Hello everyone,
I just built my first sbg. When I tune it the Chromatic tuner says I'm in tune, but when I play the song that Glen plays at the end of his YouTube video on how to build a cbg without power tools it sounds horrible. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.
Replies
Easy Answer: Your marks are wrong. erase them and use the tuner and your slide to make new marks that are in tune.
p.s. You should be applying between very little and no pressure at all to the strings with the slide, just enough that the string is not buzzing on the underside of the slide. If you can see the string actually bend you are pressing too hard.
Here she is.
20161014_140244.jpg
20161014_140116.jpg
20161014_135853.jpg
A quick improvement would be to lower the nut as low as possible above the fret board, that will make it much more playable for 7 frets or so, to get it good all along is a bit harder because if you lower the bridge you will lose too much height in your strum area and maybe reduce the break angle too much. What it really needs is a bit of neck angle, or a fretboard added to get it best.Also i think you might get a bit more volume if you reduce the length of your bridge bolt, i'd suggest trying a bolt about 2" long and see if that improves it, if not, you can put the long one back
Thanks!
I have a lot of guitar kits that I've sold locally that look very similar to what you have... Here are my instructions on how to set the intonation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peSSnZyjQXY
I hope it makes sense!
Thanks!
The issue of action (height of the strings above the fretboard) is often misunderstood by people making cigar box guitars. No matter whether I'm making a fretted or fretless instrument I usually aim to get the action as low as possible, particularly at the nut. The only exception is if I'm asked to make a guitar for lap-style playing, in which case the action may be as high as 1/2 inch above the fingerboard.
There is no problem making a fretless guitar and being able to play it conventionally as well as with a slide, you just need to get the action at the nut down - if you are using bolt for the nut, simply use a smaller diameter bolt. If you do this with an existing cigar box guitar. you might have to tinker around with the way you install the strings on the tuner posts (always make sure the strings wrap down the tuner posts towards the headstock) or put in some sort of "string tree"to keep a decent "break angle" over the nut to ensure the strings don't rattle or slip about sideways.
By the way, the fret marker positions will only be a guide...you will need to listen to what you are playing and adjust your finger positions accordingly to get bang in tune, but to do this it is essential to get the action down to a reasonable height.
Of course, you can have a high action and play only with the slide, but there's a lot more to be got out of three strings if it's set up to play conventionally (i.e. with the fingers stopping the strings) as well as with a slide. Here's my take on setting the action at the nut. It's not gospel, simply my way of doing it.
wait, I thought I saw earlier you don't have actual frets, but just marks... no? (Or did I dream it...)
Oh, I saw your pics... You built a fretless guitar... Play slide, forget about the action... Danny B had it right...
What you have is a SLIDE guitar... you can't effectively fret a fretless guitar, the strings are too thin and go mostly dead (yes, I'll get flamed for that... here it comes...)
From the looks of it, you will need to set the intonation, too. Typically, the high/thin string will need to be about 1/8" shorter than the heavy string in order for them to be in tune at the same position on the board...
They are too high for your marks to work. Nut looks way high.
Or you could grab yourself a beer bottle and rock out some slide guitar.
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
of 4 Next