Several folks have asked me to build six strings for them. I've only done three and four to date. Outside of a wider fretboard is there anything I need to do differently? Do I have to radius the neck (whatever that means and what you use to do it with)? Looking for some direction and advice. Thanks!
Doug
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Any way, the six stringer pictured was built in early 1980 and features a solid [key steel stock] bar.
As I still have this guitar I thought I would measure the action and tell you how it has faired over these 37 odd years.
The action over the 12 fret is 2mm and the relief in the neck over the 7th fret is 2 thousands of an inch, nearly flat. In the building I did not put the relief in the fingerboard but let the string pull slightly on a flattish neck. my other guitar from 1975 and finished the same way has slightly more relief at 8 thousand. With the guitar pictured I have to have summer and winter bridge saddles to compensate for changing action heights and buzzing due to seasonal timber movement.
PS...
A solid steel bar would make the neck of a six string light CBG too heavy and unbalanced I feel.
The two guitars above had the same mahogany necks, the first had an ebony fingerboard [stiff] and the other a rosewood fingerboard [not as stiff] So keep in mind what you use as a fingerboard as it aids neck stability.
For what its worth, Taff
If you are building this for yourself...
Take the easy step and just make a wider neck than you did for your 3 & 4 strings, do all the rest the same way you have been doing it and enjoy the journey and the end result. Your head will be full of ideas on what to do next time before you are finished.
Also, use low tension nylon acoustic strings and you won't have to worry about a truss rod. (this time)
I never chopped a regular 6 string to make a CBG, it seems a pointless exercise. I have however made plenty of them from my parts bin, and I always have loads of 6 string bridges, pickups and necks to hand. In which case what I'm doing is making a conventional 6 string and utilising a cigar box (or an oil can or whatever) for the body.
Here's one I did last week...stock Tele bridge and Fender pattern neck.
I agree with what you said about a fixed truss rod.
When I built my 28" scale semi-base I used an aluminium T section bar but I knew I had to have the neck dip built into the neck before fretting. This also throws up problems with fret leveling. I got lucky and I would not recommend this method of build.
It would have been far more easily done using a proper truss rod.
You can make a semi hollow electric six string. Here's a link to a work in progress of my AutoRATic Rhythm and Blues Cosmic Glider.
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/img-boxtwo001?context=user
The only thing I did wrong is not putting sound holes in the top.
Hey, Fom, this is exactly what came out of the Gibson plant in the early 1960s. One of the staff got permission to take an old plank that was set up to be a neck-through and completed it, without the wings. It's now a collectors' guitar featured in a recent Vintage Guitar Magazine.
...And this approach will never be close to a CBG.
Yeah true. I would call it a fake CBG even if it's wrapped in a real CB.
Still though, it's a real easy way to build a 6 string that looks like a CBG. Also, on reflection.. It's out duty to destroy as many fake Stratocasters as physically possible without taking petrol bombs to guitar shops.
Edit.. I do like telecasters though and would have one in a heartbeat.
Here's one I made earlier. After three CBGs, I jumped in with this:
Then, guilty at leaving the CBG theme behind I built this:
Take something like this..
Cut it thinner, run it right inside a cigar box with the wood right under the lid. Fit the electronics. Boom. Instant faked 6 string CBG.
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