Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kieran Anderson on September 14, 2016 at 4:39pm

Yeah, the neck is bowed the wrong way. I'm a little worried about cranking the string tension up too much, because of how fragile the box is. And on the other hand, steaming it doesn't seem like too great an idea, because the neck doesn't go all the way through... I just dunno, I think that at this point we will just need to see how the neck turns out. something I realized though is that I need to add a tail piece or something to put the strings through because the box has a large gap that would be a pain to get the strings through. I am drilling three holes through a drawer pull. I have screwed the pull onto a wooden base, and I am going to just wood glue the base that the pull was screwed into onto the cigar box. Is hat a bad idea?

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Permalink Reply by JL on September 13, 2016 at 11:45pm

If you do have a little damage to the box trying to get it open to add bracing, just call it 'adding rustic charm'. 

Back-bow can be somewhat corrected by steaming.  Lignum is the glue in wood that binds the fibers together, and it softens with controlled heat.  Steaming wood is not about getting it wet, its about heating it in a controlled way without drying it out.  45-60 min of steaming and then clamp it to something that will give it a little forward bow, let it cool completely (another 2 hours) and when you release it it will spring back a tiny bit and hopefully will be flat, or just a hair of forward bow. A Styrofoam cooler, holes cut in each end (or each side) and propped upside down above a camp stove boiling a pot of water works better than you would think.

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Permalink Reply by JL on September 13, 2016 at 11:50pm

one other thought about repairing the nut...you could just grind/shave/plane/sand the existing nut down to a nub then glue a piece of hardwood on top of that as a cap. then you have a "fresh" nut to cut slots into.

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Permalink Reply by Kieran Anderson on September 14, 2016 at 1:48pm

That actually sounds great! I hadn't thought of that. I think that will be what I will try first.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on September 14, 2016 at 1:15pm

Hi, I'm in late again so have not read all the replys. But my suggestion is to shim the nut and glue it in its place and then glue, screw a dummy truss rod cover of suitable thickness behind it. You could use a tooth brush handle to fashion a new nut. Are there really people out there selling cbg'that bad?
Cheers Taff

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Permalink Reply by Kieran Anderson on September 14, 2016 at 1:58pm

Yeah, they really do I guess. The photos didn't show just how shit it was. The dummy truss rod is a good idea, except the neck is soooo thick that I don't think a truss rod would work. I don't really know what to do for the neck, other than string it up with extra thick strings and wait.. We will see.

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Permalink Reply by JL on September 15, 2016 at 12:21am

one of the concerns is that the nut may have been fixed in place with superglue, so removal risks real damage. That's why I use that purple glue stick, very low tack/adhesion.  it holds well enough to keep it in place while cutting slots and stringing up, but separates easily and cleanly for changes/repairs. 

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on September 15, 2016 at 1:45am

Nope. Superglued items are actually pretty easy to separate.msuperglue actually has a low coefficient of shear, so s sideways tap or two with a flat screwdriver and a hammer will have that nut right off. Even if there is a splinter that comes out, just sand a shallow channel in the nut space for a bolt of the right size.

For the neck, if, as you say, it's really thick, then you probably have room to put in a truss rod to control the bow. Except ha you may not need it, since I just read this is not a neck through. Sounds instead like the neck is poorly attached and braced to a block inside the box. Uncle the sucker! If you used wood glue, you can actually soften it up with a little hot water and a very hot knife edge, working very slowly from one edge to the other.

Then look at how the neck is attached, and see if you can shim it to give it some back angle ( as in angling down and back toward the headstock). See if you can remove the fretboard, if it is separate. If this POS gives you further trouble, scrap the neck (assuming you can get the box unglued; oh, also a very thin Dremel cutoff wheel applied CAREFULLY along the glue seam can open it up with minimal damage.), and build yourself a proper through neck.

So, learnings from this:
1) Cheap CBGs are more trouble than they're worth.
2) Not everyone has even halfway-decent luthiery skills.
3) NEVER glue the box shut! You WILL want to get back into it.
4) After all this hassle, you will have learned enough to build your own instrument properly. We are here to help get you through that.

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Permalink Reply by Kieran Anderson on September 15, 2016 at 7:22am

Yeah, this cigar box guitar was basically wall art. It wasn't actually advertised as wall it, but it probably should have been for the quality of it. I decided to go for the cheap CBG and make it good, because then I would get to see the anatomy of the guitar and play with it and see what changes the tweaks made. So in a way the process is actually going exactly according to plan, but when I asked the buffer he said it was a through neck and he just sanded it down. That was such a lie, I cannot believe I fell for it. Had we done that face to face, I would never have bought that guitar. It was just so crappy. As for glueing the box shut, while I was in there poking about and learning, I saw how the neck was out it. There is no way to shim it to give it angle. please, try not to scream when I tell you this next part. So. The neck was glued onto the outside of the box and given a little bit of support beneath it, that guess what? Ran the length of the box to the end and was sanded down. I'm just going to leave this post alone for a while so you guys can process this properly. Because the cigar box guitar is basically made of bullshit.

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Permalink Reply by Kieran Anderson on September 16, 2016 at 5:07am

Oh yeah, and the neck is actually the best part of this CBG. It's actually quite bueatiful, it's just a tad short. And by a tad I mean it doesn't go through. And when I say doesn't go through I mean it just sits outside the box.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on September 16, 2016 at 6:09am

That's actually fixable. There are a number of ways to fix it. Sends pics, we can help!

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Permalink Reply by Kieran Anderson on September 15, 2016 at 7:11am

I asked the owner about it tapping the nut out would be okay, and he said yes, he o let used a little bit of super glue Incase it needed to be replaced.

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