I'm still in the aquiring parts and watching videos and planning stage. At this point I only play the radio but hoping that changes.
Wondering why I don't see people doing anything to protect the paper graphics on their boxes.
Gitty's phone dosen't seem to accept calls from Canada so could someone reccomend a set of 3 strings for a frettless 25 inch scale and would this change if the guitar had fretts?
I plan to just use a simple piezo under th bridge with a volume control.
Thanks in advance Frank
Replies
I'm starting to think about finishing the neck, I tried boiled linseed oil on a scrap of poplar and it did very little. I would like to mark the frett positions of the 3rd,5th,7th and 12th fretts possibly with a fine Sharpie and hope it showed through the finish without affecting it. I guess 4 actual fretts would look wierd. Then again I'm a bit wierd last spring I took down a walnut 2 cherry and 3 ash and gave the wood away for firewood. At the time I hadn't considered building anything and normaly I don't have the patients to wait for paint to dry let alone wood. I have acess to a friends portable sawmill and a neighbours kiln about 1/2 mile from here he manufactures hardwood flooring. My best ideas always come too late.
Ha, ha.
I hear you regarding ideas coming to you after you've gotten rid of building materials.
There's nothing wrong with weird in my book.
In fact, I resemble that remark, myself.
As long as you have side fret location markers to let you know where to actually land your slide when you're playing, your idea of four actual frets made me think of putting 4 frets in weird places, like at the 4th, 8th,11th and the 14th, just to have people ask you about why you have it that way.
You could tell people that you've developed a special "Frank" scale that uses those frets exclusively.
Yep, I'm weird, too.
I've always used acrylic or poly, I believe, as finishes.
Except once, and what a mess it was.
I used tung oil on the neck of one build.
I waited 6 months or longer for it to dry, but it never did dry.
I ended up cleaning it back off with mineral spirits, then put poly over it, which then turned out fine.
Boiled linseed might work okay, but I don't really know.
I use linseed oil for tool handles, but that 's about it.
One thought about putting linseed oil over Sharpie is that the oil might dissolve the Sharpie ink and drag it around with the oil.
I'm not completely sure about that, but I have an uncle who is knowledgeable about finishes and that's something that he recently mentioned to me about applying oil finishes over stained wood.
He said that the applying of the oil will "drag" the stain around if not done very, very carefully.
I guess it depends on how "homemade" looking you want this build to look, but there are side fret marker kits available that are super inexpensive that include a drill bit and sticks of the plastic marker material.
They're available in different diameters to suit one's taste, in white, black, or brown, I think, and they're very easy to install.
On my first build, I used bamboo chopstick material, drilling a hole at each "fret" location (it was fretless, as yours is) and then glued the bamboo plugs in the holes.
Oh, man, what a mistake that was.
The bamboo was much harder to sand than the oak neck, so getting it smoothed out along the length of the neck was a royal pain in the you know where!
Then, I really couldn't see the bamboo as it didn't contrast well against the oak, so I black Sharpied over the bamboo on 3, 5, 7, 10, double 12, 15, 17, 19, 22, and double 24, and brown Sharpied all the rest, then sprayed poly over the whole thing.
It ended up working out, and actually I'm pretty happy with the way it looks for a first-time build, but sheesh, never again will I subject myself to such a torturous mistake.
Until the next time that I make a mistake, that is.
Lol.
Bob
Thanks Bob, for saving me from the Tung Oil I had set out the can. Didn't accomplish anything today as I had to go into the city and have my head examined well just my eyes. I did go to Home Depot and Lowes where I sorted through about 50 pieces of 1x2 red oak in order to find 2 straight pieces for my next fretted project. Maybe this evening I can wear out some sandpaper.
Hey Frank,
I do now recall using spray lacquer, too, in addition to poly and acrylic.
I like that lacquer dries fast, so I can keep working and get a CBG cranked out quicker, but the stuff stinks to high heavens.
It's not a good choice, as far as I'm concerned, in cold weather climes.
I do love using spray lacquer in warmer weaher, though, when I can use it outdoors, and with it drying in mere minutes.
The acrylic and poly that I've mentioned using does result in a thicker finish, which you may not like, but it's more friendly to use inside in colder weather than lacquer is.
I saw Taff mention shellac.
That might be a good selection.
My finishing expert uncle is a big fan of shellac, but I've yet to try it for whatever reason, maybe expense, but I'm not sure at the moment.
I think I've seen spray cans of shellac as well as the dry flakes that require preparation and then brush or wipe-on application techniques unless you have generic spray equipment.
I don't have such equipment..
I'd like to give the pre-canned spray type shellac a try some time.
Some of those finishes are way more expensive than others, so I take that into consideration when purchasing finishing products.
I don't mass produce CBGs for sale, just selling them occasionally as interested people cross my path in life, so I'm not in a position of passing on the cost of supplies to customers as a general rule.
Cheers!
