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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on September 27, 2011 at 5:04pm

Sides 1" thick. Oooooo that might be challenging. And the neck will be a challenge too. Best thing to do is to hit a cigar store and get you a real cigar box. That's tip #1. Then take a look at the plans above (Free Plans in the menu).

 

-WY

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Permalink Reply by Julian Perry on September 27, 2011 at 9:23pm

Hi Ryan, If I understand correctly, it's the sides of the box that are an inch thick, not the lid? If that's the case and the lid is thin enough, the sound should be fine. Give it a tap, if it sounds bright enough and not a dull thud, you should be in business. As far as the neck goes, as long as you can curl your hand around it and fret notes on all strings comfortably or at least cover all strings with a slide, it should be fine. Unless you intend to play it like a lap steel, where wider necks are the norm. How many strings are you going for? Three strings on a neck that wide would be hugely spaced out or sitting huddled in the middle. Everything is possible and anything goes with CBG's, but for a first go, as Wes said, you may wanna keep it simple and get yourself a cigar box and 3 foot x 2"x1" plank and go from there. You will be surprised how good it sounds and not be put off by too much woodwork! Most of us here started that way. Good luck with your build Ryan, all the info and as much help as you need is right here. 

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on September 27, 2011 at 10:01pm

Ryan,

 

Echoing what Wes and Julian have said. However...

 

It's the soundboard (the box lid) that's important. The soundboard / lid is what you want to move, which is why you attach a bridge to it, either permanent or floating, a saddle to that, and strings to that. The 1" thick back and sides of the box will merely reflect the sound waves generated inside the box from movement of the top, which moves the air inside the box, as the soundboard lid is driven by the strings (there's quite a bit of info on this - see here for one example:

 

From your pic, the lid looks perfectly fine, thin enough to act as a good soundboard. As far as your neck plank goes, if it were me, I'd rip it at least in half, depending on whether you're building a 3 or 4 stringer. Right now, it looks like it's almost 3" wide, which is really too much for comfortable playing if fretting, as Ryan sez. Look at your 6-string acoustic guitar on the bed behind you, and measure the neck width at the nut; you'll find that it's less than 2" wide (which is what some of the widest classical necks are), probably in the neighborhood of 1 3/8 - 1 3/4" wide. The string spacing (distance between strings) on a 6-banger is normally in the neighborhood of 1/4" at the nut. So if building a 3 or 4 stringer, you can get away with a 1" wide neck.

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Permalink Reply by Outhouse Instruments on September 27, 2011 at 11:47pm

I assume you are talking about the sides of the lid being 1" tall.

That won't be a problem .... just cut the notches in the sides of the lid.

One-half of an inch for soundboard space it too much.1/8th to 3/16ths is all you need, just enuff space to keep the lid off the neck with pressure on the bridge. Also need room for the piezo if you're gonna use one.

The problem will be that the neck is going to be way lower the box lid and will give you extremely high string height. Bad playability will result.

The neck is just too wide, period.

1.5" works well for either a 3 or 4 string. That 3" wide neck is gonna be murder to play.

Also ( here comes the IMHO part) I would make the neck as thick as the lip on the lid so you can just cut the lip out.

Don't forget to notch the neck for under the soundboard.

 

 

AFKAM

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