Part One....
I have not done this before, made a solid body CBG. And I have only ever used a real cigar box twice before this one. I had always questioned to myself if I could I even call a solid body guitar a CBG. Maybe I can now.
Here is a slide show with captions that show how I did it. Now it was fifty photos long, but keeping mind people are often time poor, I cut it short.
The box I chose is one that has been referred to as a Puny box, and rightly so, I think.
Do this and you get a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This is possibly aimed at the newcomers to our community. Anyway, this is the way I did it.
Possibly a series of 5-6 posts………..
Cheers Taff
Replies
Hi again, here is the last post in this build.
It covers mainly the fretting, after that it was just a matter of bolting [screwing] the neck to the box, stringing up and adjusting the intonation and action.
The tools laid out are what I used, I did not need the levelling sanding bar or crowning files, so they are not shown. In this case the frets all were level, not always the case.
As the frets are short, not radiused and were a very firm fit I did not use any glue either. On my six string guitars I do.
Slots are cut and the position markers are inlaid and sanded flush.
Working on a solid base with a dead blow hammer ensures the frets seat well. See the date on the hammer handle 1975.They hang over the edge about 1/8” each side and are then nipped off flush to the fingerboard. I then use my belt sander to level the fret ends with the fingerboard edge. I the beveled the ends of the frets and then removed any sharp corners with the tiny files shown.
Then its just a matter of gluing the fingerboard to the neck.
Thats all Folks Taff
Part 4.
I lined up the pickup hole in the top with the cavity in the body below. Drilled two holes giving me the correct radius for the ends of the cut out, then fretsawed between them. This is easy with the lid off the box. I did not need to be so precise with this cut out after all, as I decided to use a pickup surround after all.
Next, I cut a pickup surround out of old pickgaurd material. I made it larger than need be to use its mounting screws to also hold the top down to the solid body beneath, as well as the metal corners and the bridge. You can see that the surround is also screened underneath.
Before drilling the holes for the neck screws, I aligned the neck with the bridge. I put the bridge in the correct position, allowing for intonation compensation and use my aligning tool, extremely high tech, to make sure the strings ran true.
I then drilled one hole and fitted one screw in the neck, I checked all was still correct and did the same for the other screw.
Next, the last post on this build, is the fretting side of things. Tools and method.
Cheers Taff
Hi, Part three……….
Next, I glued the body pieces together. Then installed the output socket and volume pot, pickup and copper foil to cut back interference. Do not forget to link all foil together and to earth.
Then I glued the solid body into the flimsy box, you can just see the box under all the clamps.
After that I made and installed the neck pocket extension, this will allow the neck to be removable and adjustable as per an electric solid body guitar. It is glued on five surfaces so is strong enough to support the neck.
More to follow……assembly, fretting and set up…….
Taff
Part Two…..
After laying out bits to get ideas I usually make templates of cutouts so that I have records of what I did, and it saves time with the next build. This method, two bit of pine timber, means you don’t need a router to do the work.
This box is only held together by the paper that surrounds it, so the lid was easy to cut off.
Enjoy………
Nicely done.
The site should ask you to post this in the resources tab.
Great work Taffy