Howdy all,
So this is going to be a thread for my first attempt at building a CBG, though it isn't actually a cigar box. It is a craft box I got from Michaels. It is roughly 8.25 x 8 x 1.75" Really wanted a more rectangle box, but where I live, I would have had to order. Heck Michaels is about an hour and twenty minutes away as it is...
Anyway, I couldn't get out today to get the neck and hardware (a bit under the weather), so figured I'd bang on the box.I started by distressing the box. I scratched and poked small 'worm holes' in it with a beater board I made from scratch and driving nails through it. I then gouged it up with a chisel a bit and scuffed it with a wire brush.
When it was suitably distressed, I put on a thin water coat of black craft paint. This is what I got:
Should have left well enough alone... But I am building this as a gift for my brother who will be retiring from the Fire Department soon, hence the name of the git - "Backdraft". Anyway, I wanted it to look like red barn wood as the base. So, I darkened in the gouges with straight black paint and went to work applying red.
Just not happy with it... after painting I hit it again with some sand paper. In reality I wanted to see how bad it would be to sand off all the red paint. Oh well, live and learn. The plan was to put another coat of a lighter red on and sand to make it look like it had been painted over a few times over the years... yeah, not sure I want to make it even worse.
I did skip painting the back because I was about out of the red/black that I had mixed up for the base coat. Here's a pic of the back...
Well, hopefully I will feel well enough to go get the neck stock and hardware tomorrow. This was going to be a neck on top build, but think I want to go neck through now so I can transfer a silhouette of a firefighter and his station number on the front... might cover some of the crappy red paint up which couldn't hurt.
Also, keeping with the theme, the idea is to also drill, then burn out the sound holes. Hope the paint don't catch! LOL! Wish me luck for that stage, I will say, even with what little I have done, I AM HOOKED ON CBGs!
Best,
The Bane
Replies
Thanks everyone who responded to my tuning issue.
Confident I can get this sucker strumming now. Just have to get some strings.
Best,
The Bane
Well, this one has kind of been scrapped. Made a few dumb mistakes with it. Might return to it after I finish the current one, which is almost done, but having a HUGE problem getting it strung.
I wanted to string the second build and tune it to GDG, using (what I have read) the A, D, and G strings from a normal pack of guitar strings. The D and G strings (Middle and High strings) went on and tuned in easy enough with some adjustment after they stretched some. However, I have broken two A strings trying to tune it to G!
Any idea what I am doing wrong?! Getting 'expensive' (not really, just more than I want to pay per CBG) going through A strings... The tension just seems too much trying to get an A string to play G.
Best,
The Bane
I've very often found I break strings trying to reach those notes with the high E string. Yup, I'm not paying any more for them. That last string stretch kills strings.
If I want a build to reach that high then I drop my scale length down to 24" (this is still pushing it) but this is a building hack and not a solution. The solution is to buy expensive strings.
I'm sure my method is just all wrong but at the end of the day I don't give a..
I am confused. Guitar strings: E, A, D, G, B, E. So I get taking an Low E to a G is a stretch E - A - D - G, But why am I breaking A strings? A - D - G, one whole note less.
Or is it based on notes: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A,
It is a one note change.
So confused...
By the way, I have a 25" scale and modest break angles. Strings break in the middle to two-thirds from the bridge.
The Bane
That jump in tuning, I jump string and miss one from the packet for the high string.
Or if looking at it going down tones.. I skip a string and tune the bass higher.
The thing is that strings are made to tune to fourths between them and CBGs have a jump to be tuned to a fifth. Try skipping a string at this jump point 1. 2 & 4.. 2 3 & 5.. Depending on where you make that jump.
I tune upside down from everyone because I'm learning 4 string. Mine has tunings built on a fifth a fourth and a fifth.
Like.. My bass string, I follow up the fretboard 7 steps, that's the next string tuning.. Then 5 steps.. That's the 3rd string.. Then 7..
5 steps is a fourth.. 7 steps is a fifth.
It's that jump between strings that you have to adjust too by either missing a string from the packet or making a string "highly strung".
It takes a bit of getting used to and it's handy to know tuning a guitar by the notes on the fretboard or harmonics.
I don't think there's a perfect solution because scale length is different between guitars and quality of strings vary wildly coupled with string weight and tension tolerances.
LOL, to be honest, that made no sense to me; fourths, fifths, etc. I know next to nothing about music theory or anything - having never taken a class or played anything before.
But something hit a 'note' for me. If I am tuning to notes, then am I going too far the wrong way!?
What I mean is, If G is on either side of the scale; G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G - Was I trying to tune PAST the A's normal A tone to a higher G than I should have!? Should I tune the A to A and then back it off to a G? Making that string 'floppy'?
Hope that makes sense.
The Bane
OK. Take most 3 string CBGs.
The bass string and the top string is the same note but 1 octave higher. Doh ray me fa so la tee doh.
If we look at normal guitar strings and choose three that are next to each other (1 2 3, 2 3 4, etc) then these are designed to only reach doh ray me fa so la tee
So we skip a string to reach doh. Or we stretch the string to reach doh. Or we loosen the bass string to tee (tee doh ray me fa so la tee)
So we have the same note between the top and the bass strings but 1 octave apart. Doh ray me etc. are the white notes on a piano but we also have the black keys. There's 12 notes on the piano before it repeats itself so our middle string is one of these notes. In most cases it is the 7th note up (a fifth) but it can also be the 5th note up (a fourth).
How we get that octave with the middle string is a ballance between different factors, we can stretch or string higher than normal or we can drop the bass string down and have a different tuning or we can shorten our scale length so we don't have to stretch the string so much or we can skip a string so our high string is loose.
Fomhorach ~ I think I am following, at least a little. But I am not using consecutive strings. I am using... what?.. every third string.
A B C D E F G
D and G are tuned to what they are supposed to be. A, as I have read, is then tuned to the Low (octave lower?) G. Basically, I think I am over tightening trying to get to the same octave G as the normal G string. Does that make sense, and is this my issue?
Thanks as well,
The Bane
There are many ways to string these things..
I think I see what your doing.
OK take a pack of strings. Call the thinnest your 1st - thickest your 6th.
Use 3rd, 4th & 5th
Get a hold of a tuner, I use a phone app (there are a few free ones) or the internet has web sites that will suffice.
Tune the 3rd & 4th, G & D. Tune the 5th to A like a normal guitar (use the app or Internet to do this) then wind the 5th back down until you hit G.
See how that works out for you
a reasonably simple check method with the heavier strings is to wind it up, until it stops being floppy, and produces a sound semi clearly,from there you are in the strings range, and your next "g",should be the one you're chasing
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