about two years ago I built a cigar box esque guitar using a Biscuit tin, an old broom handle and a combination of scrap wood and old guitar parts. it barely plays, is filthy and the body is full of spider webs, I named it Bonnie Raitt (just a joke people) and now I want to do some work on it to make it more playable and more like a proper Cigar Box guitar.
First thing I have to do is shorten the neck, or broom handle in this case, as the current scale length is about 30 inches, which I want to shorten to about 25.5 or 24.7s inches, but not sure which would work better.
Next, I need to lower the bridge and nut to lower the action so it plays nearer to the Humbucker pickup.
Finally I want to change the strings, I current have it tuned to EAD, using the EAD strings from a set of 10's. Now hears the thing, I want to tune it to Gdg, but I don't know what strings to use for the best tone.
Any suggestions are very welcome as I'm not the best at working with these guitars and still need to improve my building techniques.
Here is the poor thing, what you guys think?
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thank you, I try to keep my builds simplistic, my other builds are a little more complicated and more like traditional guitars but with biscuit tin bodies.
for the tuning, I'll definitely use the Gdg, but I wonder what gauge to use, for traditional cigar boxes, do most use light or heavy gauges, I want this thing to sound right, especially since I'm using the humbucker off an old Squier for amplification opposed to something like a cigar box single coil or Piezos
What Ron said... most of my builds are 25" scale, good call on shortening it.
Try a banjo style bridge. Maple makes a decent floating bridge... I make mine out of 1/4" strips, and they're pointy on the top to avoid string buzz. You can see the a bridge example here: It will better transfer vibration to the lid... if you have a gap between the lid and body, you might need to put a shim under there so the bridge doesn't collapse the cookie tin...
collapsing the tin isn't an issue, the broom handle is directly under the bridge and supports it, plus the tin itself is quite thick and rigid, so it has some strength on its own.
I think i'll go with your scale of 25 inches, seems to be the safe option for this build.
as for the bridge itself, what I'm using work quite nicely, the pics don't show it strung, but the angle between the white hinge, which I use to mount the strings and the bridge itself is quite steep, so there is plenty of connect, no worry about fret buzz.
a couple of thoughts from an amateur mythbuster: here is a golden opportunity to learn a lot
Make 1 change at a time and take notes on each result. you might stumble across something you really like partway to what your current goal is.
1. at 30 inches, you are at a baritone/contrabass guitar scale, change the scale last, you could stumble on something you like and will be uncommon in CBGs
2. You got a 30 in scale tuned up to what would normally be standard for a 24-25.5 scale, without the strings breaking. good. If you compare a pack of light tension and heavy tension strings, you will note the gauges for the 6-5-4 in a light pack are about the same as the 5-4-3 in a heavy tension set. so you can keep these strings for a little while as you make changes. Most CBG builders use light tension to reduce the chance of the neck warping under pressure turning the guitar into an archery bow.
3. try dropping the tuning of the low E string to D, and you have DAd, and see how that sounds, its a perfect 5th below the standard Gdg . this puts you more in Johnny Cash range than Willie Nelson range.
4. from the pics I would wager $1.00 that the nut and bridge are scrap pine? definitely change them for maple, bone, threaded rod or machine bolt
at this point you may like what you have
5. then see how it changes when you lower the action.
6. change the scale and strings last, all else being the same will give great insight into how scale affects tone.
couple of things:
for the tuning, I think I'm gonna stick with the Gdg tuning, I like the country tone of the DAd, but this thing is designed for the blues.
I don't know what the bridge and nut are made of, I just used whatever was in my scrap tin, I would replace them with machine bolts or anything metal, but I need these in decent sizes, to keep the break angle of the strings on the headstock, but I can change the bridge for something more suitable because the break angle is quite steep.
I have one useful piece of information, the broom handle is the anchor for both the bridge and headstock and if I unscrew a bolt in the back, I can simply slide it back and shorten the scale without even unstringing it, but it would reduce the angle of break over the bridge, but slightly increase the angle at the nut.
1. don't tell BB King you can only play the blues in the key of G, lol. actually I get that Gdg speaks blues to you and DAd speaks country to you, but they are actually styles, not limits.
2. I still recommend doing it in increments and making notes of the differences, tune what you have to DAd, scribble down your impressions, then change the nut and bridge to metal and again scribble down your impressions, then shorten the scale and again scribble some notes. you may find this information very useful when making build decisions for future projects.
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