All Discussions Tagged 'decoration' - Cigar Box Nation2024-03-29T00:36:53Zhttps://www.cigarboxnation.com/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=decoration&feed=yes&xn_auth=noNewbie lessons learnedtag:www.cigarboxnation.com,2019-11-01:2592684:Topic:34017242019-11-01T16:19:55.880ZStevehttps://www.cigarboxnation.com/profile/Steve132
<p>My first post here and I thought I would give my (sometimes painful) lessons learned on building my first 3 CBGS. I will do as separate posts so this is called CBG#1. No doubt most, if not all have been done to death elsewhere but the more data the better?</p>
<p>Apart from current ( in-progress) build, all my necks are made from Oak - I am struggling to find a lighter hardwood in my area atm. Where I used wound pickup, these were a job lot from eBay ( 5 or 6 for around £10 ). I also have…</p>
<p>My first post here and I thought I would give my (sometimes painful) lessons learned on building my first 3 CBGS. I will do as separate posts so this is called CBG#1. No doubt most, if not all have been done to death elsewhere but the more data the better?</p>
<p>Apart from current ( in-progress) build, all my necks are made from Oak - I am struggling to find a lighter hardwood in my area atm. Where I used wound pickup, these were a job lot from eBay ( 5 or 6 for around £10 ). I also have only just acquired a couple of real cigar boxes ( Struggling to find in UK other than expensive ones on eBay), so only CBG#3 (later post) has a 'real' cigarbox sound box.</p>
<p>CBG #1 </p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3692090739?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3692090739?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="500" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3692090919?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3692090919?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="500" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Description</span></p>
<ul>
<li>No fretboard or scarf joint</li>
<li>Neck-through design</li>
<li>Plywood box ( from 'The Works' in UK - £4 )</li>
<li>Wound pickup</li>
<li>Closed tuners</li>
<li>Shaped neck using a block plane</li>
<li>Decorated with famous cigar smokers (Churchill and Groucho!)</li>
<li>Shotgun cartridge tuner/volume controls</li>
<li>I used disassembled pop rivets to protect wood on tailpiece being worn by string tension.</li>
<li>Decorative soldering iron bits used to burn fret markers.</li>
<li>Wood varnish finish all over</li>
<li>Cut sound hole trims from soda bottles</li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Lessons Learned</span></p>
<ul>
<li>Not having a scarf joint requires a much thicker blank to start ( mine was only 20mm ). This meant the tension on the string drop Nut->Tuner was too slack. Had to add a 'tensioning bar' to correct ( See second image )</li>
<li>I made the neck way too wide ( 45 mm ). For the 3 strings to be 25 mm apart ( seems to be around the perceived wisdom on the subject ) Access for playing from the sides , and even barring chords, was more difficult.</li>
<li>Pop rivets worked great but best to hot glue them in.</li>
<li>Block plane is not ideal for neck shaping. I subsequently acquired a spokeshave</li>
<li>Distance from tailpiece to saddle too great, giving a shallow angle and low tension ( again!). This is primarily due to me not having a fretboard, so the saddle must sit low on the sound box to get a good low action. I added 'hold-down' screws behind the saddle to improve and this worked fine.</li>
<li>Decoration - I made the mistake of shading my graphics in with permanent marker rather than acrylic paint. When I added varnish it acted as a solvent and caused bleeding - Acrylic in future!</li>
</ul>
<p>CBG #2 (Beatles tribute)</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3693614589?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3693614589?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="500" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3693619798?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3693619798?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="500" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3693622057?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3693622057?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="500" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3693623984?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3693623984?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="500" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3693626152?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3693626152?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="500" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Description</span></p>
<ul>
<li>Second attempt much improved - (maple) fretboard over oak neck, AND scarf joint</li>
<li>Used a CBG specific adjustable bridge </li>
<li>Simple sound holes cut with aluminium mesh hot glued underneath</li>
<li>Side dots using 1.5 mm plastic rods (China/eBay) </li>
<li>'C' shape neck profile achieved by spokeshave</li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Lessons Learned</span> ( over first build )</p>
<ul>
<li>Scarf joint is worth the effort, Table saw made a reasonable job using a homemade (14 degrees) jig after studying a few YouTube clips (e.g <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrFbVYtH0qo">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrFbVYtH0qo</a>)</li>
<li>Sound holes - Used a slow turning flat bit and results were remarkably smooth considering it is a plywood box (again!). Hot-glued aluminium mesh underneath holes, to stop foreign bodies entering the box!</li>
<li>Decoration - I created high contrast versions of Paul and John from stock photos, then drew onto the box using a tracing app called Projector ( iOS only sadly) - Coloured using acrylic.</li>
<li>Finished using Danish oil - Much prefer this to varnish, and quicker to get multiple coats on than tung oil</li>
<li>Adjustable bridge is probably only really worth buying if you want to have quite varied string densities I e.g Low E , D, and high E. Otherwise reasonable intonation gained from a standard bridge/saddle. But happy with the results. NOTE - If using this type of bridge I STRONGLY recommend viewing Chickenbone John's clip on this first. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB4b1X00vXQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB4b1X00vXQ</a></li>
<li>Guitar sounds great - Though i guess my amp contributes much of the quality!</li>
</ul> Logo using tracing papertag:www.cigarboxnation.com,2019-08-21:2592684:Topic:33699952019-08-21T08:44:33.653ZTitch the Clownhttps://www.cigarboxnation.com/profile/TitchtheClown
<p>Just posting a quick tip on how I have added logos printed on to paper </p>
<p>Here I have printed a logo on plain paper and tracing paper.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3438384298?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-full" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3438384298?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400"></img></a></p>
<p>The plain paper is glued to a piece of scrap and the tracing paper is glued to the headstock of a Darth Vader star wars books tin uke. I was careful cutting to the line on the plain paper version and cut a…</p>
<p>Just posting a quick tip on how I have added logos printed on to paper </p>
<p>Here I have printed a logo on plain paper and tracing paper.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3438384298?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3438384298?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p>The plain paper is glued to a piece of scrap and the tracing paper is glued to the headstock of a Darth Vader star wars books tin uke. I was careful cutting to the line on the plain paper version and cut a mm or three outside the line on the tracing paper. The more I look at it the more I think the plain paper one looks pretty good too. </p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3438388405?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3438388405?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p>I have in the past recessed a round logo like this on paper in a shallow hole made with a matching 25mm forstner bit and covered in clear epoxy. The tracing paper is not as effective with coloured inks.</p>
<p>Where the tracing paper method is clearly superior is for borderless logos (pun intended).</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3438396083?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3438396083?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p>If you print at the top of the paper and trim it level you can reuse the rest of the paper most times.</p>
<p>I use a water based inkjet so superglue and spray varnish both worked well for embedding. I have used water based glues on stuff printed on a laser printer that ran when I tried to use superglue. </p>
<p>Note: Tracing paper <span style="text-decoration: underline;">not</span> baking paper.</p> Tail piecetag:www.cigarboxnation.com,2014-09-03:2592684:Topic:20958132014-09-03T12:39:23.765ZRob Bennetthttps://www.cigarboxnation.com/profile/RobertBennett
<p>I sculpted the original and made a mould to cast on Polyurethane resin...which I paint</p>
<p>If anyone fancies a Bear and Musky tailpiece please get in touch they are £20.00</p>
<p>I sculpted the original and made a mould to cast on Polyurethane resin...which I paint</p>
<p>If anyone fancies a Bear and Musky tailpiece please get in touch they are £20.00</p>