Some questions from eastern europe :)

Hello,

I am a new guy around here. I am from Lithuania (eastern Europe). I became obsessed when I saw CBG's made by this comunity.. So I began to search stuff around me to try to build CBG and Tin can Banjo. In my country there is now traditions of cigar smoking, so just few tobacco shops, and they told me there is now chance to get a box from them. so ok F... Off! I am doing something else. I tried some "flee" markets and have found some stuff. Ebay would be really expensive for me, to send item from US to Europe + giant taxes THATS WAY TOO MUCH... I am really in DIY soul and THE music is not about money. So What I have found simmilar for my needs was: Two cookie tin cans for banjos, and two boxes. The first one is a small venier soviet military box that looks really nice, but I don't think that it could sound very good, because its venier ( 23cm x 16cm x 7cm).

Then after few days i have found a beautiful (cigar?) box. It was laying around in a antique store for 3 buck's. It looks old, it is very light in weight and has one crack. I think it is made of mahogany (23cm x 16cm x 6cm). Actualy I am not shure if the size is not to small for a CBG. Most CBG's around here looks bigger. what should I do with that box? ukulele? or is it possible to make a nice cbg?

First thing i want to do is to repair the wooden box crack's. Could you give me some advices. I attached the pictures to show the cracks.

I don't want to spoil this beautifull box for a first build, so I am thinking to start fith a Tin can bango. But I haven't seen any plans or meassurements for a banjo neck. could you give me any links, cause I couldn't find it.

I am sorry for my english. And sorry for stupid questions. I hope you'll understand.

Cheers from Vilnius city guys! :)

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Hi Bomb,

Both boxes look nice. The crack in the second box seems to be in the lid (sound board). You could try fixing it by trying to flex the wooden lid a bit to open up the crack slightly and then force some glue into it (this may take a second pair of hands), then release the lid, and then clamp it so that the two edges of the crack are forced together. Wipe away the excess glue and then after it dries, sand away any remaining glue.

The Soviet military box is still usable for a cigar box guitar despite its thick lid. What you could do is to cut a hole in the top lid, mount a metal resonator of some kind and make a resonator box guitar out of it. People use a lot of different metal items of resonators, from paint can lids, to metal dog food bowls to tin cans. Search the photos on Cigar Box Nation using key words like "reso" and "resonator" and I'm sure you will come up with some good ideas. I can see a whole market opening up for ex-Soviet era wooden box based musical instruments...

Wood should be well dried. If you can't find kiln dried wood, look for wood that has been in dry storage for many years. A lot of CBG builders look for old furniture, wood recycled from torn down homes, and even wood from palates. To many, half the fun is going out and finding materials with which to build their instruments. You should also try to befriend your local woodwork shop and lumber supply folks, so you can borrow their machine tools to quickly shape your odd pieces of wood into something you can work with.

-Rand.

Replies

YeahDoIt July 26, 2011 at 6:07am

I can play my CBG with the cigar box wide open. I suspect we do not need a box. A thin sheet of plywood might work. Maybe any box works. The box may be there for holding the guitar, not really for sound. Experiment with materials that you find. Make a box. Lots of designs work.
Mark Bliss July 24, 2011 at 9:55am

Well, we kept Rand busy for awhile..... LOL!

Hey Rand, just a note, the link in the announcement you sent everyone for the new group is to the old group. Otherwise, good idea and good job!
Rand Moore July 24, 2011 at 3:33am

I have made a new discussion group called "Home Made Resonator Boxes 101, v.2.0", which I think might fix the security problem, allowing non-members to view the content of my discussion group. Those people wanting to make a comment will still have to click on a link to get membership to the group, but it should be automatic and fairly instantaneous - just click on the link. I was able to copy my links page, and all the discussions, but I was not able to find a way to copy over the 8 pages or so of comments on the comment wall. Will have to copy over the more interesting stuff manually and it will take some time. The trouble is that it will likely disrupt information like who originally made the post, the date and time, etc. Well, in 2 months time, all this should be behind us...

-Rand.
Rand Moore July 24, 2011 at 1:05am

This is another aspect of the problem that I haven't heard of before. I thought everyone could see the content, just not make comments. Maybe I should start a second version of this site making sure I don't set the security too high. Then copy the contend over and then kill the original site. Sheesh! The Ning folks make things hard.

