So a neighbor boy GAVE me his ill-treated, never used "First Stage" brand (like sold at Target) electric guitar, something of a Telecaster knock-off. It's been gathering dust because I have good guitars to play, but I was thinking I could tear it up and turn it into a CBG. Wondering what would be perhaps the easiest thing to do to in order to accomplish this? I am a complete hack at woodworking and have few tools. I do have a couple of old cigar boxes, though. In the original spirit of CBGs, making-do with my "abilities" will have to suffice! I'm wondering if I could just cut most of the body away to kind of a straight "stick" and start there, essentially just building a cigar box body around a "stump" of the electric I already have. I'd want to do whatever I could to create as much acoustic-ness as I can, and have no idea what to do to accomplish that. Any thoughts or suggestions?
P.S. - The instruments I've seen that you all have built are quite inspiring.
Thanks,
Corey
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Thanks, Jerry. Like my Dad says, you can always make a hole bigger, but you can never make it smaller. Love the pic of your guitar that looks like it's made out of an old speaker box! How does that sound?
Jerryrig240 said:
I hope you have not started yet, if so, here is some advice on building.....for me, as a first build. Less is more....keep it simple, if you don't have the right tool for the right job, DON'T do it. Power tools are great in the hands of a true craftsman, but man, as soon as you fire up that dremel tool and take off on cuting something.....you will hate yourself in the end if you take off too much, cut to big of a hole, or crack something on the box. Not knowing the condition that your boxes are in, if they are wood, they are also old and can crack. This is fixable....some brush on super glue and some clamps can get back on the right track. I have been re-inforcing my boxes with left over lamenet floor, it looks nice on the inside and makes them nice and heavy.
As far as neck making, you can go tradational with just a narrow peice of wood....or take it one step up and shape the neck...or take it one other step up and make a head stock. This type of stuff will come in time. As for a simple as it can get, I am leaning more near the broom stick style set up these days, for the simple reason, they are easey as heck to put together and they look cool as all get out, and fun to play. If you have this beat up banger of a guitar and plan on not using the neck, just use three tuning pegs and WHAM you have three more for the parts bin for another build. That's kinda how my building got started, I had a olg guitar that was not working, I took it apart, and the rest for me is history. Hope some of this advice helps. Good luck.
I hope you have not started yet, if so, here is some advice on building.....for me, as a first build. Less is more....keep it simple, if you don't have the right tool for the right job, DON'T do it. Power tools are great in the hands of a true craftsman, but man, as soon as you fire up that dremel tool and take off on cuting something.....you will hate yourself in the end if you take off too much, cut to big of a hole, or crack something on the box. Not knowing the condition that your boxes are in, if they are wood, they are also old and can crack. This is fixable....some brush on super glue and some clamps can get back on the right track. I have been re-inforcing my boxes with left over lamenet floor, it looks nice on the inside and makes them nice and heavy.
As far as neck making, you can go tradational with just a narrow peice of wood....or take it one step up and shape the neck...or take it one other step up and make a head stock. This type of stuff will come in time. As for a simple as it can get, I am leaning more near the broom stick style set up these days, for the simple reason, they are easey as heck to put together and they look cool as all get out, and fun to play. If you have this beat up banger of a guitar and plan on not using the neck, just use three tuning pegs and WHAM you have three more for the parts bin for another build. That's kinda how my building got started, I had a olg guitar that was not working, I took it apart, and the rest for me is history. Hope some of this advice helps. Good luck.
Thanks for turning me on to this sort of box source. I'm now starting to think that this should perhaps not be my very first cbg project, and that I might be better of first making a simpler 3 string fretless with a large box (I wanna be able to play unplugged!). It would be fun plus I'd make those learning mistakes on a different instrument and save these parts for an undoubtedly improved second (or third!) project.
Mark Werner said:
Corey: I literally spent several months haunting the local shops for a long-enough box; I figured I needed 11 1/2 inches. Annoyed me since I had found the 13" Casa Blanca box I used for my resonator right away. How hard could it be?
Hehe....Anyway, I finally looked through the on-site ads and sent off to Wimberly Entrerprises for a near-12" box that I just got two days ago.
Corey: I literally spent several months haunting the local shops for a long-enough box; I figured I needed 11 1/2 inches.
Annoyed me since I had found the 13" Casa Blanca box I used for my resonator right away. How hard could it be?
Hehe....Anyway, I finally looked through the on-site ads and sent off to Wimberly Entrerprises for a near-12" box that I just got two days ago.
Beautiful. For some reason they look like they play well! ;-)
David Lloyd said:
Hi,
I have built several CBGs from recycled electric guitar bits and found the best box (so far) for size is a wooden 35mm photoslide storage box for 175 slides. It measure 12 inches X 8 3/4 inches X 3inches deep which gives you enough space to have the neck well supported inside the box and still have the length to have the bridge set in the box. It also is a nice size to hold and to play. These come up from time to time on ebay UK - I am not sure about ebay.com.