You're welcome, Frank.
I'm not saying that all tung oil is lousy, but mine sure was.
It was brand new and a popular brand.
I followed the suggested application procedures explicitly and still had a mess on my hands, so I thought that I'd share the experience with you.
I hope that your eyes checked out okay and also that what's behind them inside your head is in good shape, too.
Neither of mine are what I'd call in tiptop shape, but I get by.
Lol.
Does your sandpaper complain about you wearing it out? : )
I'm a fan of the look of red oak necks myself, but I have had problems with red oak necks twisting after the CBG has been completed more often than any other wood species that I've used
Whether that was my bad luck or a characteristic of oak, I don't know, but that's been my experience.
I've had my best luck using aspen, alder, and maple, in that order.
I've been having good luck getting neck blank material from my local Menard's home improvement store.
Menard's has been growing in recent years, but you may not have one in your area.
I've always seen poplar mentioned as a popular CBG neck material, but the few that I've built using poplar are not my favorites.
Poplar seems to me to be a bit soft and prone to having the neck bow under string tension more so than the other species that I mentioned.
Poplar does "work" easily, though, so maybe that's why it's recommended for people just getting into the hobby.
I doubt that I'll use poplar again.
I have some white oak, scavenged from the extension panels from a dining table top that my wife's grandpa built over 100 years ago that I'm going to try.
The table extension panels didn't get included in a refinish job that someone did on the table many years ago, so they no longer match the table and never will, so my wife let me take them to make CBGs out of them.
Hopefully, being over 100 years old, they won't twist on me.
Maybe I'll start off by making another fretless out of one of them.
Minor to moderate neck twist in a fretless CBG doesn't really matter, but it's a nightmare on a fretted instrument.
Something that I noticed, especially in building long scale instruments, such as 25.5" typical Fender scale length, with softer neck woods, is that unless steps are taken to counter bowing of the neck from string tension, significant neck bowing can take place after they get strung and are up to tension, resulting in horrible intonation.
Some folks will install truss rods, which is probably best, but they do add cost and additional work in fitting them to the neck.
I've never used truss rods myself, but when gluing the fretboard to the neck, I do introduce a tiny bit of backbow into the neck while clamping the still-wet glued fretboard to the neck by adding the thickness of a few business cards at the center point of the back of the neck between the nut location and where the heel support block has been glued to the neck. That midpoint location varies depending on the build, so I can't just say to put the shims behind the 7th fret location on every build.
I don't have an exact formula for how much thickness to use, as it depends on the stiffness of the wood species that I'm using and also the scale length of the CBG.
The longer the neck and the softer the wood, the more backbow that I intentionally introduce.
It's all done by my intuition.
It's always worked out just right for me, too, knock on wood.
It's similar to the way my grandma cooked, which was excellent.
it was darned near impossible to get a recipe from her because she didn't use recipes, she just cooked, magnificently so.
My sister did a pretty good job of figuring out grandma'a cooking, though, before grandma left this Earth.
Well, I'll shut up for now.
Keep having fun!
Bob
Hi again frank, I just share some info with you so that you can make your own mind up about the best way to proceed. There are possibly as many was to achieve the same result as there are builders.
Piezo pickup works when exited by the vibration of whatever surface they are attached to. The better the surface vibrates [that's what creates the sound in an acoustic guitar] the better the output from the piezo pick-up.
So, the top and the back are best left to vibrate freely for the best results. The air in the box also plays a huge part in the sound-creating process, so less air limited volume.
I the photo you can see how I cut out the end of this box to accommodate the neck. This will put the neck level with the top allowing a 1/4' fingerboard to give a decent bridge height. And even then the neck may have to be angled back a bit to get that 1/2" to 5/8" bridge height.
Hey, Taffy.
I'm just seeing your photos above showing your neck pocket. I simply HAD to comment. That is next level awesome, and quite easily the best I've ever seen a CBG neck pocket done. Truly genius and, with your kind permission, how I'm going to try doing mine in future. It's a bit like an acoustic guitar heel when it sits both sides of the guitar sides, yet different in a magnificent way.
I applaud your ingenuity!
All the best,
Bear
I am assuming I wll have to remove hinge and to notch the bottom and put the halves together with screws and corner posts.
So yesterday I finally got started with my least favourite of my 3 boxes assuming I would be creating firewood. Upon looking this morning I realized if I continued notching the additional 3/16 to make the neck level with lid I would be within a couple of hair widths of the glue joint. My first thought is to leave it as it is which leaves about a 1/8 inch between neck and bottom of the box lid and gluing a piece of 1/4 X 2 red oak on top of the neck to level things out kinda like a frettless frett board. I wished I had known to look for boxes that were deeper and hinged at the top. Think I wll wait 5 or 6 weeks before going back to the shop that gave me the 3 I have. Any thoughts or should I start over? Will try to add a picture .
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
-
6
of 6 Next