Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on July 5, 2013 at 1:14am

the handle "stringybark "is almost certainly australian,i,ve had no joy trying to reach him via his page either jeff

Permalink Reply by Jeff McFadden on July 5, 2013 at 2:00am

Aha. Just shows what I know! ;)

Permalink Reply by stringybark on July 5, 2013 at 5:01pm

Hi Jeff...sorry for the confusion about the profile..seems Im not that computer literate either, I am in Australia..(called stringy bark because I love anything with strings and I have taught the dog to sing, anytime I strum ANYTHING...off she goes..shes getting better at producing noise than I am).Anyway.. just completed my first cbg, and of course I see the mistakes..I am onto No2 , and know a little more. Cigar boxes or any wooden box are a bit hard to come by here, I am in the mountains in Victoria..not many shops..so decided to build my own boxes, just makes the project a bit longer to do..all good fun. When I find the picture of my cbg in this computer I will upload it...cheers and good advice about the size of the boxes..I sort of figured that out a little..wooden boxes are a bit of a trick to get hold of here..(shame the same cant be said of plastic bags LOL..cheers and thanks again.

Permalink Reply by Jeff McFadden on July 7, 2013 at 4:59am

Plastic bags.  Aaargh.  They're probably everywhere on the planet.  :(

Permalink Reply by Jeff McFadden on July 5, 2013 at 12:53am

^ What Chickenbone John said.  Anybody who want to sell these would be better served to sell his / her own and leave out the middleman.  There's just not that much room in them when you figure the price of an Asian-made full-size six string.

Permalink Reply by Jeff McFadden on July 5, 2013 at 12:54am

@ Chickenbone John I wish you'd do a video where you play Trouble in Mind straight through and then demonstrate some of those licks and the progression.  If you get the chance.

Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on July 4, 2013 at 6:24pm

Here's another example...some proper music played acoustically ....this is how they can sound ...

By the way...fingerpicks or plectrum are not necessary - you can get volume that way, but ....this video and my example are picked pretty gently...

Permalink Reply by Slowpaw Steve T on July 4, 2013 at 6:45pm

Agree with all that's been said,  i noticed the guitar in your photo is quite small - the rule is simple, big box big sound small box small sound acoustically....but with a pickup and amp you can get a great uncoloured sound from a small flat box, though a good acoustic sound can be obtained from a small sturdy box if it is built correctly like Chickenbone John suggests, a reasonably good sound can come out of it... btw anyone tried his amazing reso cones? (-;

Permalink Reply by Clarky on July 4, 2013 at 11:24pm

Argh I just started a similar discussion before I saw this, oh well.  I agree about the Roland Cube, small, versatile, portable, sturdy, you can't go wrong.

Permalink Reply by Downtown Vinnie on July 6, 2013 at 4:47am

Wood,wood,wood,Sometimes,it is all about the box...Sometimes you need more holes for lesser boxes.I have had good experiences w building,But I guess its thin to win .Best comment ever heard about CBGs on here is that the best build is bordering on destruction.

I like both electric and accoustic,But I have mostly discarded playing cbgs w/ a pick because I dont like the tone as much.o play 20 ,you'll notice each one speaks differently,they are each  as different  individually,as the people here....good luck in yer quest.

Permalink Reply by Michael Recchione on July 8, 2013 at 6:36am

I've been on the same holy grail of making them louder unplugged.

Some things that might help:

1) Top:  As others have said, thinner is better for the top.  If you're making your own box, why not use a decent wood top?  I don't know who the suppliers are in Oz, but here in The States, you can get a nice quality Western Red Cedar or Sitka Spruce classical guitar top set for not much money, from Steward-MacDonald.  One set should be good for 2-4 CBGs, depending on how big you make them.  I recently used one half of a Western Red Cedar set for the top of an Anglo-Saxon Lyre, and even with nylon strings and no sound hole at all, that thing is LOUD.  The trick is to thin the wood, particularly at the sides, where the top meets the sides of the box.  I also thin the tops of cigar boxes, doing it on the inside, where it doesn't show.  It helps (me) to test with a tuning fork as I go, to make sure things are getting better.

Another thing about the top of a CBG intended to be played unplugged is to keep most of the junk off it - that means really avoiding all the heavy brass hardware that the electric guitars are decorated with. 

2) Box size:  All other things being equal, bigger is louder (up to a point).  If you're making your own box, why not experiment with making it bigger? 

3) Sound holes.  There's an urban legend that talks about the ideal sound hole size for maximum loudness based on Helmholtz resonance, but other than people spreading what they'd heard or read somewhere on the internet, I couldn't find a real reference.  And some other people, more experienced and expert than I, also tried and failed to find the reference.  That said, getting the right sized sound-hole is important for loudness, and placing it where it does the most good is also important, so that it doesn't take away too much of the top material.  I'd start small, in the upper left hand corner of the top (when you're looking at the top of the guitar standing neck up), then enlarge it little by little as it keeps getting louder, until it starts getting softer again.  Then you can decorate the hole with something to bring the diameter back to the sweet spot (or, if you've been making really small changes, learning to live with it being just past the optimal point.  I haven't tried a sound port on the upper side yet, but that's something I want to experiment with - it may be the best of all worlds, maybe with some kind of baffle to direct the sound forward ... maybe.

4) Strings.  Thick is better than thin for loudness.  Tight is better than loose.  This argues that, for any instrument that you're going to actually finger (versus playing exclusively with a slide), having a nice low action is important.  But that's not a bad thing in any case.  If you're aiming for a lot of bending strings, you're basically talking an electric, anyway.

5) Double or triple courses of strings, tuned in unison or in octaves.  This might not be your cup of tea, but it's a time-honored way to make an acoustic instrument louder. 

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