I spent about $100 on the parts and then a bunch of time with my friend building it. Here is the parts I purchased:
Bridge
bone nut
machine heads
la famosa box
seymour duncan pick up
amp jack
and a trash out yamaha acoustic which we salvaged the whole neck off of.
After looking around here I feel like a fool because almost everyone made there own neck and bridge and everything else, However, because of this first build I learned so much about instrument making and I have an even bigger interest in it and of course I had fun. While my friend and I waited for some the glueing to dry we went out to this secret fishing spot in MN and caught some big fish.
It all started for me when another friend of mine found out I love woodworking and started badgering me to build CBG parts for him. So I looked into it and got a bit obsessive about it until I finally built my first. I feel a little dumb though because my friend and I were informed that the distance from the twelth fret to the bridge should be 12" that was our first mistake. I now know that it should be the same distance from the bone nut on the tail to the twelth fret. And then our worst mistake was having a bridge that brought the strings way to high off the fret board. We took off material from the bridge and I tightened the truss rod which helped tremendously but its still a little too high but bearable. Like I said before I learned a lot. LOL!
Some key points of ingenuity: We glued some old kitchen cabinet doors together so we had a block of wood to attach the neck and create distance between the bridge and fret we ran that into the length of the box. And then we cut out a piece of an old pick guard as the truss rod cover which looks so natural on the guitar you wouldn't even guess it was jerry rigged. My friend did some really clever Macguyver trick to wire the pick up in. I'm still not sure how he got it mounted without screws.
Since my friend and I built this I finished a queen ann flip top table made entirely out of black walnut wood. And now I am working on a solid body flying V electric guitar. I bought the neck and all the other parts but I am building the body from scratch. Eventually I am going to build a real traditional acoustic guitar using the book "Guitarmaking Tradition and Technology" as a guide. But I may build another electric solid body first. Or this chess table I have been dreaming about.flying v
Tags:
I wish I did not toss out an old neck that I had sitting around for years. But ten years ago I did not think I would get back into music.
Looks good. I'm just curious did you set the bridge back as far as it was on the acoustic that the neck came off? It looks like it may be too close because the strings are nearly falling off the frets at the bridge end. If so this will throw your intonation off.
It was a different bridge than the one from the throw away guitar. we set it back to where we thought it should have been. The problem was that we were told by some guys at a guitar shop where we got the parts that the distace from the bridge to the twelfth fret was supposed to be 12" but that is false. What ever stringed intrument you are working on the distance from the bone nut on the tail piece to the twelth fret will be the same distance you will use between the bridge and twelfth fret. The strings are to high off the fret board because my friend and I did not think that the bridge we used would be so high.
Real nice looking guitar and like you said a great , if expensive learning project. If you play it with a slide and don't fret it, I'm sure you can get some great sounds out of it. You could use little dots on the side of the fingerboard to indicate where the "real" notes are for the slide?
Just my thoughts, pretty thing though.
Started by Bill Andy in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by Bill Andy 2 hours ago. 2 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Bill Andy in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by Bill Andy yesterday. 5 Replies 0 Likes
Started by BrianQ. in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts on Tuesday. 0 Replies 2 Likes
Started by J. D. Woods in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 26. 8 Replies 1 Like
Started by Southern Ray in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 26. 6 Replies 0 Likes
Started by J. D. Woods in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by BrianQ. Apr 25. 4 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Rich Butters in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Crazed Fandango Apr 22. 4 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Nomad Jack in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by J. D. Woods Apr 17. 7 Replies 2 Likes
Started by Moritz Voegeli in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 14. 6 Replies 2 Likes
Started by Timothy Hunter in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Apr 10. 14 Replies 3 Likes
Started by Tom T in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 9. 9 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Southern Ray in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 4. 7 Replies 1 Like
Started by Timothy Hunter in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Mar 27. 1 Reply 2 Likes
Started by Taffy Evans in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Mar 10. 1 Reply 3 Likes
Started by Cigar Box Nation in Feature Articles. Last reply by BrianQ. Mar 9. 4 Replies 3 Likes
Started by Ghostbuttons in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Mar 9. 5 Replies 1 Like
Started by Justin Stanchfield in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Taffy Evans Mar 8. 6 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Ken I in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Brian partington Mar 8. 8 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Southern Ray in Cool gear discussion - that's not cigar box related. Last reply by Southern Ray Mar 6. 5 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Taffy Evans in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Taffy Evans Mar 5. 4 Replies 2 Likes
Posted by Vlad on March 31, 2024 at 11:48pm 0 Comments 1 Like
Posted by Vlad on March 6, 2024 at 2:32am 5 Comments 2 Likes
Posted by billy jones bluez on February 28, 2024 at 2:09pm 0 Comments 0 Likes
Posted by billy jones bluez on February 17, 2024 at 11:00pm 0 Comments 0 Likes
Posted by Vlad on February 11, 2024 at 1:06am 1 Comment 1 Like
May 11, 2024 from 11am to 8pm – Speakeasy Grill
0 Comments 0 LikesMay 30, 2024 from 6:30pm to 10pm – The Casual Pint of Huntsville
0 Comments 0 Likes© 2024 Created by Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker. Powered by
Cigar Box Nation is presented by C. B. Gitty Crafter Supply, your one-stop-shop for Cigar Box Guitar parts and accessories!