Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on January 21, 2011 at 6:21am

This photo shows a nice clean attachment, and there is a lot of contact between the flange and the thick "3-layer" neck. So, much of what I say doesn't apply so much to this particular example. But, in my opinion, it's best to try to cut the neck-hole in the side of the tin "box" w/o cutting through the top rim of the box which is often folded over and affords the box a fair amount of structural strength. Later in this thread there is a photo by Jef Long that shows how he slots the neck to accept the rim of both the tin box and its lid, and this preserves the strength of the original box. Doing it this way will also allow you to get away with a thinner neck and no need for a heal on your neck. -Just a bit of constructive criticism meant in the best possible way. :-) 

-Rand.

 

beStillroy said:

Shhot a couple of screws through the back put the lid on and the strings willkeep it nice and snug. thanks

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Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on January 21, 2011 at 6:33am

The way I notch a neck is to saw a series of straight lines at right angles to the neck about 1/8" to 1/4" apart for the whole length of the area I want to cut out, and then I use a chisel to lightly pry each piece out. Usually the piece will snap out and once all the pieces are out, a little chiseling, filing and sanding and I'm done.(I don't have the luxury of power tools other than an electric hand drill.) For a couple of short notches to allow for the rim of the tin box and the lid, usually just two saw cuts about 3/16" apart will give you a good slot. Measure the width of rim for both your tin box and lid and cut the slot that far apart. Do it twice and you are set to go. 

 

As far as the hole in the side of your tin box, a cut like Jef Long uses shaped like:  >---<  will give you two nice flanges through which you can screw-on the tin to the neck using a couple of small wood screws. Look closely at Jef Long's photo for details.

-Rand.

 

paul said:

another question for you. how did you cut the notches for the neck? thanks

Jef Long said:

;) shhhh

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Permalink Reply by Mark Bliss on January 22, 2011 at 5:45am

All good ideas and informative from everyone.

My question is about support under the bridge, as I see none and no reference to any.

Can your "cans" support the string tension?

And for Jeff, the mag pickup simply positioned under the tin "sound board" Is great. But I wonder why you feel it would not work with inline effects or stomp boxes and such. Signal too weak?

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on January 22, 2011 at 5:12pm

hey mark.  it works great with any time/modulation based fx.  no worries whatsoever.  if you look at my videos you can see me doing a jingle bells for xmas with a nice pinch of delay.  Its distrotion and overdrive that these little puppies dont cope well with, because the pup is trained on the (metal) soundboard, which is a much bigger surface area than a string, feedback can be an issue, thats all..  Its just like a piezo, only better ;)  The signal is not weak in any way, no sir, in fact you have a much bigger magnetic surface exciting the coil than just a string, you know?  As far as I know this idea was pioneered by shane speal and ted crocker together when they made the stompers with licence plates and pbass pup inside.

and no, i dont put any support under the bridge, i WANT the soundboard under pressure, thats where the volume and tone come from imho.  The soundboard does buckle a few mm under the pressure of the bridge, and you need to account for this when u make a bridge, shaving it down til the action is right.

 

the way i screw the neck to the tin sides at each end means the neck itself a brace inside the tin.  Im pretty sure the tin would just fold up on itself without..

Mark Bliss said:

All good ideas and informative from everyone.

My question is about support under the bridge, as I see none and no reference to any.

Can your "cans" support the string tension?

And for Jeff, the mag pickup simply positioned under the tin "sound board" Is great. But I wonder why you feel it would not work with inline effects or stomp boxes and such. Signal too weak?

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on January 23, 2011 at 10:51am

yeah man u pretty much worked it out.  Ive done it on steel boxes too, works great.  Be aware 'tins' are not in fact made of tin, they are steel with an anodized coating of some sort.  Im no expert, but im pretty sure thats true.  The pickup here is not trained on the strings, its trained on the soundboard.  and it works great !! but it will feed back if you stand in front of your amp or apply overdrive, it only stands to reason its easier for your speakers to excite the tin lid than it is to excite some strings.  so it has the same kind of issues with feedback than a piezo does, but at least your impedance is right for your amp, a passive tone control will work, etc etc and its just a nice warm sound, no piezo 'quack'

Rand Moore said:

Hi All...

My questions are in regard to the photo that shows a magnetic pickup tie-wrapped to the side of the neck. Sorry if I change the direction of this thread. First, does this really work? Can you get good pickup? I always thought that the six little round pickup do-ma-jiggies had to be placed under the steel strings. But then I am wondering if that still works with a iron or stainless steel box? Maybe with an iron or stainless steel box, the pickups are just picking up the vibrations of the lid which is vibrating as a result of the string vibrations (indirect pickup). Can anyone who has experience doing this let me know what's going on here?

-Rand.

P.S. There is another CBN discussion group that discusses things like mounting necks to tins: The Canjo Consortium.

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Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on January 23, 2011 at 11:33am

Thanks for your reply, Jef. Seems like another innovating idea. Should have this discussion (or a link to it) moved over to the Canjo Consortium, as those folks might like this idea for electrifying their canjos. When I score some mag pickups I'll give it a try.

-Rand.

 

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