Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Brian Lemin on August 11, 2009 at 7:15pm

You know how we work here. Whatever you want to do is the right thing!
There is nothing wrong with nuts and bolts, bone from the Sunday roast (not chicken!) the back/top (?) of a plastic comb, piece of toothbrush, nice piece of hard wood. There you have bridges and nuts galore.

I used a piece of pine for my first CBG neck ... its a bit soft but it works, but I really think you should look for a piece of hard wood from your lumber yard. Different countries different woods, but I could use "Oak" as a standard to judge it by.

I am not yet clever enough to make a pick up, but I am collecting everything to give it a go. To be honest I have failed pretty miserably in this whole "amplifying" thing. The amp i built is useless.

You sound to have caught the bug very well.

Go for it.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Doug on August 12, 2009 at 3:28am

Well, I'm pretty much a novice, but I think just about any wood for a fret board is fine, as long as it is not real soft like maybe balsa. I've use Brazilian tiger wood so far because I had a few scraps a guy gave me from building his deck. I using butternut(?) on one I'm building now. For bridges I've used the bolt, and corian so far. I'm using alternative ivory on one in progress. It is a polyester Rosin or some such thing.

Got to say, Ive been eyeballing some wood pallets that I can have for free. I see some with oak in them and fir (I thinK) that I'm sure would work. Little stain......

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Permalink Reply by Jerryrig240 on August 12, 2009 at 4:37am

Is there a lot of people that use a double neck "samwhich" style? Fretboard on top, and what ever else on the back side. I don't really have the tools to pull it off right now like that, other than a few clamps. As far as electronics goes, making anything loud is a snap....give me a old alarm clock and I can get your CBG to make noise thanks to those handy little transducers. As far as pick ups go, I have bought one from ebay for 3 bucks from Japan....souds okay, it's on a diddley bow of mine, it is microphonic, like most cheap pick ups out there, but it sounds okay. I want to wrap my own pickups myself, but I can not find a fine wire yet.....one day I will and I will be able to make a CBG in my sleep. I did yesterday lol.

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Permalink Reply by Jerryrig240 on August 12, 2009 at 9:25am

I agree, there are some 6 strings that have box bodies, heck, I even saw a "CBG" on youtube that had a fender squire neck?! What? That's not a cbg, that's a standard guitar with a square body. As soon as they start geting more than 4 strings....I tend to wonder if it's a true cbg or not.

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Permalink Reply by Doc Oakroot on August 12, 2009 at 9:31am

Don't overthink it!

Red oak is available at the big box hardware stores in fretboard sized boards and works fine. I've also used mahogany (a little soft) and just mounted frets right on the poplar I used for the neck.

Most often, I use a bit of oak cut off from my fretboard stock for the nut. I usually build the bridge from scrap wood - most often the (Spanish cedar?) pieces that line the inside of all wood boxes - but don't try that with steel strings, lol.

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Permalink Reply by Astrochimp on August 12, 2009 at 11:10am

Old skids make great necks! One of mine shows the old nail holes still. Have another ready to build that has great quarter-saw rays in it.

So far I have used copper tube for bridges and nuts because I have some around. Also made one nut from aluminum.

I only have a few old tuners left so guitars will soon start costing something.

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Permalink Reply by Diydc on August 12, 2009 at 11:21am

I have used hard woods of many kinds for necks, even furniture beech wood for fretless fourstrings. Works really well, as the bow effect becomes irrelevant on fretless.

I also used palisander (rose wood) for fretboards on a backing of maple and an oak spine. No bending, just quality sounding.
For bridges I have uses steel a lot, especially from treaded steel types, but I also used brass, wenge (sorry, dont know the english for that one), ebony, bone and just about anything hard which has a cross grain. same goes for the nut up the neck too.

Not a big fan of Piezzos TBH, as they tend to be tonaly coloured, but I do like the humbuckers for just about anything with steel strings....

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on August 12, 2009 at 2:26pm

You got a Lowes or Home Depot, you got your materials. I use the 1x2 poplar and 1x1/4 red oak strips for neck and fretboards but that is really up to you. You can find your hardware there too (except the tuners and strings).

No rules, but if there were, the "rules" might be:

1. Make what makes you happy
2. Any doubt, see #1

I think someone else added "don't overthink this thing". Great advice all around.

You wanna secret? Use Geltine glue or hide glue. Hard as wood glue and MUCH more easier to remove if needed. Makes a killer filler or wood putty too.

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Permalink Reply by Ben on August 12, 2009 at 4:13pm

I just finished two builds that I used a wood sandwich for. I made a tenor guitar that sounds amazing and a two string bass that both used 3, 2X1/4" Red Oak planks that are wood glued together. I drill a hole through the middle board at each end then drill a corresponding hole partway through the top and bottom boards. I then use a short piece of dowel to keep all three piece together while they are glued and clamped. Its amazing how strong they are! I've found that my frets glue to poplar better than oak though so maybe you'd want to use poplar for the top layer. Although now that I've read some of these other posts I'm starting to wonder if my Tenor guitar is really still a CBG. I mean it has the same number of strings as a traditional Tenor...maybe I should have just dropped the bones on something made in Korea...oh well...I guess I'll just quit making instruments now since I could buy them...

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