Hi folks,
I thought I'd share a few of my tricks and techniques which I employ on my builds to make them sound and play better. Obviously to some of the more experienced builders out there these may seem obvious, but that aside these are all things I wish I knew when I began making these.
1. The nut
The nut is an extremely important part of any guitar's construction, and has a huge impact on the intonation and the clarity of the tone. All of my guitars are fretted so I set up my builds to play with fingers rather than slides. Some of these steps are unnecessary if you intend to only play with a slide.
My tips for nuts would be:
2. The bridge
Much like the nut, the bridge is very important for both intonation and allowing the strings to ring out as they should.
I use a floating bridge for all of my builds, as they are super easy to set up and I like the way they look. There is good information on setting bridge intonation all over the internet so I won't go into that here. My tips for bridges:
3. Back angle
I started using a back angle on the neck on roughly my 12th build. The difference in playability compared to a straight neck is huge. It is actually quite easy to achieve and well worth a try.
As you can see, using a back angle on the neck allows for a much higher bridge, and the action stays nice and low all the way up the neck.
4. String gauge
Although it is standard CBG building practice to use strings 3,4 & 5 from a 6 string set, I have found better result using strings at equal tension, which is probably more important on instruments without truss rods to prevent the neck warping over time. I also find equal string tension easier to play.
Well, I hope this is of some help to those of us just starting out with this rewarding hobby. I suppose my best tip would be not to think too much about it, otherwise you'll end up like me :(
Cheers!
Richey
Comment
kudos my man, thanks for the tips
Yes, Richey.
That article should be required reading for CBG builders.
After I built about 8 gits, I discovered neck drop. I took them all apart and put some drop on all the necks.
On the subject of slotting the nut, your suggestion helped me a whole lot. I also agree that the string should not be buried in a huge, deep slot. I think that about half the string diameter should be above the top of the nut. When I am satisfied with the slots and need to lower the action, I pop the nut out and sand the bottom surface to get the string height I want. I have also been known to (carefully) shim up a nut with too low action.
thank you for sharing sir
This is some great info Richey...
Great article, Richie. As far as neck angle goes, I don't measure it. Too difficult. But I typically make the but end of the neck inside the box 7/ 32 to 1/4" lower than the neck at the front of the box. I am getting better at cutting the nut and nut slotsthanksto your help. Also I discovered by myself about having the top of the bridge pointed. I don't even have to file grooves, the string tension takes care of that automatically.
Richey, I wish I would have read this about 5 years ago. The main things I did not know were about angling the nut and saddle. Makes sense. Wayfinder, I am bookmarking the page.
Good post Richey
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