Posted by Ken Henry on November 30, 2012 at 12:00am
My first attempt at a CBG The Box is a Jaime Garcia Special Reserve." My Father's Cigars". It is set up on a 25 1/2" Strat scale which I marked off on my Squier Strat and made a template out of a piece of aluminum angle. The neck is regular Maple 1X2 from Home Depot and the fretboard is 1/4 X 1 1/2" Red Oak also from there I did a scarf cut on the headstock and while invisible on the right side It is pretty visible on the left side. Next time I will sandwich it between two other pieces of wood before I make the cut and that should keep it pretty straight. I used a 10" table saw for that since my band saw needs a new blade and will not cut a straight line no matter what you do.I got the pot from cbgitty as well as the strap pin jack and the prewired piezo 40 MM. adn the tuners. I covered the sound holes with black fiberglass netting we had on our parrot cage LOL but I think it worked pretty good. I had to throw away my first fretboard as it was terribly inaccurate I managed to scar up this fretboard prety badle and wasn't paying attention and got my fret markers in the wrong place. I countersunk some black carpet tacks for that so used some dark red mahogany stain to cover the scars. I filled in the wrong holes with glue and sawdust but they came out a lot darker than I wanted so I had to go as dark as possible and that was the darkest I had. I used some brass decorative 3/4" nails for markers on the side of the fretboard and predrilled the holes for them. Here is a tip: do not use el cheapo masking tape to keep stain off your neck while staining the fretboard. It WILL SEEP on you. Home Depot has some better tape for that and it isn't masking tape and isn't blue tape either. I think it is called "frog" tape but not sure. I gave the entire thing two coats of hand rubbed Tung oil and I intend to varnish it with Minwax Polyurethane Varnish. My next one I will figure where I want the bridge first and then measure from there to get the measurements for the neck!! Now the tailpiece is part of a 4" brass bowl I got at red Racks for $.99 and I just cut a section out and then hammered it with a ball peen hammer for effect the bowl is shown in a later picture with the piece missing the strings I used are 13's and I used the 5-4-3 and have tried a couple of different tunings but havent settled on one yet. I think I might go with an A. The DAD didn't seem to work very well as I was afraid of breaking the smallest string. Oh and the bridge and nut or part of a dog bone I found in the yard that has been out in the weather for a couple of years. The lid is still fully functional so I can get to everything but of course I have to remove the strings and the jack and tailpiece to do it. Needless to say I learned a lot of valuable lessons about HOW NOT TO DO IT!!! LOL I hope everyone enjoys the photos. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has. Feedback is greatly appreciated!!! As is all the help I received from you guys!
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I just looked through all of the pictures of this build, and I think you did a great job. You say you learned a lot of lessons on how not to do it, but other than the goof on the fretboard, I don't see a thing wrong with it at all. And don't sweat the goof on the fretboard - I was taught that if you're not making mistakes, you aren't learning a thing. Knife scars, visible joints, knocks, dings, screw heads, filled holes, imperfect staining, visible fasteners - all of them add to the art of the CBG. None of it takes a thing away from the sound.
Personally, I think it's excellent. I do hope you post a video of it - I'll bet it sounds just as great as it looks.
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I just looked through all of the pictures of this build, and I think you did a great job. You say you learned a lot of lessons on how not to do it, but other than the goof on the fretboard, I don't see a thing wrong with it at all. And don't sweat the goof on the fretboard - I was taught that if you're not making mistakes, you aren't learning a thing. Knife scars, visible joints, knocks, dings, screw heads, filled holes, imperfect staining, visible fasteners - all of them add to the art of the CBG. None of it takes a thing away from the sound.
Personally, I think it's excellent. I do hope you post a video of it - I'll bet it sounds just as great as it looks.