ive noticed a few folks mention that they spend 40+ hours per CBG. I am a new builder and my first one took about 15 hours and the second about 8 hours. the most time on both was spent on the neck and frets. i feel both of my guitars are on a pretty even level with the guitars ive seen from the folks claiming 40 hours build time so i was just wondering what you guys usually spend on a guitar time wise?

 

i have a pretty solid woodworking background and have pretty much all the tools one could need to build these (minus some specialized luthier tools) so i have to wonder if that makes a big difference but 40 hours for a typical CBG sounds like a lot of time. am i wrong here?

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indeed  tools  help  ..   but      you   must take into consideration  ..  drying times   , of glues  ..  poly  .. and   finishes  ...   some  people    put  20  coats   of stuff on  . 

also  ,  shaping   necks etc   by  hand  , and fretting and fileing and sanding   etc  ..

then again .. some people over think  things and add   a bunch of  unnecessary  steps .

  and some  people dont drink coffee  ;-) 

yeah i guess i didnt think about maybe they were adding drying time to their totals. i dont consider that labor time as i do something else while waiting

my first cbg i used finish nails for frets, i had close to 9 hours in just getting the frets installed, leveled and dressed. learned my lesson there. second guitar i used real frets and had the job done in 3 hours. i plan on getting the right crowning files in the future hope to cut that time considerably

Coming up with an average build time for a CBG would be difficult to do without defining what the specs of the guitar will be, the methods, materials and tools to be used, and (as you mentioned) a precise definition of what labor time is verses other time factors like drying time. The builder's motivation for building is also a factor. Some build for selling, others build just for the pleasure of building, and likely take more time in building just to enjoy the pleasure of building. Seems pretty much like a wild goose chase (and without a final payoff) to me.

-Rand.

And some people, like me, just work slowly. Even with woodworking skills. Takes all kinds.

BTW, build design definitely influences build time (Uncle Crow 1-hour fretless, for example). As does making a mistake: those can take a lot of time to fix / hide / rationalize into a design feature. >:-E
The Uncle Crow build is definitely the fastest design i've ever built. Even using storebought tuners my construction time is only about two hours, not counting the finishes I use. Adding and dressing actual frets adds about 4 hours to that though.

When I try the stick-thru builds though, I like to laminate my necks to fit my cuts in the box-gluing the 1/4" by 1-1/2 let's me get that space between the soundboard and stick every time, then a final reinforcing length in back...maybe 6 hours + 4 for frets, not counting the glueing-about 10 hours.

My Gourd Ukulele had be sawing and leveling the gourd, installing scrap cedar blocks in the throat of the gourd to support and angle the neck, adding a separate dowel inside like a banjo, reinforcing the base for the stick and tailpiece, soundboard,fretting, three coats of varnish...about 16 hours.

The Pie pan Dulcimmer had me cutting into an old round picture frame, adding and reinforcing the neck, placing mounts to screw in the pan, mounting blocks around the frame and glueing 7 layers of 2mm maple veneer around the blocks for a soundbox, fitting the resonator and glueing the rim blocks, frets, french polish...about 25 hours not counting two weeks worth of watching glue set...

My latest obsession is tennis and badminton racquets- destring, remove the extra divots from the handle for a flat surface, glue on fretboard and sand to a comfy fit, add tuners, anchor strings, glue thin soundboard on and fret... If I leave it well enough alone and call it an open-backed dulcimer I could be done in maybe 9 hours or less-BUT because I enjoy the suffering so much i've fallen into the habit of tearing my smaller boxes apart with a jeweler's saw and building a soundbox by glueing laminated layers onto the frame, topping it off with a closed back, endless sanding,6 layers of Tung oil and two varnish coats. 44 hours or so on my last one, masochist that I am... D-;

Can you post any pics of your racquet models?  I would like to see them.

As the others have said a simple style build can be done in a couple of hours. I had a friend in the military vehicle restoration hobby that used to say, "you can make it as complicated as you want". Same applies into building CBGs. My longest build so far took over a month from start to finish. Some days I might have put in two or three hours working on picky little details to the point of obsession. Other days, maybe 15 minutes gluing parts together and leaving them for a day to set up. Some days did nothing and others sanded for several hours to get the finish just right. I built my first canjo in under a half hour. Time doesn't matter to me as I'm retired and just trying to collect the whole set. I'm just enjoying the process of building like some sort of Zen exercise and letting the build tell me where it wants to go. 40 hours isn't that long when you don't live by a clock. That said, sometimes ten minutes can seem like a life time. It's all from the perspective of the observer.

Hmmmm...maybe there's a CBG Theory of Time...

What if you are building a CBG while riding a train?

Spent about 6 hrs on a uke yesterday. If I didn't have to wait for the poly to dry & wasn't out of piezos and pots I'd have finished in about 8.

But that's not counting gathering supplies & thinking of ideas...

you re neither right nor wrong ,for some it's a hobby, others do it to earn a bit of dosh, new comers tend to be obsessional and that's about it ....i don't like to spend on wood, i like a worn look to the body, be it solid/ semi or box all my effort goes into the neck as a rule and the fitting of it .i do not own a wristwatch.i agree wit oily on the mistake thing i like to let it have a say in it's construction- doesn't need to be a big mistake either....

 

well one of the fellas i mentioned builds his cbgs to sell. i believe he sells them in the $100 dollar range. 40 hours on a 100 guitar just seemed like a lot of time. its all good if you just do it for fun and some extra cash though nothing wrong with that at all. i was just mostly curious how long you guys spend building a normal nothing super fancy guitar

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