Howdy all, just thought I'd put pics of my 2nd build up. Its a 25" scale fretted. Bolted on maple neck with maple fret board, body is recycled pine (shipping crate from work), with 1/4" birch plywood top and back. The bridge is a 1/4" x 20 bolt with the head cut off, surrounded by a laser cut Canary wood retainer (just to add some color to all that maple and birch). It has a piezo hot glued inside the box under the bridge. To hold the strings in the tail are small rivets on the top and bottom. The pot is 1M ohm.

For a quarter inch sound board it has surprisingly good acoustic sound. I have yet to plug it in, probably after I figure out which tuning to use.

(If you're wondering about my 1st build, well, it will probably never see the light of day.)

Views: 211

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Looks good.  Here's a photo of the instrument TC is talking about...

Well, TC, how does she sound?

-Rand.

It sounds pretty good, not too loud though. Still need to adjust the nut and put a retainer near the bridge to get rid of some buzz.

(I realized that I forgot to post the pic here. oops)

Hi TC,

The maple (hardwood) neck is a must for better volume, so you're good there. A thinner soundboard would help. I use 2mm plywood veneer for my sound boards and back boards with good results. Recently I have been experimenting with cookie tin lids for a resonator and these instruments have been quite loud, the loudest yet w/o going with a pickup and amp.

I see you have already made the "jump" to piezo pickups and amplifier. The piezo pickups tend to pick up a lot of "finger noise" when you fret the instrument, etc. So, it can be tricky to isolate the piezo with the right amount of hot glue/silicon seal/foam/wood/whatever to limit the sensitivity of the pickup to minimize the sensitivity without also muting the pickup, especially on the bass end. I continue to find piezo pups problematic at best. It may be that I need to better interface them to the guitar amp by first feeding the signal through a pre-amp to better match the impedance (Z) of the piezo (high Z) to the guitar amp (low Z). I don't have much budget to experiment with this the way I should. Likely, I just have a lousy guitar amp.

I can't tell too well from your photo how the strings "bend" over your nut. But I have had problems and just took a tie-wrap and put it around the strings to force them down against the headstock (just above the nut) and this has eliminated some buzzing problem. Also, I tend too use bolts for nuts as I find they are more "problem free" and I always use a fret 0 to make accurate fret positioning easier. With the "bolt-for-a-nut" approach, I sometimes have to use a round file to file a grove in the neck so the bolt will lie down lower, or shim the bolt to make it sit higher relative to fret 0, but I rarely have a buzzing problem with them. When I do, it's likely because the down angle on the neck is greater than 2 or 3 degrees and the result is that the strings, when vibrating, barely touch the neighboring frets near the nut, causing them to buzz. To fix this, I use a shim on the bridge to raise the play action a bit and that will eliminate the buzz. Hunting down and eliminating buzz can be frustrating, but usually it can be tracked down and solved, so just keep at it.

-Rand.

Loos very clean and classy!
I hope you enjoy playing it!

RSS

The Essential Pages

New to Cigar Box Nation? How to Play Cigar Box GuitarsFree Plans & How to Build Cigar Box GuitarsCigar Box Guitar Building Basics

Site Sponsor

Recommended Links & Resources


Forum

crossover guitar.

Started by Timothy Hunter in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Mar 21. 11 Replies

Tune up songs

Started by Ghostbuttons in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Mar 9. 5 Replies

Duel output jacks

Started by Justin Stanchfield in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Taffy Evans Mar 8. 6 Replies

How to Get Your Own Music on Spotify

Started by Cigar Box Nation in Feature Articles. Last reply by Southern Ray Feb 21. 2 Replies

CB Bass Guitar

Started by Mi Rankin in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Justin Stanchfield Jan 27. 5 Replies

Latest Activity

A.D.EKER commented on Dar Stellabotta's video
Thumbnail

A Cigar Box Guitar Six Stringer Built by Louie Lamanna

"i See Your ready to Blow away the GRAND STADIUM ! tree strings more of DAR DELIGHT !! Shine Girl !…"
2 hours ago
A.D.EKER commented on A.D.EKER's video
Thumbnail

Im Troubled (Tribute) Mc K Morganfield by BCB - A.D .Eker 2024.

"Thank you for the kind comments Doug! Glad you liked the Picture !"
2 hours ago
BrianQ. commented on Dar Stellabotta's video
6 hours ago
BrianQ. liked Dar Stellabotta's video
6 hours ago
Southern Ray commented on Southern Ray's photo
Thumbnail

Project Punch!

" Thank ya again Keith!"
8 hours ago
Southern Ray commented on Southern Ray's photo
Thumbnail

Punch Project!

" Thank Ya Keith!"
9 hours ago
Doug Thorsvik commented on AGP #'s photo
Thumbnail

AGP #527 - ''Led-Zep 2''

"This build really strung you along Alan! Reminded me of all my fishing line experiments; a lot of…"
10 hours ago
Doug Thorsvik commented on A.D.EKER's video
Thumbnail

Im Troubled (Tribute) Mc K Morganfield by BCB - A.D .Eker 2024.

"Diggin’ the slow blues. I like that last pic Andries! Look at all those cool guitars. Yeah!!!"
10 hours ago
Dar Stellabotta posted a video

A Cigar Box Guitar Six Stringer Built by Louie Lamanna

This video is the unboxing and the demonstration of a beautiful, six stringer built by Louie Lamanna. Join Louie and I June 15 at the second annual Pittsburg...
11 hours ago
Doug Thorsvik commented on Doug Thorsvik's video
Thumbnail

Hail the Resurrection Day: 2-String Violin Chugger Cigar Box Guitar

"Happy Easter to you too Andries! The passion is definitely in full swing. Turns out I’m…"
12 hours ago
A.D.EKER commented on Doug Thorsvik's video
Thumbnail

Hail the Resurrection Day: 2-String Violin Chugger Cigar Box Guitar

"Happy Easter Doug ! the Passion is in full swing !"
13 hours ago
A.D.EKER commented on Ricky D's photo
13 hours ago

Music

© 2024   Created by Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

\uastyle>\ud/** Scrollup **/\ud.scrollup {\ud background: url("https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/963882636?profile=original") no-repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;\ud bottom: 25px;\ud display: inline !important;\ud height: 40px;\ud opacity: 0.3 !important;\ud position: fixed;\ud right: 30px;\ud text-indent: -9999px;\ud width: 40px;\ud z-index: 999;\ud}\ud.scrollup:hover {\ud opacity:0.99!important;\ud}\ud \uascript type="text/javascript">\ud x$(document).ready(function(){\ud x$(window).scroll(function(){\ud if (x$(this).scrollTop() > 100) {\ud x$('.scrollup').fadeIn();\ud } else {\ud x$('.scrollup').fadeOut();\ud }\ud });\ud x$('.scrollup').click(function(){\ud x$("html, body").animate({ scrollTop: 0 }, 600);\ud return false;\ud });\ud });\ud \ua!-- End Scroll Up -->