Hi, I have built several CBGs from recycled electric guitar bits and found the best box (so far) for size is a wooden 35mm photoslide storage box for 175 slides. It measure 12 inches X 8 3/4 inches X 3inches deep which gives you enough space to have the neck well supported inside the box and still have the length to have the bridge set in the box. It also is a nice size to hold and to play. These come up from time to time on ebay UK - I am not sure about ebay.com. The group smokehouse guitars group has a great discussion on fixing the neck (much better than I have used previously) http://www.cigarboxnation.com/group/smokehouseguitars/forum/topics/...
More photos of my efforts are on my page -If any more info is wanted just ask. I look forward to the pictures of your finished project, David
Digging around on the site, I saw that you'd gotten the Squier (a great cheap guitar if setup properly) and were planning to do something with it. What brand & kind of cigar box did you find to accommodate the scale?
I'm doing basically the same thing; I have one of those "Squier" teles I picked up in a pawn shop. Took me a while to find a cigar box long enough to accomodate the scale length, but I have one.
My plan is to cut a piece of lumber to fit top-to-bottom in the box, and wide enough to route out the "pocket" for the standard neck.
The board will also have to be cut out for the pickups, just to make room. I'm only planning to use two pickups, instead of the Strat 3-PU configuration.
As the box is somewhat deeper than the Strat body, I'll either have to find some longer screws or relieve the back of the box somewhat as well.
This is all so interesting. There are so many possibilities. I think that I want to do it the simplest way possible, but of course I'll wind up complicating it somehow. I'm toying with the idea of cutting the face of the body out a bit for better acoustic properties, and also removing the bridge assembly and reinstalling it on top of the box, so that the box is between the old solid body part and the bridge - also hoping that will improve any acoustic properties. The old body part would essentially be entirely inside the box this way. Even if I cut the body short, I'll still need to find kind of a big box, I'm supposing. I'm also thinking of putting an old leftover hot humbucking pickup in one position. This is gonna get crazy. I can see why this is so addictive!
- Corey
Matt Towe said:
I would cut the body down to to about 1/2" wider than the neck. Just enuff to save the neck pocket. Cut the body short enuff to be a snug fit in the box lengthwise. Then cut the box so the neck sits flush with the top and the fretboard is above the box top. Relocate the electronics (controls) to the box. I have built a CBG bass that way.
But then again, just scavenging the thing for parts: tuners, electronics, bridge, nut, and frets, has it's merits.
Been there, done that too.
I would cut the body down to to about 1/2" wider than the neck. Just enuff to save the neck pocket. Cut the body short enuff to be a snug fit in the box lengthwise. Then cut the box so the neck sits flush with the top and the fretboard is above the box top.
Relocate the electronics (controls) to the box.
I have built a CBG bass that way.
But then again, just scavenging the thing for parts: tuners, electronics, bridge, nut, and frets, has it's merits.
Been there, done that too.
Replies
Jerryrig240 said:
As far as neck making, you can go tradational with just a narrow peice of wood....or take it one step up and shape the neck...or take it one other step up and make a head stock. This type of stuff will come in time. As for a simple as it can get, I am leaning more near the broom stick style set up these days, for the simple reason, they are easey as heck to put together and they look cool as all get out, and fun to play. If you have this beat up banger of a guitar and plan on not using the neck, just use three tuning pegs and WHAM you have three more for the parts bin for another build. That's kinda how my building got started, I had a olg guitar that was not working, I took it apart, and the rest for me is history. Hope some of this advice helps. Good luck.
Mark Werner said:
Annoyed me since I had found the 13" Casa Blanca box I used for my resonator right away. How hard could it be?
Hehe....Anyway, I finally looked through the on-site ads and sent off to Wimberly Entrerprises for a near-12" box that I just got two days ago.
David Lloyd said:
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/group/smokehouseguitars/forum/topics/...
More photos of my efforts are on my page -If any more info is wanted just ask. I look forward to the pictures of your finished project, DavidThanks,
Corey
My plan is to cut a piece of lumber to fit top-to-bottom in the box, and wide enough to route out the "pocket" for the standard neck.
The board will also have to be cut out for the pickups, just to make room. I'm only planning to use two pickups, instead of the Strat 3-PU configuration.
As the box is somewhat deeper than the Strat body, I'll either have to find some longer screws or relieve the back of the box somewhat as well.
- Corey
Matt Towe said:
Relocate the electronics (controls) to the box.
I have built a CBG bass that way.
But then again, just scavenging the thing for parts: tuners, electronics, bridge, nut, and frets, has it's merits.
Been there, done that too.
Matt
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