Forums

First time, about to experiment!

Posted by Edwin Barquero on July 12, 2017 at 9:34am in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion

Hi guys! Well I've been lurking in the CBG world for a time. Now I want to build my own cigar box guitar!

I just want to know your advice for a beginner, I have a 19x25cm tin box which I want to use as the body of my first baby. Which tunning should I use for it? Or which scale length would work the best?

Thanks in advance!

You need to be a member of Cigar Box Nation to add comments!

Join Cigar Box Nation

Tags: beginner
Email me when people reply –
Follow

Replies

  • Edwin Barquero July 30, 2017 at 2:56pm

    Update! Guys I'm sorry I haven't posted the picture of the tin box, I've been reading your replies and I'm thinking my strategy, since I don't want it to bend or something so i've been searching for a wood alternative, or a cigar box.

  • JL July 24, 2017 at 10:24am

    If its your first CBG I'll offer these few suggestions.

    24 inch / 61 cm scale, easy to do the lay out for frets/fret-markers, a little less tension on the neck to worry over.

    tune Gdg as that matches up with 93% of the tutorials on how to play it once you are done building

    save the tin for a later build, do a nice through neck with a box of wood or wood-like-substance, tins have some special considerations/handeling/techniques that you will discover after building a few with wood boxes and start contemplating the tin...

  • Tom T July 13, 2017 at 11:49am

    Realize now that this is an addiction. By the time you finish the first one you will be filled with ideas for the "better" next one. Erasmo gives good advice "enjoy the building process" and don't stress too much over getting everything to the optimum. Finish it. Play it for a while and decide what you like and don't like about it before you design your next one (and there will be another).

    • Alan Dillard > Tom T July 22, 2017 at 5:30pm

      Almost too busy building the next one (plus CBG amps/ cutting wine bottle necks for slides, etc.) to play the darn things!  Just built my 7th, an acoustic 3 string resonator.  Donating it for a good cause fund raiser and am not sure I want to do another resonator.  The hole for the cone is a pain!

  • Ron "Oily" Sprague July 13, 2017 at 7:40am
    I'd worry more about the tin box collapsing, especially the top, once you get it strung up. Fortify the box corners with some wood posts. You may also need to fortify the tin top' one way to do this is by installing a sound post, just like a violin, directly beneath the bridge, spanning from the underside of the neck to the bottom of the tin. You can also directly attach the neck to the top when running the neck through the tin, but you may not want to do this if you're planning on installing electronics. Siggestion: go get a cheap cookie, biscuit, or candy tin to experiment on first, if the tin you have has nice graphics.
  • Lonman July 12, 2017 at 10:09pm

    welcome. I did a lot of reading from this site before I made my first one and I have learned so much by doing this and that. With each new build you will learn something new and try something different, but I guess my advice is to read a lot for ideas and how things are done (and not to do), secondly, have fun doing it. After a build you can always build another.

  • Tom T July 12, 2017 at 4:14pm

    Everyone will have an opinion on tuning and scale lengths.

    The most common tuning seen on CBGs is DAD and GDG. That being said, any 1-5-1 interval would sound okay.

    As for scale lengths, Fender, Gibson, Martin all run in the 24 1/2" to 25 1/2" range. 25" scale is pretty common on a CBG. As with the tuning, you can set the scale length to anything you want, but, remember that you will need different strings if you stray much from the above ranges.

    As you will see a lot around here "there are no rules."

This reply was deleted.