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no cigar box yet 1rst a cookie tin and some questions please

first timer here. nice guitars and nice great ideas. i have a few questions for a first timer and have looked at some various guitars. i was thinking i'd have to join a cookie tin nation but I imagine I could get some help here. I plan on a 3 string slide, no frets, no tuners guitar. a cookie tin guitar

1) I have no tuners or money for them so im using screw loops ( i think they are called) can they be tuned ? 3 strings

2) I have a rectangle tin. I noticed that the tops of tins due to sturdiness and overall design are on the back not front of the tin guitars. It seems the neck has more sturdiness and overall playing ability on the back of a cookie tin. Unfortunatley, for looks the cool design should be on the front...anyway around this??

3) my first cookie tin guitar has a pine neck. I have removed tin from one side of the tin and inserted the pine wood against the rear of the cookie tin (the end of the pine wood plank is up against the back of the tin. Is it necessary to go all the way through the cookie tin? I plan on somehow screwing the wood to the tin? (maybe near the bridge)

4) Haven't figured out how to keep strings on tail piece or behind bridge etc??. I have a few ideas but need more. I have some sturdy wood pieces for nut and bridge or some bolts.. as it will be raised for a slide.

I'd like the guitar to tune but realize without real tuning pegs might be difficult. I also plan on making a whole for 1/4 jack and putting a piezo pickup or two (never done a pickup ever but saw many videos and got some radio shack stuff). at what stage do you drill and put the pickup in? do you drill the 1/4 jack hole with a drill going in or out of the tin? put pickups on after putting neck on etc?

thanks i realize these are alot of questions and so far the videos ive seen there are alot of builders playing already built guitars. are there assembly videos in particular for the novice first time cookie tin, no real tuners..type like myself? thank you again.

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Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on November 26, 2012 at 6:51pm

Sorry Rand, I was unable to correct some of the grammer in last reply.

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Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on November 26, 2012 at 6:54pm

As far as the piezo pickups.. those will wait..there's alot of other issues to get right first. The glue bottle cap idea sounds great and I'm glad I made no attempts yet for electrification. Great site! I'll post some pics and issues as they arise and once again I appreciate all the help.

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Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on November 26, 2012 at 7:05pm

Well, good luck on your project. Next time you may get more response from other members if you keep the number of questions per post to a minimum, as not many people have as much time as I to respond to posts. The other thing you might try to get in the habit of doing is to think of your question in terms of keywords that you can use in the CBN search engine, then try to search for discussions that relate to your question. Most of the time the question you have will have already been answered else where on CBN. I do it a lot and usually find my answers that way.

-Rand.