I've been gathering ideas and materials for several years now, and now THE INSPIRATION HAS HIT!
I'm building my own mahogany box which will be 2 1/2 inches deep and maybe 8 inches by 12 inches. I want to set it up so the top and bottom are as free as possible
FIRST QUESTION: I have two pickups - one is a Bob Harrison Dust Bowl collection humbucker and the other is a Zeilhofer flatpup like the one I put iinto my first guitar. I'm planning on doing some blues on this guitar, but I think I'll also sometimes string her up like the middle four strings on a regular, standard tuned guitar. How would these pickups affect such diverse uses? I'm kind of thinking the Zeilhofer will be more "refined" somehow, and the Harrison more for the blues. Can either do the middle 4 strings thing AND some gritty blues?
SECOND QUESTION: I've got a 250k and a 500k setup for jack, tone, and volume knobs. Which should I use?
THIRD QUESTION: Does the thickness of the sides matter? I have some 1/4 inch mahogany, which seems like it would make it sturdy, but would it negatively affect how it sounds? The top and bottom pieces I have are 0.137 and 0.180 inches.
I'll be playing through a Bugera V5 amp.
Thanks for giving my project a think with me!
Jo
Replies
Hi Jo, here are two guitars with the same materials and the same size box. With 6 strings one would expect the one on the right to be louder, the one on the left is twice as loud acoustically.
The six-stringer has a soundhole in the side but does not project the sound forward, so only good for the player.
Soundhole size is important, experiment will be your best teacher. ...
Smaller soundholes have a lower [bass] response, and larger soundholes have more treble. Keeping in mind the size of the box.
This is how I keep stuff off of the top.
This is no set size for a soundhole as Cigar Boxes are a bit random...
Taff
Hi Jo, BrianQ has given the answers I would have given on pickups so I'll skip that bit. The sides of a guitar do not play a big part in a guitars sound or output, other than to govern the depth of the instrument and supporting the top and back. They are best built as stable as possible, this allows the top and back to vibrate more freely, a feature you were looking for, with little loss to the sides.
If building your own box you have the luxury of getting dimensions that better lend themselves to producing better tone and volume. My tops would be closer to 2mm, with appropriate bracing, and the back likewise, for a full acoustic instrument. I gather you are building an acoustic guitar in which you will install pickups. Keep in mind that whatever you place on that top will dampen the top's efficiency, so tone and volume will suffer some. Don't forget to add a soundhole to the equation.
I would say that what you do with your hands when playing the blues is more important than the pickups.
Cheers Taff
Thanks for your thoughts on this. If I use the Zeilhofer it only requires a tiny hole in the top and can be placed right on the top - it's very thin. Would you say a soundhole on the side, then? Maybe just an inch? From what I've read, it should be small . . . I'd like to play it totally acoustic a lot of the time, and I think I'll start with the 4 middle string kind of tuning to see how that works out. Is it worth it to bother with tone and volume knobs? Would those add anything to my build?
Jo
Having pots would give you control over things without having to constantly change amp settings?
The pickups don't matter, you can pull gritty blues from any pickup, it's all about how you play?
500k is standard with humbuckers, 250k will only allow half of the total spectrum of tone that the pickup produces?
1/4" will work, the general thickness of cigar boxes are 3/16"- top/sides 1/8"- bottom?
Welcome back
That sounds like I can do gritty as well as "pretty" by how I play. The scary AND exciting thing is that you won't know how it sounds until you set it up and start playing!
Thanks!!