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Permalink Reply by Don Thompson on December 4, 2010 at 7:17am

Your brother may enjoy a tenor guitar, tuning is the same as a tenor banjo with many online sites with chord shapes and alternate tunings. From low to high standard tuning is CGDa. 23" scale length with most nuts having a 1 and 5/16" width. If you are going with a parallel neck and fingerboard, in other words straight sided not wider at the 12th. fret, frets over 20 become rather close together and difficult to play cleanly. I prefer to set my inside and outside strings 1/8" from the edge of the nut. Your frets will be rounded over at the edge of the fingerboard for comfort and if the strings are too close to the edge they can pull off, better to stay more inside than too close. Others will certainly have their prefences also.
Don

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Permalink Reply by Andy White (Noisetop Guitars) on December 4, 2010 at 9:59am

Hi Justin,
Either 3 or 4 strings works well. I would probably recommend making a 3 as your 1st build. Regarding appealing to the musician in your brother - the thing that appealed to me most about CBG's was the rawness (i have played 6 string 15/16 years etc) - how basic a 3 string is, but the sounds and music you can still get out of em - with this in mind I think Basic is best - he might appreciate the same thoughts

I tend to taper my necks so they're a bit wider at the body join, than at the head. That generally depends on what your neck blank size is - You can pretty much do what you like with the string spacings, there's no rule, but I remember when I first started i was like you pondering over it for a long time, you can't really use the spacing from a 6 string else your neck is gonna be pretty narrow - I think you want to try to space them out so they "fill" the fingerboard - check out my stuff if you want for some ideas - i just posted some new pics of 3 builds i rcently made.

I generally have my 3 strings - at the bridge about 15mm apart from each other and about 10mm apart at the top nut (sorry don't know inches too well - am Scottish we tend to use metric measurements). But I also think I might use slightly wider necks than some people do - the neck on the last few i made was 36mm at top nut and 45mm where it joins the box.

Just bang on the frets till you run out of neck - I think 18, 19 or 20 is quite normall - maybe 21 if your box is quite small

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• 3 builds Oct Nov 2010 050.JPG, 538 KB
• 3 builds Oct Nov 2010 024.JPG, 452 KB

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Permalink Reply by Justin on December 4, 2010 at 3:13pm

Thanks guys. My neck for this build will be straight. If I build another, I may screw around with tapered necks and such.

So, if it's going to be 3 or 4 strings (still deciding), which 3 or 4 strings are they? If I go to a music store to but some strings, which ones do I get, and how do I tune them? I have an electric tuner. I realize which strings I choose are a matter of preference, but I don't have one. So, what are a good middle of the road 3 or 4 strings, and can i install them and get them close to tuned with my 6 string tuner?

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Permalink Reply by Wayne Bigler on December 4, 2010 at 3:27pm

Just my opinions. First, go with 3-strings. No particular reason except as a guitar player my whole life, I personally have been drawn to 3-strings because 4 was too close to 6(?). Second, go with 20 frets. Not really much need for more than that. Third. Make the neck 1 18/32 to 1 20/32. Depending on his hand size. Space the outer two strings 1/8 of an inch from the edge of the neck. Space your other string(s) accordingly.

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Permalink Reply by Wayne Bigler on December 4, 2010 at 4:16pm

I build 3-strings. I use .042. .030. .020 (basically the A,D,G stings) on nearly all of them.

Justin said:

Thanks guys. My neck for this build will be straight. If I build another, I may screw around with tapered necks and such.

So, if it's going to be 3 or 4 strings (still deciding), which 3 or 4 strings are they? If I go to a music store to but some strings, which ones do I get, and how do I tune them? I have an electric tuner. I realize which strings I choose are a matter of preference, but I don't have one. So, what are a good middle of the road 3 or 4 strings, and can i install them and get them close to tuned with my 6 string tuner?

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Permalink Reply by Andy White (Noisetop Guitars) on December 5, 2010 at 5:57am

yeah - i agree ADG - but you'll probably get a set of 6 strings as cheaply as buying 3 individually then you can give em to your bro and he change em round and experiment if he wants. I like ADG - but detune the A to G

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Permalink Reply by Justin on December 5, 2010 at 10:44am

Thanks guys! Lots of good info. But as far as string selection and tuning, you have to speak to my like I'm a small, slow witted child. Lets say I go with the .042. .030. .020 combination as suggested. I don't know notes and can't identify them by ear. So I put those 3 strings on and hit each string open. What reaction so I get from my guitar tuner? My bro can fine tune it to what he likes when he gets it. But when I'm done with it, I'd like to be able to strum it a bit just to see how it sounds. I need to get it in some form of tune for that.

