Hi all:
I'm new here and just got bit by the bug to want to build a CBG recently. I picked up a little old Rock Amp Petros 1 amp last weekend via ebay, and have a beat up strat clone for parts. I'm planning to reuse the neck w/tuners, bridge with 3 or 4 strings, and will go with a pieco pickup using the old jack.
A couple of questions if I might ...
1. With the piezo for a pickup, can I put a volume control on it, or no? Can I reuse the one from my donor strat even if I don't use the rest of the electronics?
2. I'm planning on having the strat neck recess partially into the body, then use other wood to join it securely with the box/body. My question is, should I make that structural supporting piece all across the top of the box, the bottom only, or mix it up? Does the top need to vibrate like an acoustic, or is a solid mass like a Les Paul what I'm looking to recreate?
3. And lastly (for now) should the piezo be mounted directly under the strings on the underside of the top?
Thanks for looking', the site looks great!
Dan
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My little amp find:
Progress photo #1....
Replies
carverman said:
Excellent. That might have been a challenge to some, but you made it work. Congrats on a job well done
on the "Strato-Boxer".
Dan Kruitz said:
Here's the video link on youtube - sorry about the low light the camera doesn't do video well in regular room lighting.
Hi Don and Carver man:
I can certainly appreciate concern if someone new heads in the wrong direction. I can't tell you for certain if it's right or not, but I have the neck mounted and it plays. My brother-in-law who does play was trying it out earlier this evening and he said it sounded OK. I'll try to add a (link?) to a video of it - I don't play, but can certainly show it making some twang at least!
Fullsize pics here:
http://www.kruitzkraft.com/cbg/cbg2.jpg
http://www.kruitzkraft.com/cbg/cbg3.jpg
I can get more detailed areas if folks want to see what I ended up doing.
Dan
Don Thompson said:
Dan, As you may be aware I have been uneasy about this project since the beginning having to do with the neck set back. And frankly I can't get my head into turning a six string neck into a three or four. Why not use all the parts you can? Maybe that's just me but sometimes it's just not worth the brain damage to reinvent the wheel. There are times a fresh start is the best answer. At this junction I suggest setting this project aside for the time being and proceed with #2, a homemade neck thru design with your piezo. Get a three or four string build under your belt, go down the beginners slope first then tackle the expert slope where one small mistake can slam you into a tree if you don't have the experience. I don't mean to sound discourging but I'm not sure you will be very satisified with the final product at this time.Just my take on it. Others may disagree and I'm just fine with that.
Don
Why not use a extension onto the bolt on neck and then add some wood on the extension to
raise it up to the same level (or almost) as the CB. This way you can use the old strat parts
(bridge/tp) and it would "kind of" fit in with the strat neck.
After all there are no rules..just the limits of your imagination.
Now this bolt idea...how is intonation affected on using a bolt?
(perhaps some others can answer this one)...I always thought that there should be a
reasonable beveled edge on the string saddles , individual or not..
and at least some small angle between the saddle and the tp/string anchor holes,
to allow easier tuning and keeping it in tune.
Dan Kruitz said:
Update: I've now got a volume pot wired into the piezo and it even works! So it's currently a stompbox on it's way to being a CBG. I think I may go the simple route with the old bridge base and use it as a wire holder on end, then add a bolt or something else for a bridge. woohoo. Now to confirm I can get the neck mounted correctly....
Obviously there are different technical issues with using a guitar neck. I'm already looking forward to trying #2 with a homemade neck. :-)
OK. I've been playing around with bridge layouts, complete through neck desgins and combinations - all because I hadn't realized about scale length before I started cutting - rookie mistake.
Anyways, the background: I'm using a beat up strat clone for donor parts, and a piezo pickup. I'm stuck on the bridge issue now and don't know if I'm got a case of paralysis through analysis or what. If I try to re-use the original strat bridge in it's original form, it would have to hang off the end of the box with and have a wood extension added to the box, AND I'd have to make allowances for the strings to feed through the extension - kind of an ugly look in my opion. There are some concerns that this wouldn't leave out some sound creation off the box top owing to minimal vibration.
I'd thought of reusing the bridge bracket, on the side of a box as string mount only, then using a more conventional bridge along the lines of a bolt I've seen elsewhere. Any pluses or minuses to these scenarios that I'm not aware of?
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