right now!

Wish I could find a box hookup,I get all mine off ebay,so that's where the $$$ goes on my builds.My latest is the best one Ive done and I got the box at goodwill for $4,so the whole thing cost maybe $20.I pay more for just the box on ebay.

Not a luthier,but built a lot of partscasters and kit guitars,so I have a big box of all parts.Tuners and strings are pretty much all I use that are "real" guitar parts.

Those grommets are called ferrules and I just read people are using bicycle spoke nipples.