"The Star of Habana" - My first CBG project

I recently finished my first CBG - a fretless three-stringed bolt-on design.

The neck is made from two strips of mahogany laminated with a thin piece of walnut veneer between them. I planned to make the fingerboard out of ipe but found out it was a ridiculously hard wood and impossible to work. Instead I bought a piece of beech that was planed to the correct thickness and stained it.

The headstock is inspired by traditional banjo shapes and is covered with walnut veneer with an inlaid star of mahogany. The mahogany veneer is actually a scrap piece from when I cut the headstock down to the correct thickness.

Inside the box. Of the many beginner's mistakes I made the worst one was not realising exactly how much the strings would be pulling and warping the box. Originally I built it without the two dowel rods. Very stupid. I spend a ridiculous amount of time drilling holes for the rods and gluing them in place because of this mistake.

And now for the most important part... What does it sound like? - If you can abstract from my playing and my crappy PC mic you can get an idea of the sound in this video:

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Permalink Reply by Regicollis on May 17, 2014 at 9:48pm

I've seen the same trick done with threaded metal rods but I had the wood lying around and used that instead.

And yes I would very much like to build another one. When I get the time I would like to build an 8-stringed mandolin. The string pressure will be much greater and I will have to find a way to add some sort of truss rod to the neck without having access to a router. I will also have to find a place to buy a slotted mandolin fretboard without having to pay an arm and a leg.

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on May 17, 2014 at 7:54pm

Really good job. Fantastic woodworking.

You need to treat yourself to a video camera though!

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Permalink Reply by Regicollis on May 17, 2014 at 9:48pm

Originally I planned to cut a sound hole but I never got around to doing it. Would making a sound hole improve the tone of the instrument?

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