Comment

Comment by Craig Mayhem on January 8, 2013 at 3:55am

based on your pictures the boxes look terrific!

Comment by Charlotte Henry on January 8, 2013 at 3:24am

John, I love the guitar I made out a Punch box and it was a masonite box, but there is no getting around the fact that spruce is the stuff of legends. I have 2 baritone ukulele's, one all solid mahogany and one is a solid spruce top with laminated sides and back and the power of the spruce top instrument is dramatic compared to the mahogany.

Comment by Charlotte Henry on January 8, 2013 at 3:17am

Hi Jim, I bought a box joint jig from Rockler along with their box joint cauls and I already had a strap clamp.  I am buying lumber and resawing it on the band saw to get the thickness that I want and running it through a planer. I cut the pieces to the lengths that I need and then take those pieces to the router table and cut the box joints. I was using Titebond glue but have switched over to hot hide glue for glue up. Clamp time is longer but it's so easy to dip the ends of the pieces  in the hide glue compared to having to carefully get the titebond in all the nooks a cranny's.  Hot hide glue is still used by piano and furniture professionals because it is still considered a great glue, plus I enjoy using it.

Comment by Jim burt on January 8, 2013 at 1:13am

I have thought of making my own boxes too....Tell me more about your boxes...

Comment by ChickenboneJohn on January 8, 2013 at 12:45am

I make quite few of my own boxes..but don't knock Masonite. We use them for all the Home Grown Music Collective kit guitars and loads of people remark on how good they sound!  I was surprised when I made the first few masonite faced box guitars..but seems like Danelectro had the right idea all those years ago.

Comment by Swamp Dawg Primal Music on January 7, 2013 at 6:45pm

Good luck! I started building my own boxes since it costs about 25 bucks to import one to Italy, and then there's the risk that it'll sound bad. I find I get more consistent sound quality building my own, and I decorate them the way I want.