Comment

Comment by Brian Thompson on January 2, 2019 at 12:15pm

Hey TAP! Trust all is well with you and yours, nice to hear from you again, and thanks for the nice comment, appreciate it!

Comment by the anonymous pick on January 2, 2019 at 11:51am

mighty fine !  ;-)

Comment by Brian Thompson on January 2, 2019 at 10:40am

Hi Gary, so nice to hear from you again........yes, I know, it's been a while.....!! Thanks for the second, official this time (ha!) warm welcome and kind words. As you may have gathered, part of my 'excuse' for my tardiness is I've been doin' a 'Bee Gee' (as in 'Stayin' Alive'....!!) so it's doubly nice to be here!

Lookin' forward to sharing the next build with everyone.......like you once wisely told me, many moons ago, 'it's a great hobby'......and The Nation is THE place to get the most out of it.

Brian.

Comment by Gary W aka Rev. Bluejeans on January 2, 2019 at 8:09am

Excellent build, first or 100th!  Good thinking on your parts sourcing - probably helps a lot on a first build.  Keep 'em coming and welcome (officially!) to the Nation!

Comment by Brian Thompson on January 2, 2019 at 1:40am

Muy amable de tu parte decir eso amigo!

Thanks Jock, and although I have many years experience under my belt working on 'conventional' guitars discovering CBGs has opened up a whole new world and massively rekindled my passion.

Comment by Jock MacHinery on January 2, 2019 at 1:21am

Muy bien muchacho! That's a great first build.

Comment by Brian Thompson on January 2, 2019 at 12:39am

This is my very first CBG build, finished just before Christmas 2019. I learned so much doing it and have already started my second build which, will be a fret-less based around a beautiful San Cristobal Revelation cigar box. The Aroma De Cuba was built using one of Chickenbone John's basic parts neck kits comprising a neck stick with head stock basically shaped, a laminate piece for the body end with a basically shaped heel and a slotted fret board blank in black walnut with some medium fret wire. The neck stick is sapele. It saved me a bit of hassle sourcing the wood as well as a handy head startbfor my first build attempt.

I obtained all the hardware from various sources and chose an Artec mini humbucker with four conductor wiring so I could add a three way mini toggle switch (on/on/on) and have parallel/coil cut/series sound options. I'm not usually a big fan of gold hardware preferring chrome usually, but the box 'spoke to me' and I'm really glad I listened! Another feature I incorporated was the 'teardrop' sound hole on the side, as I didn't want to detract from the beautiful lithographed printing on the lid with grommets. I pinched the idea from a similar build the very talented Rob Wrobel produced that I saw here, and who's work I greatly admire....thanks Rob and hope you don't mind!!! I was very pleased to find the gold anodised perforated sheet that I used to screen it with and have loads left for future builds.

It's strung with .046w/.030w/.022w and tuned GDG. It's set up for fretting and slide work and plays really well, although I have plenty of room to drop the action a little more by shaving a tad more from the bridge base, which is another Chickenbone John part to which I added a brass bolt, mirror polished to match the brass set screw used for the nut, which I had to shorten to length. The inlays are all gold mother of pearl and look beautiful when the light catches them and match the hardware a treat. I cut the teardrop shape in the head stock from a blank with a jewellers saw and chose the shape to tie-in with the sound hole on the body.

The feeling I had when the strings finally went on and I played it the first time was amazing.....joy was unconfined!!! I didn't stop playing it for nearly three hours! 

I now really feel like I've joined 'The Nation' properly and owe you all huge appreciation and gratitude for inspiring me to do it. Rest assured, it is the first of many........how many CBGs do you need? Just one more....etc etc.....!!!

Brian Thompson.