Doug Thorsvik

Doug,

I have been frustrated finding a source that will sell the PU for anything less than a dollar a foot. Only when you get to quantites over 1000 feet (per size) do you get any significant breaks. There is a guy at www.roadtoadmusic.com who have been making bass ukuleles with some black PU, but he is asking @ $20-25 per set. That's OK, for a single build, but I'm hoping still to find something better...

the best,

Sam

Hi Doug,

ah, I went as short a 25" inches with steel, but the strings were getting awfully sloppy. For me the attractive thing about the poly strings is they are easy on the fingers and that have a real old timey thump-thump upright bass sound. I don't know if you ever messed around with an Ashbory Bass (short scale strung with surgical tubing, ca 1980's), but they were great, except that you had to use talc powder to make the strings playable. Don't have that problem with the PU. I have one that I've played weekly with a group and used for about 1/3 of my solo set for over 5 months and it's going strong, no problems...

I would say that PU is happiest played fretless. it lends itself to bends and even some "slap" stuff like an old upright.

Another way to go would be weedwacker line. It's hard to get low "E" shorter than 30" because it gets stiff in the diameters needed to reach that low... but, if you can stand low "A" you could have a real playable bass with weedwacker line as short as 22" scale....

hope that helps,

Sam

Doug,

just saw your pics, so you know as much about weedwacker as it do.... Can you use regular tuners on PU?.... yes, if they are bass tuners.... to get low "E", you're working with some big diameters, even bass tuners often have to be drilled out. Regular guitar tuners don't have enough meat to handle the job.... PU is ver abrasion resistant, so if you do have 1/2 decent job of smoothing the edges you won't be cutting the string, like say if it was nylon....

the best,

Sam

Doug, I'm playing in open G. I use a full size martin guitar temp for my necks.

the circuit board top has a nice metal sounding tone and that is what i was searching for. to prepare it took a little work, i cut the components off of it very carefully and then used a rubber sanding block to smooth it up. the top floats free and it actually sounded better before i put the sound hole covers in.i have done this circuit board thing before with pickguards to add character to a les paul and a tele and a strat and an explorer. never used it as a top before till now. i was saving that last circuit board for something special for 4 years now. i have only known about cigarbox guitars for maybe a month an a half at this point. i am very attached to cigarbox guitars as a great hobby,[hooked] and have necer had so much fun building in my life. any more questions you have i will be glad to talk with you about any thing you want. just ask and i will answer you the best that i can. thanks for the sci-fi comment,that made my day.

pace is not really a hinderence because i have only been building cigarbox guitars for a month and a half. availability of imagination and ways to figure out how to use whatever parts you can see as parts is what helps me the most in getting projects to fit together. i find something and ask myself can i use this,sometimes it,s from old car parts we have in the back yard. i,m just a ninja cigarbox guitar builder. ha ha. i also use a scientific approach to assembling various things together. it takes me a lot more thought hours than build hours to complete a project. you keep on jammin man cause your projects define distinguishable character.

Doug: yeah, I found the plywood edge to be quite sharp and uncomfortable, and the armrest really helps.

I just used a scrap piece of 1/4" oak and shaped it a bit with scroll-saw and sander. Couple of L-brackets to attach it to the banjo. (I just used JB Weld epoxy to fasten them to the armrest.)

well sir, im right handed but it is more comfortable to play lefty. so therefore my personal stash is all lefty. i can play right handed but only good enough to test out things. i just built that one on account of selling it and to test the waters on a six string build. i love it so im gonna do a lefty six stringer for myself. everyone else that i play with is righty so that one was just to kinda get them in on the fun! thanks for the interest. so do i understand you are a lefty?

Thanks Doug. I just went for it when gluing up the neck. I cut 3/4 inch strips and layed them out the way I wanted them to look. It took many clamps. After drying I put some pressure on the neck and it had some give. I added a 1/4 thick piece of oak to the back, added a hefty neck heel and shortened the scale to about 23".

hey doug, thanks for the comments on my resonator! i'm loving that thing. its tuned e b e. it sounds great plugged or unplugged. slide action is great or playing it just outright. the fretboard material is the same as the sides. and it is a birch wood design piece that i bought at michaels and did some touch up work to.

Yes Doug, Fret.zip will be extremely helpful, my brother will love it also.He plays a few different stringed instruments

I agree on the statement you made, of not everybody buying into the cigar box guitars, I am finding that out on another guitar forum, that I don't feel like going back to. LOL

Yep, I keep meaning to try the mdf - Iv got a stack of it - but always get carried away and forget. Il make a note next time! All the best mate
Ben

Glad you like the matching headstock & body of my unimaginatively titled CBG 1. I should post a photo of the headstock, I used right-angled cup hooks as string guides as I couldn't think of anything better at the time.

Okay Doug, I've now put on a photo of the headstock showing the cup hooks. This is the only time I've used this method; now just use screws, sometimes with a washer under the head, which i think is common practice.

Hi Doug , no worries mate , i like to give credit where it's due and you deserve it mate , yes i was wondering if you added any bracings with such a expance of wood , the pyro work is very good you have a steady hand and patiance , good on you mate
Keep well
juju.

