I am making my second cigar box guitar, which I plan to solely use as a 4-string electric instrument. The question is, whether the sound will improve if I cut a sound hole in the box and if so, where would it be better to do it (close or far from the piezo buzzer).
Also, I have a question regarding ways to attach the phone jack plug to the box. My box has a 1/4 inch thickness wall After drilling a hole for the jack I found out that the thread of the jack (which I got at Radioshack) does not stick out far enough to place the nut to fix it in place. I have not been able to find a jack that has a thread longer than 1/4 inch...
I thank any comments and suggestions .
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just to add on purly electric if your using electromagnetic pickups i sugest adding wood to the lid and skipping the cut out on the neck. to give you less feed back.
I found one way to solve the problem It may not be the choice for many, but it seems that it may work well and avoid problems such as bad connections. I used an RCA wire connected to the piezo and a wire that has a female RCA in one side and a jack for the amp in the other.
Sure, that works -- the only downside is that you can't use just any old male-male 1/4" guitar cable.
I found one way to solve the problem It may not be the choice for many, but it seems that it may work well and avoid problems such as bad connections. I used an RCA wire connected to the piezo and a wire that has a female RCA in one side and a jack for the amp in the other. Take a look at the photos.
Hey Estaban. I asked the same question about the jacks at the Handmade Music Clubhouse site. I got turned on to these bad boys and now I'm just waiting for them to come in the mail.
On the jack-fitting question, I have used a larger drill-bit to counter-sink the hole on the inside of the box, so the body of the jack socket sits in it nicely. Be careful not to drill too far though!
There are solid-body electrics, Semi-hollowbody electrics, and hollowbody electrics. They all have distinct characteristics, and I suppose they might translate to the CBG electrics as well.
Hollowbodies, like the big Gibson "jazz boxes", have a nice, mellow tone but do tend to feed back when played at high volume. Some artists have used this to their advantage, notably Ted Nugent.
The semi-hollowbodies, like the much-liked Gibson 335 and it's variants, try to be "the best of both worlds". They are popular with jazz artists.
Solid-body instruments have less tendency to feeding back as a result of acoustic "loops", and can be made in any shape or style as the body lends very little to the sound.
I'm with Shane on the sound hole deal.Mostly I put sound holes on most of mine because it makes the customer feel better about the "custom built" concept.
I just finshed an autotag CBG ,didnt put a sound hole but DID stick a piezo in it.
It would have been too quiet with OR WITHOUT a sound hole unless it was lectrified,,,,,,,
If you plan to use it solely as an electric, I would skip the sound holes.
As for the jack, Stewart Macdonald sells a jack with a long shank on it. Or you can drill a big hole in the box that the entire jack will fit through, then put a wooden plate over it with a hole for the jack itself.
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Sure, that works -- the only downside is that you can't use just any old male-male 1/4" guitar cable.
http://www.fullcompass.com/product/336794.htmlHollowbodies, like the big Gibson "jazz boxes", have a nice, mellow tone but do tend to feed back when played at high volume. Some artists have used this to their advantage, notably Ted Nugent.
The semi-hollowbodies, like the much-liked Gibson 335 and it's variants, try to be "the best of both worlds". They are popular with jazz artists.
Solid-body instruments have less tendency to feeding back as a result of acoustic "loops", and can be made in any shape or style as the body lends very little to the sound.
Experiment!
I just finshed an autotag CBG ,didnt put a sound hole but DID stick a piezo in it.
It would have been too quiet with OR WITHOUT a sound hole unless it was lectrified,,,,,,,
As for the jack, Stewart Macdonald sells a jack with a long shank on it. Or you can drill a big hole in the box that the entire jack will fit through, then put a wooden plate over it with a hole for the jack itself.
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