I recently Built this small Guitar using a tiny Macanudo box. I wondered what it would sound like. I was hoping it was going to rock even though it was tiny! Turns out the sound is pretty hollow It,s not very good. Wondering if anybody has any advice on making guitars from a tiny box like this and ending up with a good sound. I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up taking it apart and replacing it with a bigger box to give it a better sound. Let me know if you have any experience building cigarbox guitars from such a tiny box. Thanks
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Hi Jon, its not always the size of the box but what its made of that contributes to a pleasing sound.
A small box can have a better sound than a larger box, in many cases,if made of good materials, although it may have less volume.
I have boxes like you have there, cardboard or fibreboard for the most part, I just use them for storage.
Try a hardwood bridge instead of the steel bolt, that will changed the tone.
Taff
Well, it looks like you have acoustic strings on it instead of electric strings so yes, the wound strings are going to sound weak. Slap some electric strings on there, crank your amp and the size of the box won't matter. : )
I’m with Korrigan, switch over to some electrics & crank ‘er up! But, you could install some bracing under the lid for better acoustic vibration, but changing the bridge like taff says will spread more vibration across the lid & give you better response than the bolt combo, I would give it a try before anything? Good luck :)
Hi Jon.
When you say sound is not so good, are saying not so good when played acoustically? If so, its not surprising since the box is not wood but cardboard. I've used that box before and know that acoustically it is pretty weak. On the other hand, when played through an amp it usually sounds find. Don't recognize the pickup you are using, but I suggest that you switch to some nickel electric strings and consider adding a tone circuit (easy mod). With those changes you should be able to get good tone from the instrument.
Thanks for all the great suggestions! Just to show my level of naïveté, I didn’t really know changing the bridge or strings would affect that much. I’m still definitely on the front end of the learning curve:) Thanks for all the input. I’m glad I posted and asked!
We have some brilliant builders here and some, like myself, less brilliant, that are more than happy to help when we can. We are all still learning.
thanx man ;-)
Anonymous, I looked up your stuff on the swamp witch. That’s some crazy cool stuff :-) I liked your comment where you said to paraphrase there a gateway to creativity :-) I wholeheartedly agree!
;-)
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