hello all,
my name is Kevin, im 29 and hooked on these amazing instruments!
I just got done making a basic cbg but my plan is to make one for my cousin for Christmas.
my gaol is to take my time and do it very well and give him a quality peice as he is an avid guitar player.
I will prob. be asking tons of questions, so I can pull this off in time.

I got the cigar box ill be using, I need to figure out what kind of wood and style for the neck, what pickup, what bridge set-up, and what tuners. guitar needs to have an old look and feel.

if you have any good ideas im all ears!

Views: 135

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Hi,

what a great present - You need to find out what kind of guitar your cousin prefers - number of strings, acoustic or electric, size, etc... If it is to be a surprise have a look at what he is playing now and ask him what his ultimate guitar would be.
Look at the photo section for ideas.
Ted Crocker http://www.cigarboxnation.com/profile/TedCrocker) has a great number of different designs on his homepage.
The rest depends upon how much free time you have before chrismas to build it. The great thing about CBGs is that you can make it all from scratch, or recycle parts off old guitars, or do something in between.
Some points I have learnt are;
To use decent quality machine heads(tuners), if is doesn't stay in tune it is a pain to play.
Piezo buzzer elements are really cheap (off ebay) for an amplified acoustic sound.
It is easy to add a magnetic pickup for an electric sound.

Good luck,
David
Welcome to the Nation. Nice idea. Nothing more thoughtful than a real homemade Xmas gift. Seems like the very thing that is missing from the holiday season. I am not a builder, so I can not help you there, but if you are looking for instruction please check out what I have to offer.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=53983C1119D9691C

This series will be available for sale on CD before Xmas.

Enjoy, Keni Lee
Wood for necks -- well the basics call for poplar but this is definitely not the rule (in fact there are no rules). Use what you got or can find. I would suggest maple, mahogany or some other medium hard to hard wood. Poplar tho a "hardwood" isn't all that hard. Kinda like pine. Ash is quite hard and might be harder to work with. I'd love to make one out of African Cherry (Makore).

Research what traditional guitar necks are made of and that will give you an idea of what you might want to use. Remember, CBGs are usually 1 - 4 strings (tho its very common to see 6 strings) and there is not as much string tension as on a standard guitar. Take a look at the pics we have posted here in the PHOTOS section above.

Pups are mostly piezo or magnetic. We have plans here for that too, so do a search. Bridge -- eh, about anything you can imagine. Again take a look at the 12K+ photos we have here.
Look on "Free Plans" on the header of the forum page. There is various help there. But i think the photos area will give you plenty of ideas.
Welcome Keven. Quality normally starts with quality parts if you want to impress an avid player. I am not saying quality can not come from scratch, but starting out, you may want to purchase the bridge, nut and nice tuners, unless you have sweet skills and can make quality parts from scratch. Steward MacDonald is a great place to get what you need..
http://www.stewmac.com/
im deff. going to buy the bridge, tuners, pickup etc.. just have not figured out what ones exactly.
I will be making the neck myself but have not decided on the design yet, I know it will be 3 string, fretless and will have a fretboard thats something exotic (wood).
what pickups are recomended? I dont want to do the radio shack piezo for this project (but my personal one will have one of those. my cousin plays old rock and blues.
thanks for the help so far all!
Talk to Ted Crocker here, he makes a super Stonehenge 3 string pickup that I know you would be happy with. He has great tech support to go with it,( and if you buy one, you can pick his brain on guitar building tips also.)

Kevin E Carey said:
im deff. going to buy the bridge, tuners, pickup etc.. just have not figured out what ones exactly.
I will be making the neck myself but have not decided on the design yet, I know it will be 3 string, fretless and will have a fretboard thats something exotic (wood).
what pickups are recomended? I dont want to do the radio shack piezo for this project (but my personal one will have one of those. my cousin plays old rock and blues.
thanks for the help so far all!
Yep, Mort is right about Ted's Stonehenge pickups, I just used one in a two-string model... they sound really good, and Ted knows his stuff.

StewMac is also a great source for stuff, but it's easy to spend a lot of money there, because every time you turn the page in their catalog you see more things you "need!"

If you're looking to buy the bridge and are going with a 3-string design, check out Josh Gayou's stuff on ebay. I haven't bought one of these bridges, yet, but it's calling to me!
Thanks again for all the advice, one more question, if I get the stonehenge pickup, can I still use a thru-body neck design? will I have to cut out a channel for the pickup to sit? or do I brace the neck independent from the tail?
I have a good understanding of guitars and woodworking so I can deff. get it done however it is, but im no expert.
thanks for that link, its the exact bridge I was looking for.

