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1st build and how I did it

Posted by Rick Martin on February 22, 2010 at 11:03am in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion
I started building my Ashton VSG Torpedo CBG#1 on 2-10-10 and finished eight days later. As I had been wanting to make a stringed instrument for years (I also make bamboo flutes), I was in "Creation Heaven" for those 8 days. She sounds surprisingly good acoustically, has good intonation and sustains well. I wanted to build my first one in the spirit of old-time CBGs, with the through-neck design, but added some other features that I could be proud of and that would make it unique...


Well, there she is, all of 34" long.

SPECIFICATIONS:
  • Ashton VSG Torpedo all wood cigar box: 10-1/4" x 7-1/2" x 2-1/4"
  • 1" thick plank of reclaimed Chicozapote ("or just zapote") fruit wood. The by-product of this tropical wood, incidently, is used to make Chicklets gum. It is a straight-grained, hard wood with a pleasing red-orange tone.
  • Black walnut heartwood fret board and bridge
  • Acrylic pearlesant nut made from a "pen blank" that pen crafters use
  • Bone saddle from a bone "folder' tool found at a craft store
  • 3-hole brass picture hanger to hold string ends below saddle
  • 4 feet of 0148 Stew-Mac fretwire
  • .045, .035, .026 acoustic guitar strings
  • Ping nickel tuning machines
  • 25-1/2" scale length


On a spalted alder coffee table I built

I was pleased at how the richly toned zapote wood nearly matched the finish on the Ashton box. Brass screws hold the bridge down but allow slight movement of the whole from side to side and up and down in order to get the intonation just right when initially setting it up.

I decided on an overlapping fret board not only for aesthetic reasons, but also that I was running out of places to put the lower end frets
for the 25-1/2" scale length for my short 34" through-neck piece!

Decided on a curvaceous form to give the whole design a unique flair.

Walnut bridge with inset bone saddle. I used a 3-hole picture hanger I found at the hardware store that I thought was perfect for anchoring
the string. On future builds I would put this piece further back, as I
had some problems getting a good upward angle on the strings from the
holes to the saddle, causing the 1st string not to hold properly in the saddle slot and thus break the string. Had to modify the saddle
slot depth to accommodate this.

Inset pewter "doubloons" for the position markers. Actually these were tiny pendants found at a craft store. I cut the fret slots using a small Japanese pull saw that I attached a metal plate to in order to limit the depth of cut. I filed the teeth of the saw flat so that the "kerf" would be thin enough for the fret wire tang to fit snugly into.

Angled head (about 10 degrees) constructed with scarf joint. Initially, the head had a patch of sap wood showing in the round curve at the end
and I decided I wanted the whole thing the solid red color of the
heartwood. As a result I cut a separate heartwood piece and glued it
on. You can see the seam where it was attached. In retrospect, I think
the nut is too deep and head is recessed too much from an aesthetic
viewpoint. It tunes just fine, however.

The raw private parts. Label proclaiming the CBG mantra and honoring Shane Speal for starting all this coolness.

My fret gauge made from a bronzed aluminum door threshold strip. I used my Martin to carefully mark off the positions of the frets and carved
notches (see lower right) in the sides for easy marking of my own fret
boards. Added saddle position for additional aid in measuring out
nut-to-saddle distance (scale length) when installing the bridge/saddle.

My complete album entry is on my page here: http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/albums/ashton-vsg-torpedo-1st-build

Looking forward to getting out there (cleaning up the workshop!) and building CBG #2. What will it be?

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Replies

  • HENRY LOWMAN March 2, 2010 at 10:00am
    Like sculptor Richard Serra said to Charlie Rose during an interview (and I paraphrase): It's all about the process. Thanks for posting!
  • Rick Martin March 2, 2010 at 9:44am
    Larry, those are some sort of metal jewelry embellishments I discovered in the beading section of JoAnn or Michaels craft store. I encourage all CBG makers to visit craft stores. You can find so many useful things there for our craft. It was there that I also found the bone stock for the saddle, the pewter position markers (check out the buttons/sewing area for even more cool position markers), and the 3-hole picture hanger mounted in the bridge. There are many very decorative sound hole covers and/or surrounds at those stores also.

    Larry McInnes said:
    Very nice. Got kind of a yin-yang thing going on there with the old and new looks. Are those earrings around the sound holes?
  • Rick Martin March 2, 2010 at 9:35am
    Wow, thank you for all the kind comments, folks! I'm really flattered. You all, and the rest of Cigar Box Nation, are such supportive, good people, and it really encourages me in my future builds to read such responses. :)
  • Keni Lee Burgess March 2, 2010 at 6:20am
    Wow! This is your first build? Beautiful looking details. Thanks for sharing.
  • Jeff "Sweet T" Tinsley March 2, 2010 at 12:08am
    I wish ANYTHING I've ever built looked that good. Lol. Great job, Rick.

    Jerryrig240 said:
    I wish my first build looked that good.....nice job.
  • Christopher Call March 1, 2010 at 10:45pm
    WOW! Beautiful build man!!!!!!!!!!!
  • John Drake March 1, 2010 at 10:23pm
    A very nice build. What I really appreciate are the detailed notes of what all the bits and pieces are. Many photographs posted to this site have no information at all to go with them. We are all here to learn from others so all info helps. What I really dislike is when someone posts a picture of an empty cigar box with no title or notes - just a box. Many of us have already got a good stockpile of those for ourselves so we are not interested in seeing another cigar box unless some one wants to tell us something about it or request advice on how it could be used. But just a photo of a box ???

    So thankyou for your very clear photographs and information. Regards John D
  • Larry McInnes March 1, 2010 at 9:21pm
    Very nice. Got kind of a yin-yang thing going on there with the old and new looks. Are those earrings around the sound holes?
  • MichaelS Country Boy Guitars March 1, 2010 at 7:20pm
    Nice job! Great details.
  • Tim Fleischer March 1, 2010 at 5:31pm
    Great looking 1st build. I've seen some 9, 10, 11 builds not look that good.
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