[TL:DR] bought an unexpectedly crappy cigar box guitar and need to figure out how to raise the action at the nut, preferably without removing it. The nut does not sit in a channel, it is just glued on behind the fretboard.
Soooo... Long story short,in decided to buy a cheap CBG (Red flag no. 1) and tweak it to a playable state and gain building experience. As it turns out,Mathis thing was... Special. So after many hours of debating scrapping the box and keeping the neck and bracing, I have decided to try and keep the original box because of a piezo pick up that was added and to be frank, I was worried I trash the electrical work. So here's where the trouble begins, the maker didn't brace the box enough, and the top of the CBG has been bowed in and tilted down into the box and up and out at the top near the neck. I have added a shim under the downward bow and have been using cabinet makers quality glue to glue the top down (which the maker didn't do) and have been clamping the glued wood to (hopefully!) get the bowed top to bend bend back into the flat position. So there body could go either way at is point, but the most major thing right now is the amazing amount of feet buzz. I just need to raise the nut about half a millimetre or so. Probably more. Here's he hitch, I can't really remove the nut and be able to shim something beneath it. It doesn't sit in a channel, so would the easiest way to raise the nut action just be buying z new, taller nut? The problem with that is that the string spacinggs are different on CBGs than just compared to... Gs... So would going to Home Depot and getting a little scrap of hardwood be my best option here? I can't really think of an easy way to do this. This is my first real venture with fooling around with instruments like this, and I'm a little lost. Thanks in advance!
I can also provide pictures.
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Hi, I'm in late again so have not read all the replys. But my suggestion is to shim the nut and glue it in its place and then glue, screw a dummy truss rod cover of suitable thickness behind it. You could use a tooth brush handle to fashion a new nut. Are there really people out there selling cbg'that bad?
Cheers Taff
not to repeat myself, but I'll repeat myself, at the risk of repeating myself
a local mom-and-pop instrument shop has 5 CBG's on consignment that are pure unplayable wall art. The nut string spacing is uneven, the nut slots are cut at random depths and are way too high for the frets. you can't finger it and you can't use a slide. they have a threaded rod bridge with no foot/base under it so that it rolls when you tune and screws up the intonation.
one of the concerns is that the nut may have been fixed in place with superglue, so removal risks real damage. That's why I use that purple glue stick, very low tack/adhesion. it holds well enough to keep it in place while cutting slots and stringing up, but separates easily and cleanly for changes/repairs.
I asked the owner about it tapping the nut out would be okay, and he said yes, he o let used a little bit of super glue Incase it needed to be replaced.
Nope. Superglued items are actually pretty easy to separate.msuperglue actually has a low coefficient of shear, so s sideways tap or two with a flat screwdriver and a hammer will have that nut right off. Even if there is a splinter that comes out, just sand a shallow channel in the nut space for a bolt of the right size.
For the neck, if, as you say, it's really thick, then you probably have room to put in a truss rod to control the bow. Except ha you may not need it, since I just read this is not a neck through. Sounds instead like the neck is poorly attached and braced to a block inside the box. Uncle the sucker! If you used wood glue, you can actually soften it up with a little hot water and a very hot knife edge, working very slowly from one edge to the other.
Then look at how the neck is attached, and see if you can shim it to give it some back angle ( as in angling down and back toward the headstock). See if you can remove the fretboard, if it is separate. If this POS gives you further trouble, scrap the neck (assuming you can get the box unglued; oh, also a very thin Dremel cutoff wheel applied CAREFULLY along the glue seam can open it up with minimal damage.), and build yourself a proper through neck.
So, learnings from this:
1) Cheap CBGs are more trouble than they're worth.
2) Not everyone has even halfway-decent luthiery skills.
3) NEVER glue the box shut! You WILL want to get back into it.
4) After all this hassle, you will have learned enough to build your own instrument properly. We are here to help get you through that.
Kieran Anderson > Ron "Oily" SpragueSeptember 16, 2016 at 12:07pm
Oh yeah, and the neck is actually the best part of this CBG. It's actually quite bueatiful, it's just a tad short. And by a tad I mean it doesn't go through. And when I say doesn't go through I mean it just sits outside the box.
That's actually fixable. There are a number of ways to fix it. Sends pics, we can help!
Kieran Anderson > Ron "Oily" SpragueSeptember 15, 2016 at 2:22pm
Yeah, this cigar box guitar was basically wall art. It wasn't actually advertised as wall it, but it probably should have been for the quality of it. I decided to go for the cheap CBG and make it good, because then I would get to see the anatomy of the guitar and play with it and see what changes the tweaks made. So in a way the process is actually going exactly according to plan, but when I asked the buffer he said it was a through neck and he just sanded it down. That was such a lie, I cannot believe I fell for it. Had we done that face to face, I would never have bought that guitar. It was just so crappy. As for glueing the box shut, while I was in there poking about and learning, I saw how the neck was out it. There is no way to shim it to give it angle. please, try not to scream when I tell you this next part. So. The neck was glued onto the outside of the box and given a little bit of support beneath it, that guess what? Ran the length of the box to the end and was sanded down. I'm just going to leave this post alone for a while so you guys can process this properly. Because the cigar box guitar is basically made of bullshit.
Yeah, they really do I guess. The photos didn't show just how shit it was. The dummy truss rod is a good idea, except the neck is soooo thick that I don't think a truss rod would work. I don't really know what to do for the neck, other than string it up with extra thick strings and wait.. We will see.
one other thought about repairing the nut...you could just grind/shave/plane/sand the existing nut down to a nub then glue a piece of hardwood on top of that as a cap. then you have a "fresh" nut to cut slots into.
Replies
Cheers Taff
not to repeat myself, but I'll repeat myself, at the risk of repeating myself
a local mom-and-pop instrument shop has 5 CBG's on consignment that are pure unplayable wall art. The nut string spacing is uneven, the nut slots are cut at random depths and are way too high for the frets. you can't finger it and you can't use a slide. they have a threaded rod bridge with no foot/base under it so that it rolls when you tune and screws up the intonation.
one of the concerns is that the nut may have been fixed in place with superglue, so removal risks real damage. That's why I use that purple glue stick, very low tack/adhesion. it holds well enough to keep it in place while cutting slots and stringing up, but separates easily and cleanly for changes/repairs.
For the neck, if, as you say, it's really thick, then you probably have room to put in a truss rod to control the bow. Except ha you may not need it, since I just read this is not a neck through. Sounds instead like the neck is poorly attached and braced to a block inside the box. Uncle the sucker! If you used wood glue, you can actually soften it up with a little hot water and a very hot knife edge, working very slowly from one edge to the other.
Then look at how the neck is attached, and see if you can shim it to give it some back angle ( as in angling down and back toward the headstock). See if you can remove the fretboard, if it is separate. If this POS gives you further trouble, scrap the neck (assuming you can get the box unglued; oh, also a very thin Dremel cutoff wheel applied CAREFULLY along the glue seam can open it up with minimal damage.), and build yourself a proper through neck.
So, learnings from this:
1) Cheap CBGs are more trouble than they're worth.
2) Not everyone has even halfway-decent luthiery skills.
3) NEVER glue the box shut! You WILL want to get back into it.
4) After all this hassle, you will have learned enough to build your own instrument properly. We are here to help get you through that.
one other thought about repairing the nut...you could just grind/shave/plane/sand the existing nut down to a nub then glue a piece of hardwood on top of that as a cap. then you have a "fresh" nut to cut slots into.
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