Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mark Bliss on June 9, 2011 at 6:54am

Good point William.

 

#1, They dont call it Ironwood for nothing. Its not a good wood for an inexperienced or poorly equipped woodworker. It may be a useful substitute for Ebony for small parts, and it may be made into a neck, but its a challenge. Dont breath the sawdust of this or any tropicals. For that matter do your best not to breath dust from any source.

 

#2, In my opinion, Harbor freight, and similar sources is fine for things like semi indestructable hand tools and things you may only occasionally use, But I draw the line in two areas. One is cutting tools such as Chisels, planes, etc. Spend the money for more quality, you wont regret it. The second is where there is a need for accuracy and precision. That $40 drill press for example is more useful than a hand drill for some things, but I predict you will quickly find it lacking when your skill and needs advance. You can get a much better tool without spending a fortune. Again, JMHO!

 

#3 Good advise. Good precision cuts can be made with experience and good tools, but experience also teaches you to ease into a final fit. Dont expect to cut it and drop it into place and get a tight joint first try. Plus you find there are variances and radii to consider.

 

#4, I assume you mean the relief for the tuning head. Using a more workeable wood here will solve some of that difficulty! Much can be done with the right combination of handsaw, chisels, rasps and files when you arent trying to cut into stone!

 

#5, I dont use a router for rounding off the neck, but if thats what you are doing, follow Williams advice. A larger base, that incorporates an insert to fill the gap around the bit, whether hand held or in a router table, is critical for precision work. Best to make many light passes,  adjusting the depth of cut each time and ease up to your final shape. Again, especially with hard woods.

I use a router or router table with pattern bits as a shaper, and have a couple small rigs for cutting holes, inlays, binding edges, etc, but I always do final neck shaping with spokeshave, plane, chisel, rasp, sanding, etc. Mostly by "feel".

 

Finally,

Fretwire choice depends on personal preference. You may not have one yet so my advise is that is depends on your style or playing technique. Med/Med is a safe bet for your first, if you are a fretting player. People who play with a lot of bends and advanced technique sometimes prefer a higher fret. Flatpickers, banjo, mandolins and such traditionally use lower frets, but I am seeing a trend toward med there too with some "modern" players.

Tuners, your choice, your budget. My advise, dont get carried away, its a CBG.

String choice is a whole subject unto itself. Just too many variables. There is thread after thread discussing it to death and it still comes back up several times a week. The information is here in several groups, study it and make a decision. If you dont like the way it comes out, try something else. One other good source is CB Gitty's own advise, go to his website, look at strings, read the descriptions, click on the string choice article there.

And lastly, attaching the neck. Some screw it into the lid, some screw it into some blocks glued into the box. Some glue it to the lid or blocks or glue everything together. The use of IPE may effect your decision. It may make it desireable to attach it with screws since it is notoriously hard to glue. As I alluded to in an earlier post, you may consider drilling and tapping it like steel and using bolts. Seriously! Bottom line though, this is another area where it is a matter of personal preference. Study some of the builds here and choose one you like and feel fits your intentions. It depends on your intended result. You mentioned soundholes, and used a good box for acoustic, so if it were me, I would maybe consider a block at each end of the box that supports the neck and allows the top and back to float and vibrate freely. Your string load is carried by the neck in your design, so all you really need is enough to attach the box to the neck and carry the string load at the bridge, which isnt that high with 3 or 4 strings and a low bridge arrangement. Keep it simple and dont over think it.

I think that about covers it!

Have fun!

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Brian "Pork Pie" Anderson on June 9, 2011 at 8:57am

just my two cents, hundreds of years for stringed instrument builders experience comes before mine but I still think its best to stick to traditional tone woods for the best sound

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Permalink Reply by Jimbo Cawthron on June 9, 2011 at 11:42pm

It's looking good Bama, Just don't get discouraged , I am sure this one is gonna be sweet.

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on June 10, 2011 at 12:57am

I know you are not using the angled head design but, if you did cut it off like in your drawing you could use the scrap flipped over and glued to the back and have a nice strong angled head. Angled heads work fine and are not any harder than the flat headstock, its all just cutting and shaping wood.

 

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Permalink Reply by Bruce MacMahon on June 11, 2011 at 1:37am

Echoing what William said, I made a real simple router jig for the lid and headstock recess. I'll put up a pic later. Works great with my plunge router, which has a real quick and easy depth of cut adjustment, I round the edges of the neck with my Bosch palm grip router.

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Permalink Reply by Bama Jelley on July 7, 2011 at 8:18pm

Bruce, did you ever get a pic of that router jig? This CBG is pretty much finished. Pics coming soon. Thanks for all the comments. Already working on my next builds.

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Permalink Reply by Bama Jelley on July 13, 2011 at 9:17pm

Well, I finally got this one done. It is an improvement over my first one both in looks and sound, but I still made plenty of mistakes on it. I took Mark's advice and glued some blocks to the inside front and rear walls. I then drilled some holes in the neck and screwed the neck directly into these blocks. This lets both the top and bottom panels vibrate freely. The sound is very good. Have it tuned to low open G for now. Here are some pics...

 

I still have plenty of room for improvement for the next one. Some of my mistakes were...

Headstock design is too narrow and does not provide quite enough break over the nut.

Even with all of Mark's warnings about headstock thickness, I ended up getting it too thin and had to glue a 1/8in thick piece of wood on to the back.

Need to improve my fret dressing skills. Specifically need to learn to trim the tang from underneath the edge before trimming to length and shaping.

Also, I will probably replace the current bridge with something else. The one pictured is not glued down and is just held in place by the tension of the strings.

Also, need to work on getting the string action a bit lower. I may need to tilt the neck back by a couple of degrees to do this. The action near the nut is good and low, but there is a slight buzz on the first fret from the high g string. The action closer to the body is way too high for my taste.

I still suck at playing the thing, but will practice and get better. I took it to work today and showed some friends.I also took a cigar box to one of my friends who is interested in building his own. I also took it to one of the cigar shops where I get boxes and showed it to the guy there. Several other people were in there and everybody thought it looked really cool and sounded great.

I also stopped into a music shop this afternoon and showed it to one of the guys who worked there. This kid can't be more than 16 years old, but when I handed it to him, he made it come alive with some awesome blues licks. He loved it and took it around the store and showed several other people. They all seemed impressed.

Well, I am already working on my next build and am excited about starting the process all over again. Thanks for all the comments and help you guys have given me on this thread.

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Permalink Reply by William McCauley on July 14, 2011 at 2:20am

Very nice job. Clean and simple, the best way. Isn't it funny how the simplest projects can take the  longest to finish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Bama Jelley on July 15, 2011 at 11:03am

Thanks William. It did take much longer than I thought it would. I did go on vacation for a bit and also took a break from working on it for a couple of weeks at one point. My wife told me that if I kept staying out in the garage all the time, I could just put a bed out there. I prefer sleeping in our bedroom and she is much prettier than the guitar, so I now limit my garage time to an hour or so per day. Thanks for taking an interest in my build and I have appreciated the comments along the way.

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Permalink Reply by Hip Bone Bellaire on July 15, 2011 at 11:19am

Come on just wing it..... and then there 5...

 

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Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on July 22, 2011 at 5:22pm

I think you CBG project turned out great! Nice simple lines. It looks well crafted to me and I bet it will sound great. Doing your own fret work on just your second build is quite an accomplishment! If there is not enough break angle over the nut, you can try what I have done: use a medium thickness electrician's tie-wrap over the headstock just above the nut. Pull it tight and it will bend the strings over the nut better. This may cure your buzz problem.

-Rand.

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