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Permalink Reply by Jerryrig240 on March 29, 2010 at 2:01am

Check out some of my vids here on the nation, I hope they will help you along with other builders out there that are having a hard time with their first build.. A good mind set of a first build for me anyway is to keep it simple. Nothing too fancy. And you don't have to have fancy tools to do a lot of this stuff. In fact, a drill, some screws, a good, and I mean, good hand saw that has small teeth on it, and some sand paper is all you really need to make a nice, good sounding, sturdy cbg. Sure, a electiric hand sander, and a dremel are nice to have...but if you don't have that stuff, it's not a problem. I bought a really nice hot glue gun a few weeks back and I am hooked. The glue that I liked was kinda pricy and it did not come in a very big tube, and I have heard that hot glue was good to use on peizo's...so now, I use got glue for almost everythig, except for my neck fret board, the last neck I made I used just plain wood glue. I have not had amny experience on making bone parts for my cbg's, but I have called my local butcher and he said he would hook me up with a couple of boes for free. I just need to go and pick them up.....I normally use bolts for nuts and bridges, but I am runing short on good bolts to use, so I figured I would try my hand and bone. It's free, so why not. I also have thought of just using simple dowls for nuts, I think you can get them a big bag for decent, and with a dab of hot glue, they would work realy well.

As far as the gorllia glue, I went down the same road, I used it and it foamed up some feirce....A good rond of elbow greese and some sanding and it took care of it....I also used my pocket knife to remove the bigest part of it. Needles to sa, I don't use it anymore.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Roberts on March 29, 2010 at 2:31am

Jerryrig240 said:

I have not had amny experience on making bone parts for my cbg's, but I have called my local butcher and he said he would hook me up with a couple of boes for free. I just need to go and pick them up.....I normally use bolts for nuts and bridges, but I am runing short on good bolts to use, so I figured I would try my hand and bone. It's free, so why not. .

If bone doesn't work out, try corian. It's the stuff they use to make kitchen counters and comes in dozens of colors. Look in your yellow pages for some place that builds counters; you can probably pull a lifetime's supply of small chunks out of their trash.

I don't think dowels would work as nuts or frets. Too soft, unless you have some REALLY tough wood dowels.

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Permalink Reply by Wichita Sam on March 29, 2010 at 3:48am

I got a CBG in a trade from an old timer builder that used oak dowel for the bridge.... it sounds fine, but if it got hard play I think it would probably cut out.....



CITE>Jerryrig240 said:
>BR>I don't think dowels would work as nuts or frets. Too soft, unless you have some REALLY tough wood dowels.

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Permalink Reply by Wichita Sam on March 29, 2010 at 3:51am

I think a good stragety on a first build is to either buy an inexpensive CBG from a good builder, or get a tutorial that shows you step by step how to..... Both ways will short cut your early learning curve. I didn't do either and my first build hangs on the wall as a monument to ineptitude.....

the best,

Wichita Sam

Jerryrig240 said:

Check out some of my vids here on the nation, I hope they will help you along with other builders out there that are having a hard time with their first build.. >

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Permalink Reply by Rex on March 29, 2010 at 8:20am

here are some pics of what I have so far.
After a lot of sanding I managed to clean up the gorilla glue mess. I leveled the sides of the fret board and neck as close as I can my hand.
still working on figuring out how to attach the neck to the body.

Attachments:

• 100_7883.jpg, 197 KB
• 100_7884.jpg, 190 KB
• 100_7890.jpg, 194 KB

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Permalink Reply by Alan Roberts on March 29, 2010 at 8:48am

How to attach neck to body? The sides of the box you notched look pretty beefy, you could probably drill pilot holes and drive wood screws through the neck into the sides where it will be covered by the box's top. Or cut two blocks of wood to slide between the neck and the head side and head side, screw those into sides and then screw neck into wooden blocks. Or you could use glue instead of/in addition to wood screws.

