Let's take my 4-string CBG from a Camacho box as an example: acoustically it doesn't sound at all, but with two Power Rails from GuitarFetish even with a simple amp with volume and gain only it sounds great. With the idea to learn from each other, let us know, how your CBG sounds without an amp and with which pics it sounds great. What do you think about this idea?

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One thing that I've learned over the many many years of playing is that you can make a stringed instrument out of just about anything, put a pickup of some kind in it, plug it into a good amp and get some decent sounds out of it.  Or you can make a instrument out of quality materials with quality craftsmanship and it will sound great with any pickup through any amp.

Plug in your instrument, turn on the amp, mute your strings and knock on the body. The sound will come through the speaker. The pickups don't just pickup string vibrations, they also pickup vibrations through the body, neck, bridge, nut and tuners. All the parts help color/influence the instruments sound signal that the pickups, amp and speaker further color/influence.

Cheap quality wood and metal or whatever you use can also offer good results, but to keep denying the benefits of quality materials is silly.

I think that Piezo's sound better in the cheaper boxes because they offer a darker/bass tone that offsets the usual bright tone from the Piezo. Some like the bight toned boxes with bright toned Piezo's. So tone/sound quality can be subjective.

I've heard cheap CBG's/Guitars that sound awful and some good, I haven't heard any quality CBG's/Guitars sound bad.

That's why thousands of people have bought cheap plywood Fenders. Ripped out all the electronics. Put the good stuff in. Then go to studios and sound just like those mega $$$ nice wood Fenders. They play on stage and sound just like those $$$ really nice wood Fenders. They play in bars and sound just like those $$$ hand picked, hand made expensive wood Fenders. And you know something. People are doing the same thing with Epiphones. As long as the neck is good. The body can be made out of anything that'll support the tension of the strings. 

back on subject.

I've played a few tin CBGs. Everyone of them had a somewhat banjo sound to them. If that's what the creator was going for that's awesome. Not a woody enough sound for me. I'd choose a pup over a piezo if I built one. If I ever get the time I'd build a few regular cigar box guitars. Would definitely go with both piezo and quality pups. With a switch to choose either. But not both together. Use the piezo when I want that sound you can't get out of a standard guitar. Use the pups for everything else. If the box sounds bad. All I'd have to do is remover the piezo from the circuit. Put it in a better box. 

Yeah those tin CBG's do sound like a Banjo and some CBG's have a Citar sound to them too.

I have never been lucky enough to find a Plywood body guitar(I've had 4) that sounded worth a $*^#. Had one that sounded decent, but sold it and went for the real deal.

There's always an exception to the rule. A friend of mine had a Japanese made guitar with a body made of what seemed to be masonite with one single coil pickup and it sounded awesome. Some old Danelectro"s were made of masonite and Poplar and were great. Just hasn't been my experience to find one that sounds good. Maybe I'm too picky. LOL

I have an old Hammer guitar made out of mystery meat. No idea what this stuff it. Kinda looks like ham salad sandwich  spread. Unfortunately the guitar itself was manufactured so poorly it will never play in tune. I've set intonation on guitars for years. This one is impossible. It's a set neck so I can't even take the thing apart. Ended up with parts and an unusable body and neck.

Lap Steel ! Haha

The piezo is in fact a capacitor,i did a few a while back with a piezo as a cap in the tone circuit,works ok

The reason I want to wire them separately is mags have a higher output. I can set up a graphic EQ pedal as a pre amp or boost for the piezo. Pushing a stronger signal thew effects like delay and reverb. No sound loss between guitars. 

Jim, there's plenty of really good mid cost pickups. Most of the price of the high end ones is caused by the manufacturer process of insuring each pickup will sound exactly the same. Companies like Dragonfire and Mighty Mite have some great sounding pups. All these people buying Epiphone and Fender plywoods are selling the original pups. Tuns of them on Ebay going cheap. Check out Squier as well. 

Two points..

if your bridge is on a moving soundboard then the soundboard will move the strings and add to the sound (if your pickup is on the moving soundboard then your pickup will move too adding to the sound).

If you have built a through neck and hold it at roughly the middle between two fingers and tap it near the bottom it has a tone of its own and that's without a body or strings.

Both these factors change the way the guitar sounds because both these factors change the way the string will vibrate. The point is.. Can we hear it or not? Stick any distortion pedal on anything and it won't really make a difference. Personally I prefer acoustic instruments because you can hear the tonal differences between them.

Back in the 80's I had this Arbor guitar. Body was plywood, Maple neck, locking nut, Kahler tremelo and active EMG 85 pickup.Had a 50watt Crate amp with Reverb, Chorus and a distortion channel. Also had a DOD American Metal distortion pedal and a Flanger pedal. With all this I was only able to get a good sound that took a lot of settings experimenting to get.

This guitar is a cheap Chinese made guitar, but it has a Mahogany body with a Maple cap, Maple neck, Tusq nut, no-name pickups and no-name tremolo.It sounds fantastic in whatever I plug it into with or without effects and doesn't require a lot of fiddling around with settings to get a fantastic sound. I could spend a little money on some nice name brand pups that would put it over the top, but I'm short on funds these days.

A cheap guitar in the past meant you got a plywood or mystery meat body, but today's cheap guitars( Squier-Epiphone ) have bodies made of quality hardwoods and sound much better and play better. This is the golden age for cheap guitars today.

Hi Guys, been following this thread and thought I'd jump in before it get's a bit old. What this discussion started with [I think] was relating to the acoustic qualities of a CBG. I'm just going to throw in my thoughts and actions re the CBG, I'm not saying this is right or any thing said previous is wrong, but its what I do and as the saying goes 'it works for me', and for my customers also.

I have never played or heard played a CBG made from a cigar box, so I cant say  if that is a "great sound" or not, most of the performances I see are amplified. It would certainly be the sound of days gone by.

When I started building CBG's, and coming from an acoustic guitar building background, I wanted a balanced tone and high volume for the size of the box and consistent end products . With my first guitars I experimented with bracing styles, box dimensions and of course sound-hole sizes. I also played with scale lengths and bridge positioning, with a fixed size box one effects the other.

When I was happy with sum of all of the above I built my first commission for a customer who had waited for me all this time to "get it right".

My view is that I want as much of the top to vibrate as possible, so any pickups are not fixed to the top, even sound hole covers, control knobs and such, I find, effect the output of the top. I use hardwood backs and sides and cedar tops, except for my basic model that is all pine. Sides are thickish, the back and top are thin and "active" and are braced.

I was pleased with the following feed back from my son recently.

I sent him a kit form CBG modeled off  my most basic model, along with a video I made of how to build it. He built the guitar and said he was amazed at the sound of the small box. He was so impressed he has started building his own now, starting number four soon. But here's the good bit [for me], he said "I'm so happy with how great they sound.....until I play the one I sent him".

So what is great sound?

 

Just made a Cedar box build and love the tone.

Thanks Taffy for your post, I agree fully with your statement «I want as much of the top to vibrate as possible, so any pickups are not fixed to the top, even sound hole covers, control knobs and such, I find, effect the output of the top.« To check the acoustic effect of a feature I work always with two otherwise equal boxes, mostly Partagas 25 Serie D No. 4, otherwise would be hard to heck out what it is that makes up the difference. Two features I learned this way to give room to the soundboard to vibrate freely, fully in agreement with your experience:

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