Help - What is going on with this homegrown CB Electric 6 string??? - Forums

Howdy all,

I picked up this interesting CB guitar at an estate sale this weekend. It actually works and as you can see, someone invested some money into this. Grover tuners, SD Humbucker, etc. Problem is, the action is ridiculous. I don't understand the bridge configuration. At first I thought, perhaps they played slide but there are also guitar straps on this thing. I want to make this playable but I am not sure what to do...

P.S. I cannot find a neck and headstock shaped like this one. Don't know if they did this themselves either but the frets are sharp and this could have used a real fingerboard...

P.S.S. To top it off, they screwed the whole thing shut.

THANK YOU!!

1. Full front_.jpg

Replies

Lonman April 1, 2017 at 11:00am

wow, kind of cool, not sure how much you spent on it, but I would use it for parts and the neck looks like it is ready for a uke.
- Gina G > Lonman April 1, 2017 at 6:33pm
  
  That is EXACTLY what I am going to do. Thanks!
darryl kernaghan March 28, 2017 at 8:32pm

That bridge looks like it has individual saddles for intonation, but i suspect it's not set up well, also just scaling the picture it looks like your bridge needs to move forward a couple of inches to make it double the length of nut to 12th fret, i'd start there, measure nut to 12th, then bridge at double that, but i fear that will take it to, or at least close to the pick up, with only 12 frets outside the box, if it's not easily fixed, it looks like a good candidate for a new neck, whether self made or purchased, just noticed that it is 2 boxes joined, shortening 1 of the boxes at the join may , in the end be the easiest way to keep it looking the same but working, but surgery is required i'm pretty sure
- Taffy Evans > darryl kernaghan March 28, 2017 at 9:00pm
  
  Yep I agree with Darryl, it jumped out at first glance that the saddle position could be just behind the rear edge of the pickup. I would get the scale length correct first, then check that the fret positions give the correct pitch, note, in their current positions.
  I'm thinking if the builder was that far out with intonation, could be the same with fretting. You can't really go any further until those two issues are established and corrected. Cheers Taff
  - Gina G > Taffy Evans March 29, 2017 at 8:33am
    
    Yep. Thanks folks. I took it to my luthier and the saddle was some strange intonation settings that did not fit the nut-to-saddle string setting. It's being doctored now. Thanks all!!!
Milt Haselmire March 28, 2017 at 7:47pm

Wow! That guitar really needs a doctor. That said nothing is impossible.
Ron "Oily" Sprague March 28, 2017 at 11:12am

Yeah, bridge looks like a homemade attempt at a compensated bridge, but whoever did it either didn't understand proper compensation, or maybe had another reason. JL's pic shows one version of individual string compensation. Interesting construction: two different boxes slapped (probably screwed) together, the neck looks to be screwed into the top of the box in at least two locations, the "fretboard" is def homemade...difficult to be sure because of the pic, but does the neck have a slight twist to it? Zero fret, hand cut nut, homemade tailstop, and the "T" logo at the top, 12 frets to the body, 6 strings: homemade guitalele. And a humbucker.

How's it tuned? In A? Agree with Moritz: at least from the pic, it looks like the bridge needs to move further back toward the tailpiece to be properly intonated...which may be why the bridge is compensated the way it is.

Being me, I'd start unscrewing the thing to see what's under the hood, look for construction details. When you say the action is ridiculous, presumably you mean it is too high for proper fretting. That's fixable with a new bridge. But first, measure the scale length; looks like it could be around 18-19". Once you know the actual scale length, you could get a Tune-O-Matic fully adjustable bridge from AllParts.com, and pop that on there, to go with the tuners and pup. Should run you about $35 for a Gotoh, and about 75$ for a Schaller.
- Gina G > Ron "Oily" Sprague March 28, 2017 at 11:27am
  
  Good idea, I will check that out. Yep - it has as many screws as Frankenstein! I think the T logo must have been the owner...? It was not tuned at all, missing B string. Yes the neck looks a bit off but I think that will be easy to fix...? Maybe...here are some close-ups...
  Thank you!
  
  3. Neck_.jpg
  
  5. Unfinished Neck_.jpg
  - JL > Gina G March 28, 2017 at 11:34am
    
    what does the nut and first few frets/fingerboard look like from the side?
    - Gina G > JL March 28, 2017 at 12:28pm
      
      Hmmm... I will check (at work) but as I recall I was somewhat able to fret the 1st three frets...

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