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Cigar Box Builders Decree

The Cigar Box Guitar Builders Decree

(Well, mine anyway)

1. The finish does not have to be mirror quality.

If it is basically the same color all over, thats good enough.

Why do you think they call it “stain”.

2. The neck does not have to be as smooth as glass.

No faster than I play, if it feels smooth to me, that's ok.

3. If there is a little gap where the neck joins the body, no problem.

This serves as an additional, small sound hole.

4. If the intonation is a little off, I can live with that.

I seldom play that high up on the neck anyway.

5. If the wires from the pickup to the knobs and jack are not neatly bundled, thats ok.

You don't have any business looking in there, and no one has ever proven that

affects the playability.

6. If there is some glue residue (hereafter referred to as “Flen”) on the fretboard-neck seam,

Thats OK. It sanded down smooth. See No.2

7. Should a pilot hole for a tuner mounting screw go all the way through the headstock.

Wood putty of a similar color will fix that. An alternative fix is to make all of them go

through so the effect is uniform.

8,. Should you have some extra glue ooze out and create the before mentioned Flen it's

alright. It adds to the structural integrity of the glued parts.

All of the above add to the “Character” of the build and make it unique.

I am sure I missed some build pitfalls, so feel free to add to the list if this resembles

you in any way.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Joe Caruso on November 21, 2014 at 8:02am

Wayfinder - you've give me something to think about. Agreed, I have no intention of being a luthier, that would take the fun out of it and I have no intention of building junk, but constraining - that's the word - to 'pristine fancy' can limit options. As someone put it earlier, "this isn't 5 Star, this is Mom's Home Cookin"

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Permalink Reply by Bill Baker on November 19, 2014 at 2:14pm

Right on Juice. If one judges my work by being able to see their reflection in it, they probably should have gone to the Guitar store and bought one. Even my best effort has some imperfections.

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Permalink Reply by 3 String Blues on November 20, 2014 at 1:37am

Hey Hey hey!....someone spent "quite a few hours" of there life on that old timer!!!

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Permalink Reply by Bill Baker on November 20, 2014 at 2:12am

Juice, that p/u is what held the build together. Wish I could play well enough to do it justice.

Working on that....

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Permalink Reply by 3 String Blues on November 20, 2014 at 2:32am

no need to play all that great, I most often lay in bed and have a guitar on my belly and just strum it with one hand and watch tv, I don't play anything other than open strings...just watching tv and hearing "ramdom" plucks is good enough for me as I don't really want to concentrate on playing while I am watching tv, but I want the guitar close to me and to hear an occasional twang hear and there

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Permalink Reply by Jim_N on November 21, 2014 at 2:25pm

Random plucks! :D

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Permalink Reply by Uncle John on November 20, 2014 at 2:27am

I agree in not liking pristine, shiny perfection in CBGs.

And the same for CBG music -not too much shiny perfection. Not many effects or gadgets. I want CBG music to sound like home made music on home made instruments.

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Permalink Reply by Brown Water Jerry (Rice) on November 20, 2014 at 3:12am

I swear to include all of the above in my builds. I will try to reach the high expectations of my fellow builders.

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Permalink Reply by Thumper on November 20, 2014 at 8:34am

I cover my ass by starting with aged and ancient cigar boxes...can't pretty those suckers up so I'm already in the "imperfection" groove....no pretty shiney here for sure.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on November 21, 2014 at 4:32pm

I just try to play shiny, on something old and beat-up, or masterfully built - finding the tone in what y'all build is where I live.

"You didn't hafta make it, but you did, but you did, but you did, and I thank you."

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Permalink Reply by gary herget on November 23, 2014 at 4:47am

I follow them all 1 through 8 just never thought it out. My creations are never, never perfect but I do like shiny things, so I'll polish them up as best I can to hide all the oops that I did.

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Permalink Reply by gary sheldon on November 25, 2014 at 7:31pm

Since they don't make gig bags for CBGs, it is ok to have dings in the woodwork. That proves that you take your ax on the road and it is not a wall hanger.