-Rand.
Mark Bliss July 23, 2011 at 8:47am

Reply by GARAGE HERMIT 1 hour ago
clicked on your link "HMRB 101" it goes nowhere, ???

His group is set to members only, (And apparently there is no way to change that once a group is set up)

So you have to join the group, and he has to approve it. He hates it as much as you. LOL!

But there is some interesting content there, you just have to be a member and logged into CBN to view it.

Mark
GARAGE HERMIT July 23, 2011 at 7:02am

clicked on your link "HMRB 101" it goes nowhere, ???

Rand Moore said:

Maybe Oilyfool's broken link to canjos on CBN was to the Canjo Consortium discussion group. It includes discussions ranging from simple single string in-line soda can canjos, to fairly complex 5-string cookie/cake tin banjos and 6-string oil can guitars. You can even mellow out the sound of cake/cookie tin banjos by substituting a 2mm plywood veneer in place of the steel bottom (or top) sound board.

I live in China 9 months out of the year, and good building wood there is really rare. What they do is build with shitty wood and then cover it with 2mm plywood veneer to make it look half-way decent. They also use a lot of trim wood, which is actually the best kind of wood I can find in China. They sell it in 2.2m lengths, and it's 3cm wide and 0.5 cm thick. I glue it up to build both the sound boxes and the necks. Check out my discussion group "Home Made Resonator Boxes 101". I employ a lot of different building techniques than many other builders.

-Rand.
Rand Moore July 22, 2011 at 9:54pm

Maybe Oilyfool's broken link to canjos on CBN was to the Canjo Consortium discussion group. It includes discussions ranging from simple single string in-line soda can canjos, to fairly complex 5-string cookie/cake tin banjos and 6-string oil can guitars. You can even mellow out the sound of cake/cookie tin banjos by substituting a 2mm plywood veneer in place of the steel bottom (or top) sound board.

I live in China 9 months out of the year, and good building wood there is really rare. What they do is build with shitty wood and then cover it with 2mm plywood veneer to make it look half-way decent. They also use a lot of trim wood, which is actually the best kind of wood I can find in China. They sell it in 2.2m lengths, and it's 3cm wide and 0.5 cm thick. I glue it up to build both the sound boxes and the necks. Check out my discussion group "Home Made Resonator Boxes 101". I employ a lot of different building techniques than many other builders.

-Rand.
Rand Moore July 22, 2011 at 9:32pm

Hi Bomb,

Both boxes look nice. The crack in the second box seems to be in the lid (sound board). You could try fixing it by trying to flex the wooden lid a bit to open up the crack slightly and then force some glue into it (this may take a second pair of hands), then release the lid, and then clamp it so that the two edges of the crack are forced together. Wipe away the excess glue and then after it dries, sand away any remaining glue.

The Soviet military box is still usable for a cigar box guitar despite its thick lid. What you could do is to cut a hole in the top lid, mount a metal resonator of some kind and make a resonator box guitar out of it. People use a lot of different metal items of resonators, from paint can lids, to metal dog food bowls to tin cans. Search the photos on Cigar Box Nation using key words like "reso" and "resonator" and I'm sure you will come up with some good ideas. I can see a whole market opening up for ex-Soviet era wooden box based musical instruments...

Wood should be well dried. If you can't find kiln dried wood, look for wood that has been in dry storage for many years. A lot of CBG builders look for old furniture, wood recycled from torn down homes, and even wood from palates. To many, half the fun is going out and finding materials with which to build their instruments. You should also try to befriend your local woodwork shop and lumber supply folks, so you can borrow their machine tools to quickly shape your odd pieces of wood into something you can work with.

-Rand.
Bluesheart July 22, 2011 at 7:08pm

Yep. That ammo box is cool in a way. Go electric for sure on that one or try to thin out the top from the inside(very hard to do without trashing it!) Great cigar box, glue will fix it just fine. I agree, try a can first for learning since it's hard to get boxes.
Grease Stains July 19, 2011 at 1:41pm

i've had great luck using Candy tins for body's. To keep it simple i use a 25.5 inch scale (64.77 cm), your can round the numbers up or down, and the you'll easly find the fret positions if your used to guitar. check my page out if you like, there are a few pictures. i've used extremly light string to keep my necks from bending. and your english is better then mine, and its all i speak! haha!
have fun and good luck!

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