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Courage or caution ? Neck Advice needed & stupid question

Hi everyone,

I am stuck with my plans for my first build and needed a little advice.

I am planning to build a 4 string ('cause I really love 4 stringed instrument... ukulele and bass player) licence plate guitar. Having no boxes (find a cigar box in italy -where I live- seems impossible at a reasonable price) and having an hobbyist woodcarver father with a huge lab and lot of machinery I have all the tools to build my instrument.

But here is the dilemma : be brave or cautious ?

First idea was make something gumbo guitar 4 string plate resonator. Simple but pretty, but with some adjustments (I really don't like "pass through" necks). Just make the box, round a rod of hard wood (oak in my case), make a sturdy bracing, cut rod to accomodate the tuners and here you go (well, not quite simple and a lot of checkpoint missed, but you know what I mean).

Seems reasonable and seeing it is my first time project, I am going fretless. But then I though : just make a simple "shaft" neck or try to carve one ? Is it too ambitious for 1st project or I should try ?

Second (and here is the stupid question) : I saw a lot of people put a floating "bridge" (usually a screw) on a license plate resonator and seems good to me. But, isn't the screw going to warp the plate with the string pressure ? Or the "weight" of the pull isn't enough to warp it (I have a '79 american metal plate to use in this project so sturdy metal)

Hope everything is at least understandable... english is not my main language.

Sorry about the mistakes and thanks a lot for your advices.

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Permalink Reply by MrStones on January 5, 2017 at 5:07am

Oh, that's great ! Thanks a lot !!!

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Permalink Reply by MrStones on January 5, 2017 at 4:00am

Thanks again!

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Permalink Reply by Timothy Hunter on January 5, 2017 at 2:21am

better to add a fretboard. give the strings some room above the soundboard so you can actually play them. about 12mm is a good target otherwise the pic will hit the sound board as you strum. if you use an 8mm fretboard you will still get approx 4mm clearance at the last fret.just make the bridge slightly taller . you are looking for 1mm at the first fret and 3mm at the neck to box join. opinions vary on action height.

Chickenbone John has posted some videos recently on setting up string height. well worth looking for. you do not need a very high action for slide... John explains it better here

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/cigar-box-guitar-setting-the-ac...

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Permalink Reply by MrStones on January 5, 2017 at 4:16am

Thanks Timothy. I am well aware of the "too high action problem" since I had to setup all my ukuleles (and some of them had horrible setup).

I would not like to do a fretboard just because "fretless with fretboard" seems strange to me (unless you have 'cause you installed for example a true resonator), but you made me rethink about it.

Without a fretboard will I have enough space to strum or fingerpick ? Good question indeed.

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Permalink Reply by Grandpa on January 5, 2017 at 5:14am

MrStones, welcome to the craziness of cbg building. I have built 6 or 7 license plate gits, and I thought the ones without sound holes sounded good, and produced plenty of sound without them. Then, I started adding a top soundport, much like your picture. I did it as a trial, and I don't think it added much in the way of sound. But, when I added a piece of screen, or expanded metal inside the box it added a character/decorative feature that I thought was a plus. Each git, when finished, sounded different from the last, so go for it. I have made 'em with piezos, single coil pickups, and mostly plain old acoustics. You certainly won't be building just one!.

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Permalink Reply by MrStones on January 5, 2017 at 5:23am

Thanks Granpa !

That's interesting. Maybe I will try before without a hole. Perhapse it will sounds already good even acoustically. I can drill a hole later if I need.

I think you're right. It won't be the last :)

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Permalink Reply by Moritz Voegeli on January 5, 2017 at 5:48am

More important than a sound hole is a good connection between the soundboard and the rest of the box. For the function of sound holes see

http://taflab.berkeley.edu/acoustics-of-sound-holes-in-musical-inst...

There isn't properly a need to have one, but the sound will be somewhat darker due to a lower resonance frequency.

I don't remember who brought this interesting link to cigarboxnation, so I apologize for that...

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Permalink Reply by MrStones on January 5, 2017 at 6:33am

Wow that's amazing.

Thanks you so much for the link. REALLY interesting stuff and is opening my mind.

"the connection between the soundboard..." hmm.. I was thinking just to screw the plate to the box...or is it better to glue it too ?

Permalink Reply by Moritz Voegeli on January 5, 2017 at 7:49am

If a box is properly closed, it sounds better. I have a cbg with a distorted lid:

When I close the small gap between lid and box, it sound louder and brighter, if I close and open the gap again and again it sounds like a primitive wahwah.

Normally I screw down the lid to the box, to transfer the vibrations of the soundboard to the whole bottom too.

Screwing will be ok if the license plate seats well on the box, and you will have the opportunity to open the box for eventual repairs or modifications.

Permalink Reply by Kigar on January 5, 2017 at 4:02pm

If you look at the picture below you will see a little different way of doing a 2 piece neck, this lets the neck sit above the plate easily and also recesses the neck inside, also the angle is common to "real" guitars. Secondly you can see how the plate was mounted, I used the four holes in the plate, it does not sit totally flat but I didn't want to put the holes in the plate. The wood was old oak flooring which made a nice recess for the plate.

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Permalink Reply by MrStones on January 5, 2017 at 9:48pm

Thanks Kigar !

The 2 pieces are glued and or bolted ?

And how "tall" is it the box ? (i mean deep)

I though to make a 4" depth box. Too much ?

Thanks again

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Permalink Reply by Kigar on January 6, 2017 at 12:49pm

The 2 pieces are glued. The wood I used was 2" flooring. Just look at some guitars and choose whatever you prefer, bigger would usually have more sound.