Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on May 6, 2014 at 8:07pm

I think it would generally be considered best to leave the paper on. If you managed to take it all off (it would take hours), don't expect to find 'wood' there, more like fibreboard/unattractive ply. They sound fine, however.

Why not just distress the paper? If you don't take a lot of care when putting the guitar together, the box may end up looking a bit 'distressed' anyway! :)

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Permalink Reply by Cause the Blue rat on May 6, 2014 at 11:22pm

I've only tried stripping one box. Had to use a light sand paper to get it all off. Yes you may find ply underneath. Still looks like wood when finished.

Sorry, can't help with the distressed finish. Never did one. I know on distressed guitars people will sand threw the finish. Then re coat those areas with a flat sealer. Works great on a painted surface.

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Permalink Reply by robert jones on May 6, 2014 at 11:46pm

Leave the paper on and play the hell out of the thing. The distressing will take care of itself. :)

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Permalink Reply by Marc Brode on May 7, 2014 at 4:04am

It may not be wood underneath.

For distressed, why not leave the paper on? Then you can use some extremely black tea solutions to put stains on it. Maybe some dilute watercolours would work well too. You could probably come up with some cool effects... Like a rat rod guitar.

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Permalink Reply by Cause the Blue rat on May 7, 2014 at 11:17am

I Youtube'd 'distressing wood finishes'. Lots of cool ideas there. Might even try some myself.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Reed on May 7, 2014 at 9:44pm

So last night i decided, I'd keep the paper on but sand it and distress it with a screwdriver and a hammer... then drop some water colours on it to make it look stained... and THEN i noticed that adding the water colour paint to the papers actually makes it very simple to peel the paper off in no time - so I have a wooden top for me to distress as per the original plan now!

The youtube videos look awesome - that was what made me want to do it this way!

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Permalink Reply by Cause the Blue rat on May 7, 2014 at 11:40pm

Awesome Ben! Looking forward to seeing your build.

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Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on May 8, 2014 at 1:13pm

Hi Ben,

I prefer Cigar Boxes without paper, but in the past have built with wooden boxes that had some paper on it, especially inside under the lid. As I thought the paper would only tend to mute the sound box, I'd take a wet sponge with a scouring pad and use the water to dampen the paper to make it softer and then scour it off with the scouring pad. Just try to keep the wood from soaking up too much water as this may warp the lid. As this task is a bit of a hassle, these days I choose only wooden cigar boxes w/o the paper; or I build my own sound boxes, which tend to sound better than most cigar boxes. For more info on doing that, check out this CBN discussion group: Home Made Resonator Boxes 101, v.2.0

-Rand.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Reed on May 8, 2014 at 9:17pm

thanks for advice everyone - i love this forum!

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Permalink Reply by Marcus Darwell on May 9, 2014 at 1:29am

cigarette burns!

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Permalink Reply by Ben Reed on May 15, 2014 at 9:30pm

I stripped the paper using a warm wet sponge and a scraper. When it was dried i knocked/carved in some imperfections using a screwdriver as a chisel - i then smeared boot polish in the imperfections and all around - then sanded it down and added some varnish. I'm very pleased with the outcome - Ive posted a pic

Attachments:

• 20140515_203108.jpg, 4.4 MB

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Permalink Reply by Clarky on May 15, 2014 at 11:51pm

I've removed the paper on a lot of builds, because I like to burn designs onto the box.  I never wet the paper, just peel off what I can and use a mouse sander to remove the rest.

For distressing the box you can use a wood burner, take matches to it, chip it with chisels, use tea to stain it, all sorts of stuff.

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