One more thing, any input to the design of the neck through the body? I see some where the neck goes the whole way through the cigar box, protruding out the other end with the strings secured there. Other designs have the neck stopping inside the box. I prefer the look of this design, but I'm not well versed enough to know the pros and cons of each. My neck is glued up and drying as we speak, so I got some time to obsess about possibly meaningless details. ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Wayne Bigler on December 5, 2010 at 11:59am

OK. A good tuning to start with is GDG (open G tuning). Just make sure is in the correct register (?). Start with the smallest string and work your way to the "fattest". You say you really don't know much about tuning a guitar and if you go sort of go backwards like that you should avoid breaking your higher string. Whatever you do, if you're putting a lot of stress on anything your probably tuning it too high.

I don't build neck-thru guitars. Its no more than a matter of personal preference. I don't think one is better than another. You can see some of my guitars on my page or at my website: biglerguitars.com.
If you stop the neck inside the body you'll probably want to opt for a "string-thru design. That is, the strings feed thru the rear of the guitar to the front. For a bridge you have a couple of options. I actually make a bridge plate with adjustable saddles. I sometimes make a more traditional "acoustic" style bridge as well. You'll see that on a couple of my guitar pics. Either works fine. I'm uploading a Top Secret photo of how I build my substructure. I do it this way to accommodate the pickup. If your not using a magnetic pick-up and are opting for a piezo, you can modify it a bit. I guess the most important thing is don't rely on the box to provide any structural support.

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Permalink Reply by Justin on December 5, 2010 at 2:02pm

Thanks Wayne. I did look at your site, you do very nice work. Your practice amps remind me of the one I made for this project. It's almost finished now, I just need to decide how I'm going to cover the speakers and add a few finishing touches. I was sort of going for a raw "made from junk look". The box was an old one I found in a smoke shop. The copper plate is copper pipe I slit and hammered flat. I wire brushed it and torched it to make it look old and junky. The knobs are brass nuts I drilled to fit. Guts are from an old practice amp I had laying around for years.

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Permalink Reply by Justin on December 5, 2010 at 2:20pm

Wayne, I looked at your "top secret" photo. It's a big help. Let me ask you about that neck... I was under the impression that the neck should be cut away from the inside of the box lid to give some space for the lid to vibrate. I see yours contacts the box lid for the entire length of the box. Is that just because yours isn't made to be played acoustically at all? I'd like mine to be able to be played electric and acoustic, so can I assume I should take some material off my neck inside the box? And I am going to use a piezo pickup. I kicked around using a pickup, but I guess I wanted to stick with the sort of traditional "found parts" design. I'll probably build another CBG after this one and get a little more fancy.

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Permalink Reply by Wayne Bigler on December 5, 2010 at 3:00pm

You are exactly correct. I don't build acoustic models so have no need for the top to resonate. You'll want to notch the center of your neck out from where it just enters the box to the bridge (that is if you decide your neck isn't going to extend out of the rear of the box). Just make sure you glue and screw some additional support. You see I start my support a couple inches outside the box. BTW, if you look close at one of my "acoustic" bridge guitars you'll notice for string ferrels I use carburetor jets. You can buy the ferrels cheap enough, but I had a box of jets sitting around and thought they looked better. I don't know a lot about acoustic electronics, but there is a forum here dedicated to that. Personally, if I were to build an acoustic, I would buy some mid-priced decent electronics for it and stay away from the handful-for-two-dollars piezos. Of course a statement like that could likely cause a lively debate.

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Permalink Reply by Robert John Spotti on December 5, 2010 at 3:20pm

AMEN Brother!!
Wayne Bigler said:

I like it. I also like being "resourceful" with things like the brass nut knobs. Maybe you could cover the speakers with some burlap?


Justin said:

Thanks Wayne. I did look at your site, you do very nice work. Your practice amps remind me of the one I made for this project. It's almost finished now, I just need to decide how I'm going to cover the speakers and add a few finishing touches. I was sort of going for a raw "made from junk look". The box was an old one I found in a smoke shop. The copper plate is copper pipe I slit and hammered flat. I wire brushed it and torched it to make it look old and junky. The knobs are brass nuts I drilled to fit. Guts are from an old practice amp I had laying around for years.

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