I am about to start my second build and I was wondering what would be the best way to attach the neck to the box in order to maximize the box acoustics? On my first build I made the neck sit flush with the inside of the lid but i was thinking does this stop the lid from vibrating and producing sound. Maybe I should let the neck sit flush with the bottom of the box and leave a big gap between the lid and the neck? When you hold a guitar you want the sound to go forward so I guess the back of the guitar is not that important? Plus your body absorbs the sound from the back. I think this is an interesting question and would be interested in the science behind it or in any mad theories anyone has.
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I tried all ways of doing this, for electric guitar i now glue mount the neck and glue on a bar made of spare neck wood or pine glued to the bottom of the box at just the correct height, with only the fret board 5-6mm thickness above the height of the box (sometimes needs spacers) with a thin sliver of wood the same thickness as the lid removed from the neck below the lid - no gap - flat pickup mounted on the box anywhere along the box is ok but has a warmer sound as you go towards the neck end. The neck goes through the back of the box where the strings are anchored, the floating bridge being about 1/4 of the way along the box lid, works great every time! The name of the game for me is light but very rigid. (-:
For acoustic only the build needs a completely different approach, allowing a chamber beneath the sound hole and a larger box, made one or two of these with some success.
ps , leaving the gap is a lot of extra work but I think it is worth it.
Thanks for the reply, I agree that leaving a gap between the lid and the neck would work better. I was having a look at how standard guitars are built and I see that they use different forms of bracing not just for structural purposes but also for sound quality. I was wondering if putting two braces at the front and rear of the box and letting the neck float on these would help with sound transfer. I guess it depends on the box as well.
I see a lot of cigar box guitar builds where they have worked really hard to make a beautiful box with many sound holes, f-hole and then just mic it up with loads of distortion and I was thinking what´s the point of all that work. I´m not trying to put people down but I would like my guitars to be able to hold their own without all that extra stuff.
I was also thinking of trying to build a distorted sound into the box (if you know what I mean). Some of the early African modifications of the guitar use beer caps or bits of metal to add distortion.
Guess I will just have to try it out. Good to talk about it though.
Thanks
A silly aside about homemade distortion, I wrote out a song on a post-it recently and stuck it to my guitar to read while playing. Well, at one point the post-it got bent and started resting gently against the strings. It made a really cool fuzz distortion sound I then started playing with. Talk about cheap effects! It reminded me that I read once that old blues players would use tinfoil and what not to dirty their sound. I always wondered how but I think now I get it.
Well, I tried one of the "Crow Style" builds where you bolt the neck on top of the box with a wood brace inside. It has a much quieter acoustic tone that my other builds where I leave a 1/8 -1/4" gap between the neck inside and the top. If you are going to amp it, I don't think there is any difference but for acoustic volume, I vote for letting the box top resonate. The back makes a difference too. Acoustic instruments like violins and guitars use a hard dense wood for the back to help project the sound forward. Keeping the back of a cigar box guitar away from your body will help with volume and tone also. I like to strip out any paper or velvet from the inside too so there are only hard surfaces inside.
hey rich .. this was actually asked before in the form of glueing the neck to the top or allowing a gap .
everyone that has tried both ways said they could not tell the difference , or the neck glued to the top actually sounded better .
so that should answer your question . ;-)
Cheers, I will check that post out.