Does anyone have some pictures of what the inside of their cigar box looks like when they are making a six string? I know you need some bracing for the box but have no clue were.
Also when making a 6 string, I wanting it to sound like an acoustic/electric guitar. I’ve seen were you fill the whole cigar box with wood and make it a full blown electric, that’s not what I’m looking for.
Thanks for the help everyone.
Replies
Thanks for this thread. I was wondering the same thing and these pic are helpful.
Hi Josh,
You can search the CBN photo archive for photos of 6-stringers using a number of different search criteria like "six string" and "build", etc. To get to the photo archive, simply click on the "Pictures" link on the navigation bar at the top of each CBN page, Under the "Featured Photos" section is the "All Photos" section (more than 72000 photos) and at the top of the "All Photos" section is a search box into which you can enter your search criteria (e.g. "six string"), and to the right of this search box (almost invisible as it is white text on a very light gray background) is a magnifying glass icon which acts as the submit button. (If you can't see it, just click 1/8" to 3/16" to the right of the search criteria text box.) When I did it, it returned 17 pages worth of 6 string guitar photos, but most were "finished guitar photos" as opposed to "build photos". But if you look through them you will find several sets of build photos.
Here are a couple of photos I found...
If you find some build photos you like, be sure to check the guy's (gal's) personal page on CBN, as likely he (she) has taken additional photos of their build which may prove useful.
I've not built a 6-stringer, but I read quite extensively on CBN and have noted a few things regarding 6-stringer CBGs, First, most are electric, usually using magnetic pickups and usually in quite complex configurations, so you don't really need to worry about preserving or enhancing the purely acoustic properties of the cigar box.
Secondly, it seems most 6-stringers require more internal support than 3- or 4-stringers, especially where the neck joins the sound box, as most builders seem to either use pre-built guitar necks, or faithfully build their own reproduction of fairly standard 6 string guitar neck designs (I guess so as to preserve the "feel" of a real 6-string guitar), Since these are "bolt-on" necks, the weak point is where the neck attaches to the sound box. So, most builders build up this area, as well as extending the neck downward to the bottom of the box and then down to the tail end of the box to provide room to install single or double (hum-buckler) magnetic pickups and whatever controls are required.
Also, with standard guitar necks (with scale lengths between 24 and 26"), the length of the cigar box, or home made box, is important, as you need to have long enough of a box for the bridge to fit on the box given the scale length requirements. Ideally, the bridge should be placed between 2/3 to 3/4 the way across the sound box, leaving maybe 1/3 to 1/4 of the length of the box between the bridge and the tail piece (tail end of the box). You need to get the scale length dimension of the neck faithfully reproduced on your guitar otherwise you willl likely have problems with intonation. Cigar boxes are (in most cases) just not long as the standard guitar sound box, so you really need to be careful here.
Hopefully, something I've said will prove useful.
Good luck with your project.
-Rand.
Thanks for all the good information. Very useful, yea I've seen a couple of pictures on the gallery just didn't know if there was a way to make it still sound acoustic which is what the customer is wanting.
Thanks
Hi Josh,
If you want to preserve the acoustic characteristics of a non-electric CBG, your best bet is to start with a very large box to offset the extra space used up within the box for the extra structural support. Then use a thin soundboard, with all the electronic controls moved onto the side(s) of the cigar box so they won't interfere with the vibrational characteristics of the soundboard.
I build my own boxes out of 10mm thick trim wood for the sides and 2mm thick plywood veneer for both the sound board and the back board and the results consistently sound better than most cigar boxes. I've theorized that you could improve a cigar box simply by replacing the top with 2mm thick plywood veneer, but the one time I went to test this, I found dimensional problems as the thinner plywood top didn't fill the height to the area for the lid, I could have trimmed the excess off the sides to make it fit, but instead I put the project on hold and never got back to it. Maybe doing something like this would improve the acoustic qualities of the Cigar Box offsetting some of the negative effects of adding more internal support, mag pickups and controls to the box.
-Rand.
Hi Josh,
This is one I made a while back with 2 minihumbuckers and 3 piezo discs (in parallel) wired via a 5 way switch and the signal sent through a preamplifier.
I made a video ages back to show the sounds you can get (you need to turn the volume up via the control bottom middle of the screen)
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/comparing-cbg-pickups
When you say an acoustic sound does the buyer mean piezo pickup via an amp or do they mean unplugged?
Regards,
David
P.S. There is also a CBN discussion group called "6 String CBG's" which probably discusses design issues in more detail.
-Rand.