hi, just signed up, and have quite a few question's,
cant play and never made a cbg, but i'm going to do both,
anyone grafted a standard guitar neck onto a cigar box, only asking as i've just bought a box (pic) and i have this old guitar i bought 20 years ago, it's called a "SATELLITE" , 24 1/2" from nut to bridge, thinking to use 3 or 4 string's, make a new nut and bridge, and use the jack, p/up etc, any thought's,
[IMG]http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/w124-2door/CIGAR%20BOX%20GUITARS/DSCF0072.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/w124-2door/CIGAR%20BOX%20GUITARS/DSCF0073.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/w124-2door/CIGAR%20BOX%20GUITARS/DSCF0075.jpg[/IMG]
Replies
see links below the pictures may help
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/albums/montecristo-2
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/build-3-montecristo-redneck-6?c...
Ok, so I use Adobe Illustrator for my CAD. You can use Google SketchUp {free} if you want. What I did was to understand what I had or will have: a box, Arturo F. King B box and a guitar neck. The scale and heel were VERY important. Since I am making a pocket style for the neck joint, I referred to my ES 335 clone to see if the engineering is possible. My design has about the same neck to body dimensions (depth and distance in) as well as about the same body depth. The ES 335s are arch top and arch back which does add to the thickness as opposed to the side bout.
That said, I measured down to the 64th inch the interior and exterior dimensions of the box and put them in my drawing. I also measured the placements of the bridge and pickups from my ES 335 clone and placed them in the drawing as close to those locations.
As originally planned, I wanted to use a solid interior of a single piece. That would work but I would face some challenges -- routing for the wiring. In hind sight, that would have been easy but at that time, ease of build ruled. I opted for a layered design using 3/8" plywood sheets where I could cut a single or a group of plys to form a solid body. I will have to glue them together and that [will] present structural issues, but If it fails, I can rework the design in a solid form. No problem.
To ensure all the plywood parts register to one another, I clamped them all together, drilled four holes and put in 2d (I think ?) finishing nails as registration pins. I then squared off the edges with a band saw and drew the outlines of the cuts -- either on the top layer or any other layer that needed special cuts. I cut the special cut layer (the one for wiring channels) knowing that this layer will share cuts with the others. Then I pieced them all back, pinned, and cut the common cuts including the pickup areas and the neck pocket.
The next challenge I face is to angle the neck back. I have to have the neck angled back as the bridge sits high. a 2 degree angle is necessary and so today, I cut a 2 degree wedge that I will insert into the pocket that will angle the neck back. All of the layers will be glued and clamped.
Wish me luck. It sounds ok, but I still have reservations.
-WY
Scotty C. said:
I REALLY did think solid, but the ease of doing it in layers where I could cut some layers to form channels and differing thicknesses make more sense [ at the time ].
I guess I will see if my engineering is successful. I'm guessing I have a 65-75% chance if success. It is plywood you know :-( .
-WY
Wichita Sam said:
Wes Yates said:
Wes, can you go over what you did here? I'm piqued by your process...
So my biggest challenge is how to angle the neck back when all the wood is flat. Solution came to me in church! Make a 1-2 deg wedge/shim and put it in the pocket. Voila! And if I want to change the angle simply add or change the shim.
NOTE: the nails are so that I could get the sheets aligned for cutting and gluing. They will be removed before assembly.
-WY
Wichita Sam said:
Wes Yates said: