My first CBG and its a BTG! A great Saturday night playing with my wood

So this is my first build I've been watching and learning on this site for the past month or so and eventually built one. Thanks to Juju for his advice from the interview i did with him on my blog.

So this is England and we don't have the oversized CBs available so easy over here, but we do have LOTS of biscuit tins, i found this Christmas themed Scottish Shortbread tin on the street yesterday, after a few days looking in shops for something similar, so its an authentic junk guitar, a Biscuit Tin Guitar, has anyone else made one?

As my first attempt its far from perfect but I learnt a lot and next time will know to do a few things differently. For example I decided this morning I would go and buy a spokeshave to shape the back of the neck, this was a wasted £15 really as even after sharpening it I couldn't get it to cut right so i ditched that idea and just went for a sanded neck. Will have to spend more time with the spokeshave on some junk wood later on, as its not as easy as it looked on you tube ;(

I raped and pillaged some shit guitars I had laying around for the machine heads, pickup, electronics, pot and bridge pins. Put it all together this afternoon in my room making a complete mess and after about 4-5 hours i had this little beauty.

The action is really high, and plays a nice slide and as you;d expect has a really tinny harsh sound to it, i'll post a song at some point these instruments really do inspire you when writing songs.

Look forward to making more and would appreciate feed back and any advice

Dirty X

Replies

Mark November 10, 2010 at 5:54pm

Don Thompson said:
http://www.akzstudios.com/DIDDLEYBOW2.html
where does the sound come from? A small tin, hence small sound unless plugged in.
http://www.mcld.co.uk/oddmu/danbau/
again, very faint sound without being plugged in. I could go on indefinately but no need. Built them all, I know what I hear. This is NOT an acoustic instrument. Hey, I have an idea, let the builder record it unplugged, I want to hear the magical resonance that against all laws of acoustics comes forth. Secondly, and I agree the position and material a pickup is mounted on affects it's tone. Been proven many times over. A solid body willl sound different than a hollow body however in those instances the Bridge Is in Contact With The Top of the Guitar. The builder could have used a pizza box and the sound will be so close as I doubt even a person with golden ears could hear a difference blindfolded.

Didn't say it was an acoustic instrument - just that all parts of a guitar interact through sympathetic resonance and thus affect overall sound. I know what I hear and I also read the scientific research.
Don Thompson November 10, 2010 at 5:36pm

http://www.akzstudios.com/DIDDLEYBOW2.html
where does the sound come from? A small tin, hence small sound unless plugged in.
http://www.mcld.co.uk/oddmu/danbau/
again, very faint sound without being plugged in. I could go on indefinately but no need. Built them all, I know what I hear. This is NOT an acoustic instrument. Hey, I have an idea, let the builder record it unplugged, I want to hear the magical resonance that against all laws of acoustics comes forth. Secondly, and I agree the position and material a pickup is mounted on affects it's tone. Been proven many times over. A solid body willl sound different than a hollow body however in those instances the Bridge Is in Contact With The Top of the Guitar. The builder could have used a pizza box and the sound will be so close as I doubt even a person with golden ears could hear a difference blindfolded.

Mark aka. Junk Box Instruments said:
Not entirely true. The bridge is connected to the box indirectly by the neck/tailpiece so there will almost certainly be some sympathetic resonance - not the same as if the bridge was mounted directly on the tin but it will affect the overall sound of the instrument. Also, the pickup is mounted on the box, so any movement of the top of the box will add to the relative movement between pickup and strings.

Don Thompson said:
In this build the box is only there to hold the electronics and other elements together. As the bridge does not act upon any soundboard, the pickup and amp are the sole source of sound.
Don
Mark November 10, 2010 at 4:42pm

Not entirely true. The bridge is connected to the box indirectly by the neck/tailpiece so there will almost certainly be some sympathetic resonance - not the same as if the bridge was mounted directly on the tin but it will affect the overall sound of the instrument. Also, the pickup is mounted on the box, so any movement of the top of the box will add to the relative movement between pickup and strings.

Don Thompson said:
In this build the box is only there to hold the electronics and other elements together. As the bridge does not act upon any soundboard, the pickup and amp are the sole source of sound.
Don
Don Thompson November 10, 2010 at 3:48pm

In this build the box is only there to hold the electronics and other elements together. As the bridge does not act upon any soundboard, the pickup and amp are the sole source of sound.
Don
Mark November 10, 2010 at 1:13pm

Great sounds! Can't work out why it sounds so good when you've got the bridge in an odd place - but what the heck, if it works then keep it that way. Tins have a lot going for them and are in no way a "second class" type of box (as you've demonstrated). I used a tin for my first build for the same reason as you did. These days I find my builds split about 50:50 between tins and cigar boxes. Every box or tin seems to have its own particular tone.
Rand Moore November 10, 2010 at 4:39am

Hi Dirty Roger.

That's a nice first build. My first cookie tin "canjo-banjo" ended up in the trash... me and power tools, a dangerous mix! Anyway, I noticed you are using a magnetic pickup on yours. As I can't get videos from Youtube and most other websites from within China (where I live), I haven't heard your instrument for myself. Is the magnetic pickup a better pickup for canjos and cigar box guitars as compared to piezos? I have yet to find the right mix of sound deadening materials and hot glue to keep piezos from picking up all the "fingering and handling noise". So, I was wondering if you have that with the magnetic pickups? Magnetic pickups may be more expensive, but if they cut the noise, then they are probably worth it. I know it means going to steel (electric guitar) strings. Most my builds have been with ukulele strings to save the wear and tear on my finger tips.

Also, from you pictures, I see your bridge is located on the neck below the sound box. Was there a particular reason for this, or does it not really matter with magnetic pickups? I also thought it might be a sound deadening technique, but I guess that's not the problem with magnetic pickups.

I've been building since this past Spring and started on canjos and gradually eased into cigar box guitars. A lot of what I have done is documented on Cigar Box Nation on personal blog which you (as a novice builder) may find interesting reading. I document my disasters as well as my successes.

Well, I hope you have many more enjoyable builds.

-Rand.
Don Thompson November 9, 2010 at 8:41am

It may be an optical illusion but from the side it appears your neck bends upwards once it leaves your tin. Have you held a straight egde along the box and checked to make sure it is straight? You can also look down the guitar and see if it is bending up.
Don
Jim Mitchell November 9, 2010 at 6:44am

Sounds and looks good..... When I was first getting the hang of using a spoke shave (and a plane for that matter) I always had the tool set for too big of a bite. Not a good practice! I use my spoke shave to carve my necks and have it set for very fine cuts. There was a really good discussion here on the subject about a month ago. Let me know if you can't find it and I'll dig up the link. I guess I'll see you at the meetings, these things are addictive....hehehehe
Mungo Park November 8, 2010 at 11:45pm

Great video man, buy the looks of it you could lower the strings down a swack, seems like you have lots of space below the strings. Cheers Ron.
JUJU November 8, 2010 at 8:49pm

hehehe YEAH MAN lovin your video thats freakin cool man wasn't Expecting that at all - started out pretty normal then ...Give me sum sound :) very cool mate i really enjoyed that nearly as much as you did i can see your six stringers gathering dust like the rest of our guitars lol!

welcome to your new addiction
juju:)

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