Nathan King said:
If you're looking to buy the bridge and are going with a 3-string design, check out Josh Gayou's stuff on ebay. I haven't bought one of these bridges, yet, but it's calling to me!
Welcome aboard! Remember, you can take your project as far as your imagination will take you. NO LIMITS!!
I'm not expert either, but there ways you can do it. If you're using the "typical" 1x2 stick for the neck, any electric pickup is more than likely going to be thicker than 3/4", and then you'll need to somehow get around that... bracing the neck is one option a lot of folks have used..

I myself used a 2x2, so when I cut out the notch for the pickup I still had enough wood left to support the tension from the strings. If you check out my pics, in the album "CBG #10 - Cuvee Electric Two-Stringer" I've got a pic showing what I'm talking about here. But, at least where I live, 2x2s are a lot harder to come by than 1x2s.

Again, it really all comes down to preference and experience. I like the neck thru style, so I made it neck thru. I also don't have much experience with the bracing/bolt on style of construction, so neck thru seemed easier and made more sense to me.

And, as an aside, if you have woodworking experience, you'll have this guitar done way before December. You might have an army of CBGs by then! :-)

Kevin E Carey said:
Thanks again for all the advice, one more question, if I get the stonehenge pickup, can I still use a thru-body neck design? will I have to cut out a channel for the pickup to sit? or do I brace the neck independent from the tail?
I have a good understanding of guitars and woodworking so I can deff. get it done however it is, but im no expert.

RSS

The Essential Pages

New to Cigar Box Nation? How to Play Cigar Box GuitarsFree Plans & How to Build Cigar Box GuitarsCigar Box Guitar Building Basics

Site Sponsor

Recommended Links & Resources


Forum

crossover guitar.

Started by Timothy Hunter in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Mar 21. 11 Replies

Tune up songs

Started by Ghostbuttons in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Mar 9. 5 Replies

Duel output jacks

Started by Justin Stanchfield in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Taffy Evans Mar 8. 6 Replies

How to Get Your Own Music on Spotify

Started by Cigar Box Nation in Feature Articles. Last reply by Southern Ray Feb 21. 2 Replies

CB Bass Guitar

Started by Mi Rankin in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Justin Stanchfield Jan 27. 5 Replies

Latest Activity

A.D.EKER commented on A.D.EKER's video
Thumbnail

Im Troubled (Tribute) Mc K Morganfield by BCB - A.D .Eker 2024.

"Thank you Poorness ! for loving it ! appreciated!"
14 hours ago
Southern Ray replied to Timothy Hunter's discussion just came accross this pickup idea on youtube.
" Very interesting. Thank you Timothy!"
14 hours ago
Kent Thurston updated their profile
15 hours ago
Southern Ray posted a photo

Punch Project!

She now sports gold metal CBGitty knobs, speaker and an Artec 2.5 watt speaker. Finished this in…
16 hours ago
Southern Ray posted a photo

Project Punch!

Gonna finally get back on this long-delayed project that is more than half complete. (The matching…
16 hours ago
Poorness Studios liked A.D.EKER's video
18 hours ago
BrianQ. left a comment for Rob (Uker) Porras
"Hope this helps?"
18 hours ago
Doug Thorsvik commented on Doug Thorsvik's photo
Thumbnail

Dueling Flatheads

"I appreciate the kind words Papa D! I have always loved the look of these cigar boxes. Glad to have…"
21 hours ago
A.D.EKER commented on A.D.EKER's video
yesterday
A.D.EKER posted a video

Im Troubled (Tribute) Mc K Morganfield by BCB - A.D .Eker 2024.

The recorded History By Alan Lomax for the library of Congres of the Blues, from Mc Kinley Morganfield (Aka Muddy Waters) the in this take recorded Tribute ...
yesterday
Papa D commented on Doug Thorsvik's photo
Thumbnail

Dueling Flatheads

"Beautiful..Nice work Doug.."
yesterday
Papa D commented on Papa D's photo
Thumbnail

american1 Sun Glo

"Thanx AGP & Doug..  4 more coming soon"
yesterday

Music

© 2024   Created by Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

\uastyle>\ud/** Scrollup **/\ud.scrollup {\ud background: url("https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/963882636?profile=original") no-repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;\ud bottom: 25px;\ud display: inline !important;\ud height: 40px;\ud opacity: 0.3 !important;\ud position: fixed;\ud right: 30px;\ud text-indent: -9999px;\ud width: 40px;\ud z-index: 999;\ud}\ud.scrollup:hover {\ud opacity:0.99!important;\ud}\ud \uascript type="text/javascript">\ud x$(document).ready(function(){\ud x$(window).scroll(function(){\ud if (x$(this).scrollTop() > 100) {\ud x$('.scrollup').fadeIn();\ud } else {\ud x$('.scrollup').fadeOut();\ud }\ud });\ud x$('.scrollup').click(function(){\ud x$("html, body").animate({ scrollTop: 0 }, 600);\ud return false;\ud });\ud });\ud \ua!-- End Scroll Up -->