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Permalink Reply by Rooster on December 27, 2015 at 7:13am

Well, Wayfinder is right about adding strength when you glue two pieces together. And you will be creating a weak area where you have to cut away the neck to fit in the box and raise the height of the neck above the top. If your top is say 1/8" thick and you want 1/8" above the top that would be 1/4" you would have to cut from the neck. So that would only leave you with 1/2" neck thickness at the front of the box where the most pressure will be on the neck. Also, remember that the longer the neck and scale length the more pressure it will take to get the strings in tune. I have seen guides that show building a CBG like this, but they are usually slide only and not that concerned with the neck bowing up under pressure. The two best suggestions I can give would be 1)....Keep the scale length as short as possible, say 24", and no more then 3 strings that are light gauge. 2)......And this is what I would do, at the very least consider gluing a second "heel board" under the neck that would extend out of the front a inch or two to support the area where wood was removed from the neck under the lid. Beyond that, without a fret board glued on the neck there is only one other method of building that would come to mind............attaching the neck on top of the box in a "Uncle Crow" style of building. CBGitty has a kit on the website that is built like that so you can see how it looks. Sorry I can't be of more help then that. Keep us posted on how your build is going ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Mart on December 27, 2015 at 7:42am

Great! thanks rooster. I think i'm gonna buy a new 1x2 oak board with a 1/4 x 2 poplar. I will laminate the 1x4 on the 1x2, get a support strut from the 1x2 10'' long into the full lenght of the box, sticking about 1 1/2'' out of the box and glue/screw my neck onto it. I will cut my box lid to the round joint on top and leave 1/4 the neck above the lid. No tail from the support strut, just a tailpiece for the strings and a flotting bridge. Glue a piece of the 1/4 x 2 poplar under the headstock. I will keep you guys posted. Thank you very much!

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Permalink Reply by Sean on December 27, 2015 at 7:33am

Mart, what you're trying will work fine. This 3 string acoustic of mine, Imp Hand, uses the same method in your drawing. The action could be a bit lower for fretting easily on the first fret. I use this one for mostly slide, but it's easy to fret droney chords from the 3rd fret up. If I reset the bridge and nut bolts to smaller ones the action would be best for finger playing chords.

^ action at the nut.

^ action at the neck / box  area. Would still play with lower action without hitting the edge of the box. 

^ action at bridge, and you can see the cutaway inside to get the neck away from the cigar box, but blocked under the bridge.

Cheers! Have fun with your build!

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Permalink Reply by Mart on December 27, 2015 at 12:03pm

This is my new diagram, like wayfinder. I think I will use this method. But I will keep my neck already build and try as I was supossed to do. But the sad thing with this design is that I won't be able to open the lid... Maybe I will put a dog bowl for a resonator.

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on December 27, 2015 at 12:28pm

If you want to you can still open the box with this method,in your drawing ,you've removed ALL of the blue wood inside the box except for the tail,if you just remove enough to get your required height for an inch or so at each end,then a little bit more in between those points to give the soundboard a bit of freedom,you can still make all connections to the box top and be able to open it.I personally would have full height only enough for the tail piece,and have my bridge over an unsupported area of the top so it vibrates more as well

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Permalink Reply by Mart on December 27, 2015 at 2:02pm

I don't think I will be able to open it, first the tail piece will be screw over the lid and the bottom (L shape tailpiece), and I think the neck and the fretboard will be touching the box enough tight that I will not be able to open it...we'll see

What do you mean by : you've removed ALL of the blue wood inside the box except for the tail,if you just remove enough to get your required height for an inch or so at each end,then a little bit more in between those points to give the soundboard a bit of freedom ... ?  And that : I personally would have full height only enough for the tail piece ...?

And forget the blue block at the end, I will not put that.

Thank you for all your answer Darryl!

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on December 27, 2015 at 2:38pm

What i mean is,in your diagram,if you picture the blue wood of the neck coming from the left continuing at that height ALL the way through the box,and just stepping up enough for an inch or so at each end to touch under the sound board you can mount the neck in the lid portion of the box and still open it if you want,basically just removing the wood you don't need,which will maintain strength better,by doing that you could also taper the underside of the tail UPWARD so that the neck at the rear of the box is .only as deep as your top and not even going into the bottom of the box at the very tail

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