Posted by Ronnie M on September 30, 2010 at 3:16am
I have just recently (in the last week) started building cbgs and both of them have really bad action. Either it is really low and flapping against the box, which happened on my first one, or way to high which is what happened on my 2nd one.
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The 1st build ( I'm assuming too low) just needs a slightly taller nut and taller bridge.
The 2nd is from bowing. Try lighter strings, and maybe a lower bridge. I only use light or extra lights.
The main problem id the wood itself. by looking at the way the grain is oriented , I could have practically guarranteed it would bow.
You need to select the straightest grain wood you can find. The grain swirls are pretty, but weeaken the wood.
These are from the 2nd build I have done. It was another attempt that turned out better and I actually thought was pretty close to perfect working order. I need to buy new strings for it. I think if I could find a way to have the strings hit the tuners a little lower it wouldn't be so bad but if I use a smaller bolt on the nut area the nut doesn't hold.
If it's too low then a simple answer is to fit a taller bridge.
Too high could be trickier to fix. Obviously lowering the bridge is one thing to look at but if that's not possible then a fix depends on whether you can separate the neck from the box (eg. whether it's permanently glued together or whether it's screwed together or glued with a glue that can be separated).
For future builds, spend a bit of time checking how the box and neck go together before you fix them. Check the break angle by sighting along the neck (or maybe use a straight edge to extend the line of the neck over the body to check the height at the bridge).
I'm assuming here that the action is due to the angle between neck and soundboard being wrong. Another problem might be excessive bowing of the neck (never had ths problem with hardwoods but I've seen it on instruments that people have built with necks made from pine).
Replies
The 2nd is from bowing. Try lighter strings, and maybe a lower bridge. I only use light or extra lights.
The main problem id the wood itself. by looking at the way the grain is oriented , I could have practically guarranteed it would bow.
You need to select the straightest grain wood you can find. The grain swirls are pretty, but weeaken the wood.
Matt
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the b est,
Wichita Sam
Too high could be trickier to fix. Obviously lowering the bridge is one thing to look at but if that's not possible then a fix depends on whether you can separate the neck from the box (eg. whether it's permanently glued together or whether it's screwed together or glued with a glue that can be separated).
For future builds, spend a bit of time checking how the box and neck go together before you fix them. Check the break angle by sighting along the neck (or maybe use a straight edge to extend the line of the neck over the body to check the height at the bridge).
I'm assuming here that the action is due to the angle between neck and soundboard being wrong. Another problem might be excessive bowing of the neck (never had ths problem with hardwoods but I've seen it on instruments that people have built with necks made from pine).