Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by J-Hob on May 22, 2010 at 7:37pm

If you're going for acoustic I would say definitely go for the lighter built box, it should have more resonance than the heavier one. If you are concerned about rigidity of the box then build it with a through-neck design and cut the neck away a little where it goes through the box so that the top is free to resonate and not touching the neck.

I've made a couple of cigar box ukuleles and they sounded great, surprisingly resonant, and that was with 'standard' cigar boxes - 3mm ply.

Permalink Reply by tdq on May 22, 2010 at 8:01pm

Man that was a fast response! Thanks, yes thinking about it, the larger, lighter one seems the right choice but I couldn't really say why other than gut feeling. I'll be trying a through neck design for sure. My woodworking skills are lousy so we will see how we go. Thanks.

"...cut the neck away a little where it goes through the box so that the top is free to resonate and not touching the neck."
All the plans I've seen (so far) suggest I keep the neck flush against the box, although what you suggest makes sense. As my skills are limited, maybe on the next one!

Permalink Reply by J-Hob on May 22, 2010 at 8:55pm

I would advise doing a 2 step cut like this:

That way you get the neck flush with the top, a bit of material touching the top to secure it to and then a bit of gap for the top to resonate. Lousy woodworking skills are no barrier to making CBGs! tdq said:

Man that was a fast response! Thanks, yes thinking about it, the larger, lighter one seems the right choice but I couldn't really say why other than gut feeling. I'll be trying a through neck design for sure. My woodworking skills are lousy so we will see how we go. Thanks.


"...cut the neck away a little where it goes through the box so that the top is free to resonate and not touching the neck."
All the plans I've seen (so far) suggest I keep the neck flush against the box, although what you suggest makes sense. As my skills are limited, maybe on the next one!

Permalink Reply by tdq on May 23, 2010 at 12:30am

Cool! I will!
Thanks for the info. I'll keep you informed once I get underway - it may be a month or so as I need to assemble materials plus I'll away for a bit. Thanks again.

Permalink Reply by Alan Roberts on May 23, 2010 at 3:21am

OK, I'm confused when you say "harder of softer wood." Softwoods technically come from pines, firs, and cedars. Hardwoods come from broadleafed trees like maple, cherry and oak. Pine isn't much good for musical instruments at all. It is so soft that it will just get dinged up and scratched. HOWEVER the best wood for a soundboard (the side the bridge sits on) are western cedar and sitka spruce, both soft wood. I wouldn't use those woods for any other part, as they are way too fragile.

More important is how the grain runs. If you look at the edge, which does it look like:

===================================== |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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===================================== |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

You want the one on the right, where the grain runs 90 degrees to its width (called quarter sawn).

Simple test: hold a pencil vertically over a box, eraser side down, an inch over the box. Drop and let the eraser tap the box. Now do the same with the other. Which sounds best? THAT'S the one you want.

Permalink Reply by john terrell on May 23, 2010 at 3:28pm

I prefer lighter i can always reinforce thats my opinion

Permalink Reply by tdq on May 23, 2010 at 6:55pm

What are cigar boxes usually made of? Isn't the point to make a guitar out of a box? If I start using different woods for tops, doing reinforcements, etc, why don't I just make a guitar? I guess there's a line to be drawn. I'm still very much on the "stick a neck and some strings on a box" end.

I just re-read this - it's not meant to be a challenge, I'm just on the "crawl before I can walk" stage.

Permalink Reply by J-Hob on May 23, 2010 at 7:17pm

I'm very much a novice too and whole-heartedly agree with the keep it simple approach. The cigar boxes I get are made from 3mm plywood and are just fine for acoustic instrument - I've made a couple of really nice sounding ukuleles from them, an instrument where could acoustic performance is very important. Check out my videos - there's a couple showing the CBUs that I build

Could you post a picture of your boxes so that we can see what you've got?

tdq said:

What are cigar boxes usually made of? Isn't the point to make a guitar out of a box? If I start using different woods for tops, doing reinforcements, etc, why don't I just make a guitar? I guess there's a line to be drawn. I'm still very much on the "stick a neck and some strings on a box" end.

I just re-read this - it's not meant to be a challenge, I'm just on the "crawl before I can walk" stage.

Permalink Reply by Alan Roberts on May 23, 2010 at 7:26pm

I speak for myself. "What are the limits?"

Well... I share my workspace with anyone who can walk through the doors. Can we build boxes out of rare Honduran Mohagany? You betcha! Can I give you a tool more dangerous than an egg beater? NO!!!!!

US law being what it is, you can bring in emeralds, ivory, and gold and I will not bat an eye. But if you want to shape them with rubber bands, I will have to have you talk to my lawyer.

Permalink Reply by tdq on May 23, 2010 at 8:35pm

J-Hob said:

Could you post a picture of your boxes so that we can see what you've got?

Sure, but I'm about to go overseas - to the US in fact - for a couple of weeks so it'll have to wait. Watch this space.
Thanks everyone for your input.

Permalink Reply by tdq on June 28, 2010 at 5:16pm

I'm back - here's how this one ended up. Many mistakes along the way, did the cut-away neck thing. Tried various placings for the bridge, with and without a block underneath it, middle, end, ended up placing the bridge near the "e". The middle sounded good but I could see the top starting to bow in already and sounds almost as good further back. Not planning to fret it as I'm playing it lap-slide style. On to the next one! Might try giving the next one a nicer finish, plus a fretboard. Anyway, pretty basic compared to most but I'm pleased as punch.

P.S. How do I get this image to show inline rather than as an attachment?

Attachments:

• tqcgb.jpg, 85 KB

Permalink Reply by Alan Roberts on June 28, 2010 at 6:31pm

tdq said:

P.S. How do I get this image to show inline rather than as an attachment?

When you click on "reply," it brings up a white text box with icons at the very top. The camera icon, on the far left, will put your image inline.

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