Thanks for your message Doug , very intresting , like the idea of the slight bow to allow for string tension sounds like it's a winner
Regards
juju.

Hi Doug,

The neck is a little narrow (1.25 inches), so the strings look bigger. Actually they are the top three from a "medium acoustic set" (46.36.24) I think. Most of the time I will play this finger style with a little basic chording. I am working on a "soft slide" technique, where I tune an open cord, but use my index finger as the slide. If I tune an open minor chord, I can finger "ahead of the bar" one fret on the bottom string to achieve a Major chord. This allows easy play for a song with a mix of major and minor chords, without a lot of wierd fingerings....

the song "heartache tonight" on my page's juke box is done this way. still have a ways to go with the technique, but getting there.

the best,

Wichita Sam

Doug,

with three stringers (fretless), I tend to go with a simple open chord (open D = DAd)

with fretted, I tend toward an open chord, but with the 3rd instead of the octave (open D = DAf#... this can be modified to open D minor by changing the third to make open D minor = DAf )....

Open tunings are standard guitar tunings... with heavy or medium strings it will give your CBG more "Punch".... hehehehe..

the best,

Sam

Hey Doug - thanks for the comments! The sodbuster mini amp is built using one of those Artec SDAP amp circuits on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ARTEC-SDAP-Amp-Circuit-GAIN-Guitar-Cigar-Box-Mini-Amp_W0QQitemZ120441233913QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c0adb61f9&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 Have to say it looks better than it sounds, I think. I was a little disappointed with the out put on it. But I have to say they are good people. I wrote them after building the amp questioning the output and they sent me another one for free to see if there was a problem with the first. Haven't had a chance to try it out yet but I'm hoping it's a little hotter than the first. I'll let you know how it goes when I do. The other amp I have photos of (CB Mega Twin) started off as a Washburn Lyon 9V practice amp. It screams! Just got another one on eBay for about $25 including shipping. Just take out all the electronics and refit into box of choice. I'll be starting the 2nd one soon. Here's a photo.

Hello,
I have started a CBN group entitled, "How to Play CBG" It is my hope and intention to encourage the "Wealth of Talent" here on the Nation to share their knowledge and skill to further the CBG movement. Please consider contributing an instructional "video" link to this group. If you are a viewer seeking instruction, please feel free to write. If you have any suggestions or know other players who you think may want to post instructional "video" links, please contact me. Thank you for your interest and support, Keni Lee

Right. I use that too. Heh, I use the drill press too! Did you have a router bit? Only thing I have is a 1/8" rotozip tool bit.

Gotta love the drill press.

I take the bit and also put it into the drill press. I try to get it as high up in the chuck as I can without getting into the threads. I will use a simple piece of wood clamped onto the press table and set the table so the neck is about 1/4" from the bit. I positions the fence so that the bit is set in the center of the neck (I draw a centerline first). Then I crank her up and run the neck through with the bit about 1/16 - 1/8" in. I prolly make about 20 passes each progressively deeper until I get 9/16". This way, I have about 1/6" of wood before the bar top in case I need to sand something flatter.

-Wes

Oh, and I go REAL slow because the bit will break easy.

I looked for a 1/8" router bit and found one but they don't go that deep. That would be the ideal thing.

Hi Doug , your finishing skills look good to me bro , yeah i should have a go at the wood burning i do like to draw and doodle , the only wood burningi did was on the Mini Reso model i made , not quite to the standard of your pyro work lol! Thanks bro juju.

Doug, I think you have a lot of experience in wood burning. I've been looking a t wood burning equipment and have no idea what a person needs. I haven't got a whole lot to spend but would like to get started with something I could add to as time goes on. Do you have any recommendations on any good starters? Thanks.

I like your guitars. Great work.

Thanks Doug, Great page you got here, Some really good info.

Doug, someday soon I'd like to try a fretted instrument, and the dulcimer style fret-spacing looks like an awesome concept! However, it seems like more work than I'd be able to do just now, with all the tools I don't have to install, sand, bevel, etc., the frets... the fretless CBGs are easier to make, and I really like playing slide, so it seems to work out! :-) Thanks for checkin' out my pics, though, and the positive feedback. Always appreciated!
-Nate

Thanks! Just don"t lose your head over it!

way cool doug them guitars look happy

doug i use my imac web cam and an mbox mi 2 for audio with a tapco blend 6 mixer you can hear the differnce on my newer videos any help i can offer just ask

Thanks for the great comments Doug! Especially coming from you. I always love the wood burning you do too! Take care - T

doug look up the zoom Q3 about $300.00 there new and made for internet video recording

thank you for that comment doug the blues were born in pain and raised in suffering

doug i think i tuned the 2 high strings the same then treated it like a 3 string CBG i forget what key it might have been ADaa or GDgg the pull offs on the double string Ice Bob

thanks doug keep on struming

thanks doug it never needs battery's

Doug that a 16 inch scale dulcimer sounds just like a mandolin it is tuned to G D G
Plays the same a s a dulcimer tuned to D A D just up a few notes.