Posted by Kevin E Carey on October 6, 2009 at 2:49am
hello all,
my name is Kevin, im 29 and hooked on these amazing instruments!
I just got done making a basic cbg but my plan is to make one for my cousin for Christmas.
my gaol is to take my time and do it very well and give him a quality peice as he is an avid guitar player.
I will prob. be asking tons of questions, so I can pull this off in time.
I got the cigar box ill be using, I need to figure out what kind of wood and style for the neck, what pickup, what bridge set-up, and what tuners. guitar needs to have an old look and feel.
if you have any good ideas im all ears!
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I'm not expert either, but there ways you can do it. If you're using the "typical" 1x2 stick for the neck, any electric pickup is more than likely going to be thicker than 3/4", and then you'll need to somehow get around that... bracing the neck is one option a lot of folks have used..
I myself used a 2x2, so when I cut out the notch for the pickup I still had enough wood left to support the tension from the strings. If you check out my pics, in the album "CBG #10 - Cuvee Electric Two-Stringer" I've got a pic showing what I'm talking about here. But, at least where I live, 2x2s are a lot harder to come by than 1x2s.
Again, it really all comes down to preference and experience. I like the neck thru style, so I made it neck thru. I also don't have much experience with the bracing/bolt on style of construction, so neck thru seemed easier and made more sense to me.
And, as an aside, if you have woodworking experience, you'll have this guitar done way before December. You might have an army of CBGs by then! :-)
Kevin E Carey said:
Thanks again for all the advice, one more question, if I get the stonehenge pickup, can I still use a thru-body neck design? will I have to cut out a channel for the pickup to sit? or do I brace the neck independent from the tail? I have a good understanding of guitars and woodworking so I can deff. get it done however it is, but im no expert.
thanks for that link, its the exact bridge I was looking for.
Nathan King said:
If you're looking to buy the bridge and are going with a 3-string design, check out Josh Gayou's stuff on ebay. I haven't bought one of these bridges, yet, but it's calling to me!
Thanks again for all the advice, one more question, if I get the stonehenge pickup, can I still use a thru-body neck design? will I have to cut out a channel for the pickup to sit? or do I brace the neck independent from the tail?
I have a good understanding of guitars and woodworking so I can deff. get it done however it is, but im no expert.
Yep, Mort is right about Ted's Stonehenge pickups, I just used one in a two-string model... they sound really good, and Ted knows his stuff.
StewMac is also a great source for stuff, but it's easy to spend a lot of money there, because every time you turn the page in their catalog you see more things you "need!"
If you're looking to buy the bridge and are going with a 3-string design, check out Josh Gayou's stuff on ebay. I haven't bought one of these bridges, yet, but it's calling to me!
Talk to Ted Crocker here, he makes a super Stonehenge 3 string pickup that I know you would be happy with. He has great tech support to go with it,( and if you buy one, you can pick his brain on guitar building tips also.)
Kevin E Carey said:
im deff. going to buy the bridge, tuners, pickup etc.. just have not figured out what ones exactly. I will be making the neck myself but have not decided on the design yet, I know it will be 3 string, fretless and will have a fretboard thats something exotic (wood). what pickups are recomended? I dont want to do the radio shack piezo for this project (but my personal one will have one of those. my cousin plays old rock and blues. thanks for the help so far all!
im deff. going to buy the bridge, tuners, pickup etc.. just have not figured out what ones exactly.
I will be making the neck myself but have not decided on the design yet, I know it will be 3 string, fretless and will have a fretboard thats something exotic (wood).
what pickups are recomended? I dont want to do the radio shack piezo for this project (but my personal one will have one of those. my cousin plays old rock and blues.
thanks for the help so far all!
Welcome Keven. Quality normally starts with quality parts if you want to impress an avid player. I am not saying quality can not come from scratch, but starting out, you may want to purchase the bridge, nut and nice tuners, unless you have sweet skills and can make quality parts from scratch. Steward MacDonald is a great place to get what you need.. http://www.stewmac.com/
Wood for necks -- well the basics call for poplar but this is definitely not the rule (in fact there are no rules). Use what you got or can find. I would suggest maple, mahogany or some other medium hard to hard wood. Poplar tho a "hardwood" isn't all that hard. Kinda like pine. Ash is quite hard and might be harder to work with. I'd love to make one out of African Cherry (Makore).
Research what traditional guitar necks are made of and that will give you an idea of what you might want to use. Remember, CBGs are usually 1 - 4 strings (tho its very common to see 6 strings) and there is not as much string tension as on a standard guitar. Take a look at the pics we have posted here in the PHOTOS section above.
Pups are mostly piezo or magnetic. We have plans here for that too, so do a search. Bridge -- eh, about anything you can imagine. Again take a look at the 12K+ photos we have here.
Replies
I myself used a 2x2, so when I cut out the notch for the pickup I still had enough wood left to support the tension from the strings. If you check out my pics, in the album "CBG #10 - Cuvee Electric Two-Stringer" I've got a pic showing what I'm talking about here. But, at least where I live, 2x2s are a lot harder to come by than 1x2s.
Again, it really all comes down to preference and experience. I like the neck thru style, so I made it neck thru. I also don't have much experience with the bracing/bolt on style of construction, so neck thru seemed easier and made more sense to me.
And, as an aside, if you have woodworking experience, you'll have this guitar done way before December. You might have an army of CBGs by then! :-)
Kevin E Carey said:
Nathan King said:
I have a good understanding of guitars and woodworking so I can deff. get it done however it is, but im no expert.
StewMac is also a great source for stuff, but it's easy to spend a lot of money there, because every time you turn the page in their catalog you see more things you "need!"
If you're looking to buy the bridge and are going with a 3-string design, check out Josh Gayou's stuff on ebay. I haven't bought one of these bridges, yet, but it's calling to me!
Kevin E Carey said:
I will be making the neck myself but have not decided on the design yet, I know it will be 3 string, fretless and will have a fretboard thats something exotic (wood).
what pickups are recomended? I dont want to do the radio shack piezo for this project (but my personal one will have one of those. my cousin plays old rock and blues.
thanks for the help so far all!
http://www.stewmac.com/
Research what traditional guitar necks are made of and that will give you an idea of what you might want to use. Remember, CBGs are usually 1 - 4 strings (tho its very common to see 6 strings) and there is not as much string tension as on a standard guitar. Take a look at the pics we have posted here in the PHOTOS section above.
Pups are mostly piezo or magnetic. We have plans here for that too, so do a search. Bridge -- eh, about anything you can imagine. Again take a look at the 12K+ photos we have here.
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