Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Reeds Taylor on May 24, 2013 at 4:55pm

There are some good cigar boxes out there the resonate real well for an acoustic....one that comes to mind is the cedar Pardon box...there are other...but I've only the experience with the Pardon.

You can hear it here....

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/the-longhorn-test

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on May 24, 2013 at 5:23pm

dont  discount  wine   boxes  and  even    old   drawers      .  you  can   get  some  nice  deep  tone  with  them  ..  and   dont  discount      a reso  .  ;-)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Joel Dare on May 25, 2013 at 12:49pm

I should have mentioned it, but I won't be using a cigar box (because I don't have one). I'll actually be building the box myself. The drawer idea isn't a bad one, as I could build a drawer like box for the base. I'll consider it.

I'm also thinking about hollowing out a 2x4. One thought is that I could drill a 3" hole through it and have that be the only opening (closing off the back with a flat piece of wood). Another thought is to route out or dado out the back.

I would actually like to build the entire guitar out of a single 2x4 framing board, if at all possible. I'll let you guys now what I come up with.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David McQueen on May 26, 2013 at 8:02am

Favoured box sizes seem to be about 8" x 10" x 2 - 2 1/2 ". I have been using some 8" x 8" boxes and I am getting really good tone on a quiet guitar.  I also built a 9" x 12" x 2" box from scratch. They sound "Sweet" when played acoustically.

Just as important is the thickness of the top on bottom of the box. You are looking to be at about 1/8".

As for the 2" x 4" neck, I would splurge for a stick of 1x2 oak, or if on a real budget poplar.  If on even more of a budget, go around looking for discarded furniture or skids and re-saw one of the legs or the skid into .75" x 1.5" finished dimension. There was a thread on using softwood for a neck and some seemed to think it was OK and would hold.  The thing that gets forgotten is that part of the sound is from your neck as it vibrates.  I am guessing a lot of the bass is from the neck as the boxes are so small.  So a good resonating hardwood may pick you up some extra volume.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bluesheart on May 31, 2013 at 1:46am

You could chisel or route out a hollow on the 2x4 and leave a thin soundboard. I did something similar on my build called Zen-O -Phone. I added a small cigar box but you could just cover the hole back up with some wood.http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/soundboard-1?context=album&...http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/flipside-1/prev?context=album&a...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Joel Dare on May 31, 2013 at 1:55am

A reso sounds interesting. What shapes and sizes are known to work? I'll have to read up on designs for these.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Joel Dare on May 31, 2013 at 1:59am

I also like the routing idea. Getting a good box will be difficult with a router. I've considered using three 3" holes created with a paddle bit (overlapping). Then cover with thin piece with a smaller hole. Dunno if this would be enough. Dunno if the largish sides left over would make the effects unusable. Is one thin side enough?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bluesheart on May 31, 2013 at 2:01am

I don't see why that would not work. As long as the "top" is thin enough to vibrate you should be good.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bluesheart on May 31, 2013 at 2:02am

You have a 3" paddle bit? Wow! Be careful!!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Joel Dare on May 31, 2013 at 4:11am

Well, my biggest paddel bit is more like 2". It's a real wrist buster. I'd probably use a 2.5" hole saw. I just read that the standard US pop can is 2.5".

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Joel Dare on May 31, 2013 at 2:47am

What do you guys think of this idea (a combination of the two)? How about a pop-can reso? I don't know if this would be enough volume. The idea is to drill a hole in the middle of the board, down about 1". Then, insert the bottom 1" of an aluminum pop can. Drill a 1/4" hole in the bottom of that. There's my "reso".

I drew it up for your enjoyment.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bluesheart on June 1, 2013 at 9:09am

Should work and give at least a metallic sound. I did a bunch of Diddley Bows using cat food cans as resonators/bridge combo and they sounded pretty good. The larger the resonator the more sound it will make.

• ▶ Reply