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New Guy intro and my first build

I've been playing guitar(6 string) for 4-5 years and slide for the last few. I've been a woodworker off and on since high school shop class and I've always wanted to make a guitar. I'd done lots of internet reseach on guitar building but never got one started. After watching tons of videos of CBGs on youtube, I decided a CBG build was for me.

I started planning by ordering a cheap pick up and harness, tuners, jack plate, and mandolin tail piece off of Ebay. The shipping estimate said they would be here between Dec. 28th and Jan 3rd. Well they showed up early, and by luck I actually finished all my Christmas projects early so I decide no better time than to jump in and make my own present.

I asked my uncle who smokes cigars if he had any boxes sitting around but no luck so I decided to not waste any time and decided to just make the box too. All the wood came from the scrap bin.

The box sides and fret board are figured ribbon stripe mahogany, top and back are luan, neck and bridge oak, and internal blocking is aspen. I had a few failed neck attemps couldn't figure out how to get the headstock angle until I did some reading here. So on the third or fourth attempt I had the neck figured out. For the finger board I resawed some of the mahogany to make a nice bookmatched piec that was wide enough.

After two days of tinkering I strung it with some D'Addario flat wounds I had in my box of guitar stuff and gave a test. I found the origional 5/16th bolt I chose for a nut made the action too high so I switched it for a 1/4-20 machine screw. It has no finish and is fretless for now but I plan to order some fret wire and do that next, then probably use some tung oil/wiping varnish to make that figure pop. I'll also probably try and find some box corners and something for the sound hole to add some bling.

To sum it up as of right now I have $30 in it for the stuff off of Ebay and about 20 hours of tinkering. Not to mention hours of smiles showing it off plinking away.

The over all

The inside

The figure of the neck

Hopefully the pics are ok sizewise, if not let me know what I can do to fix them.

I tried to figure out how to put the video of how it sounds w/ my poor playing but couldn't get it to work so you can see it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhaSuHwMI4w&list=UUkjwp_AXsozPy...

Sorry for being wordy but this has struck a fire and I'm eager to share.

Thanks for reading

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Permalink Reply by Richard G Caudill on December 26, 2011 at 9:08am

that is a good un !!!! really like the wood and once u put a finish on it gona really look good .. Good on ya man !!

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Permalink Reply by Printer2 on December 26, 2011 at 10:42am

Started watching the video and it was ok but nothing that really excited me. I thought if I was going to watch it I might as well pick up my guitar and pick a little and wasn't really paying too much attention and missed the buzz from the pickup being turned up. Then you got my attention, along with a big smile. Sounded real good turned up and down also. I really have to build one with a pickup.

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Permalink Reply by TruckDrivingFool on December 26, 2011 at 12:38pm

Thanks for the kind words guys,

Believe me I'm so pleased with how good this turned out, I can't but pick it up and here and there through the day pluck a little. Its funny you say that Kevin "Oh and it works!!!" is a phrase I keep hearing, although I was grinning from ear to ear the first time I plugged it in.

Also my uncle came through big time for Christmas he brought me a big box of cigar boxes, saw this one and told me I had to make him one. LOL

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on December 26, 2011 at 12:42pm

Ross,

Nice git. Welcome to the Addiction.

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Permalink Reply by TruckDrivingFool on February 11, 2012 at 4:50pm

Just sort of an update,

I got some stuff from Gitty so this got some bling(box corners), and I know officially have my first fretting job under my belt. :-) I'd known the action was high but once I had frets I could tell how outrageously high it really was. So high even that the first three frets stretched the strings so bad that they were playing one tone/note higher than they should of. So I dished out for the nut and shaved the bridge to knock everything down more in line. Fretted notes through the first four frets still play a tad sharp but are still in range on my tuner. All said it plays very nice and I couldn't be happier.

Another thing that really surprised me was how far I had to adjust the bridge to get the intonation right. In the pics the top marks are where the bridge sat tuned open D and strung with flat wounds .50 .40 .30 .22w. The second was tuned open G with flat wounds .40 .30 .22w .15. and you can see where it ended up after dropping the action and strung back in open G with the A through B strings from and acoustic set of .10s.(I'm not sure of the actual sizes on those)

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Permalink Reply by Bluesheart on February 14, 2012 at 1:51pm

That looks great, really nice job.

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Permalink Reply by Rokshox on February 14, 2012 at 2:02pm

Much respect from a fellow first time builder as well. I'm sure we both learned a lot of what to do and what not to do in our next build. I know I did! It is exciting... I didn't even get strings on mine before I posted it. Great job!