Posted by Rand Moore on January 15, 2011 at 2:35am
Here's the first rendition of my Black Tabak CBG, It was originally a 4-stringer tuned G-D-gg. But some songs use string 2 and I didn't like the sound of a pair of strings switching to a single string for low notes, so I added a 5th string so I could tune it G-DD-gg. The Bass G string is mainly used as a drone. It is diatonically fretted with nylon tie-wrap frets. It plays pretty nicely now. The bridge was also replaced as it caused the strings to be positioned too high off the neck. It currently uses a bolt for a bridge.
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This instrument I call my "Black Tabak Especial". I built it maybe 6 or 8 months ago and it has been thru a number of changes since then. Originally, I fretted it chromatically and strung it with 4 equally spaced strings. But, the action was too high (for my taste) with the tunable bridge, so thhe tunable bridge was replaced by a 6cm x 3cm x 0.5cm piece of trim wood on top of which I put a machine bolt to serve as the bridge.
The next time I attempt to make a tunable bridge, I'll reinforce the bridge area under the sound board, and then build the tunable bridge directly on the sound board rather than on top of a 0.5cm thick base board. That will lower the action by 0.5cm. Then I will make each of the "mini-bridges" within the tunable bridge shorter by about 0.25cm or so. That way I can trim a total of 0.75cm off the action, and still have a tunable bridge system. The mini-bridge pieces are just held in by string tension like the floating bridges on banjos, etc. You are welcome to use my ideas, which I have gleamed off other members of this website.
I also found that a chromatic 4-stringer was too challenging for me to play, so I changed the chromatic fretting to diatonic (easy to do when your frets are tie-wraps (what electricians & computer-folk use to dress up their wiring or cabling)). I also moved strings 1 & 2 together to become a paired melody sting (tuned G-D-G'-G). So, the instrument has become a fancy strum stick. But, after playing it awhile I decided I'd like to have a paired set of "middle" strings, so I added a 5th machine tuner. This was accomplished by elongating the slot in the headstock toward the nut and adding another tuning machine.
Also, I have also been meaning to cut a sound hole in the sound board and upgrade the frets to real metal frets, but I just haven't gotten around to it. I also need to buy more fretwire, something I'll be sure to do when I visit the States this summer. I guess I need to update the photo of this instrument in my personal page on CBN. I like the Tabak Especial box, so if you come across one. grab it and build a CBG around it. It has good acoustics.
Comments
Just ribbing you, Texmexy. I was looking around on your personal page, looking at the photos et al.
-Rand.
Thanks for the complement.
This instrument I call my "Black Tabak Especial". I built it maybe 6 or 8 months ago and it has been thru a number of changes since then. Originally, I fretted it chromatically and strung it with 4 equally spaced strings. But, the action was too high (for my taste) with the tunable bridge, so thhe tunable bridge was replaced by a 6cm x 3cm x 0.5cm piece of trim wood on top of which I put a machine bolt to serve as the bridge.
The next time I attempt to make a tunable bridge, I'll reinforce the bridge area under the sound board, and then build the tunable bridge directly on the sound board rather than on top of a 0.5cm thick base board. That will lower the action by 0.5cm. Then I will make each of the "mini-bridges" within the tunable bridge shorter by about 0.25cm or so. That way I can trim a total of 0.75cm off the action, and still have a tunable bridge system. The mini-bridge pieces are just held in by string tension like the floating bridges on banjos, etc. You are welcome to use my ideas, which I have gleamed off other members of this website.
I also found that a chromatic 4-stringer was too challenging for me to play, so I changed the chromatic fretting to diatonic (easy to do when your frets are tie-wraps (what electricians & computer-folk use to dress up their wiring or cabling)). I also moved strings 1 & 2 together to become a paired melody sting (tuned G-D-G'-G). So, the instrument has become a fancy strum stick. But, after playing it awhile I decided I'd like to have a paired set of "middle" strings, so I added a 5th machine tuner. This was accomplished by elongating the slot in the headstock toward the nut and adding another tuning machine.
Also, I have also been meaning to cut a sound hole in the sound board and upgrade the frets to real metal frets, but I just haven't gotten around to it. I also need to buy more fretwire, something I'll be sure to do when I visit the States this summer. I guess I need to update the photo of this instrument in my personal page on CBN. I like the Tabak Especial box, so if you come across one. grab it and build a CBG around it. It has good acoustics.
-Rand.