Just don't use gorilla glue.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on March 29, 2010 at 9:48am

I have made a few with bolt on necks. I used some scrap 2x4s I had lying around, and cut them to be supporting beams across the bottom of the box. Then I drilled the holes and used #10 wood screws to screw the neck and the tailpiece to the support beam. Yes, I used Gorilla glue to glue the beam to the bottom of the box. As long as it is inside the box, no biggie..you just have to use it sparingly. if you need lower the action by the higher frets, you can slip a shim under the end of the neck so it tilts the neck back a bit, but you have to do that carefully. It is also not a bad idea to drool some super glue into the threads in the support beam and let it harden up the threads. If you don't want to use wood screws, you can just drill holes all the way through the box and put blind nuts on the back, but that makes things a bit ugly on the back of the box.

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Permalink Reply by Ottie(Skydog)Noble on March 29, 2010 at 2:19pm

go to a flooring store and get some sand paper like they sand hard wood floors with then attach a piece of the paper to a board about 12 inches long and sand the sides of the neck that will help get it true in the auto body shops they make a board just for this they work bondo with it they are cheap. what ever you do just keep working it will all work out.

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Permalink Reply by Larry McInnes on March 29, 2010 at 4:15pm

Hey Rex. Ditto everybody about the Gorilla glue. I use Titebond but found out the hard way that I can't stain over it. About attaching the neck to the box, I used Super Glue (or Krazy, I forget which) to attach the neck to the box for my first build and I was surprised how strongly it held. Later I Super glued some small wood blocks to reinforce the joint between neck and box. I also used super glue for the nut, plus the strings hold it in place really well.

Can't wait to see your finished product.

Rex said:

here are some pics of what I have so far.
After a lot of sanding I managed to clean up the gorilla glue mess. I leveled the sides of the fret board and neck as close as I can my hand.
still working on figuring out how to attach the neck to the body.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Willmouth on March 31, 2010 at 9:56am

Gorilla glue isn't too bad to clean up the run over if you let it dry or semi-dry and take a wood chisel and gently scrape it off -- then you just sand the rest. I don't think that you'll be able to remove the fingerboard once any glue sets. As far as alignment goes, use a couple of clamps on the sides of the fretboard and neck piece to keep it aligned and then put clamps on top to bottom to hold the board down tight until it dries.

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Permalink Reply by Mungo Park on March 31, 2010 at 3:00pm

I am no expert at this by any stretch, but yellow glue is the easiest, and not lacking in quality. The thicker stuff is better, more glue less liquid.
If you put the glue on the finger board it cause a slight curve in the finger board in the right direction. A small amount of salt will help to keep it in place, but very little is needed. Place the finger board on the neck, line it up and then turn it over and clamp the neck to your work bench. Things go wrong if the clamps are off anything but a right angle in all directions. Good to check the alignment one last time as the glue is soft enough to make a adjustment. If things are straight wait until the glue not so liquid and then scrape the excess of the edges. if tacky it will come off and not smear. At this time you can loosen the clamps a hair.
Do not clamp so tight that you squeeze tall the glue out of the joint, you can exert a LOT of pressure with clamps. With some practice you can tell how much glue to put on so just a bead squeezes out and how tight to make the clamps.
If things are well a few quick swipes with a hand plane will remove any glue and give a seamless neck. If you are left with some cracks, a little glue along the crack, smooth over with your finger and sand with 120 grit sand paper, this will fill and help hide the crack, the key to this is very little glue, if you need more do it again.
Cheers Ron.

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Permalink Reply by Perfesser Blue on March 31, 2010 at 4:10pm

Real tools are not needed for a cbg.
Most of the originals were built by poor folk. Really po' folk. Some of them were so po' they couldnt afford and extra 'o' or an 'r'.
I was on a road trip with a young friend...we took along the cbg and the cigar box amp...He had taken a cigar box and a cheap practice amp and he started cutting and splintering...His job was rough and splintery, but it held together for a while...but it did fall apart.
I took a fresh cigar box and cut out the proper holes with a small pocket knife, and I sanded these holes smooth WITH A ROCK! The finished job was clean and tidy, and the amp is still with me a couple of years and some miles later.
SAND WITH A ROCK if that is what it takes!

Nothin fancy about a box and a board and some wire....

simplicity always makes it better.

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