Ben from CA

Hi everyone, I'm on the central coast CA (Santa Barbara County). I just joined CBN and am starting my first build tonight. I'm keeping it simple; 3-strings and fretless (for now). I used to do adjustments and minor repair, so I understand a bit about guitars, but I'm going to try and not let that slow me down :-)

Box: a regular-sized $5 Montesino all-plywood box. The smoke shop sold it as a "paper" box, so I thought the top was cardboard and was going to build on the bottom, but a closer look this evening revealed that the top is ply too.

Neck: Light-colored "poplar" from Home Depot, which I think is more accurately called "tulipwood." That sounds more elegant anyway.

Tuners: Cheap set from Gizzly.

Finish: I'll probably tung-oil the neck.

I play guitar & bass, but have never got into slide, so I'll have to make one of those too.

Wish me luck!

- Ben

Hey man, I made my first one a few weeks ago and it came out remarkably legit.

for your fretless neck --- maybe try what i did --- I cut slots , instead of using a sharpie or burning them in like some people do)

I marked the fret positions lining up a Strat neck, then clamped a chunk of metal to guide the saw at each fret position as I went (my miter box is pretty iffy)

when I finished the neck the slots obviously got darker looking than the rest of the board and from a couple feet away they almost look like raised frets. Kindof a nice clean look given the caveman approach.

I have some pics up of the build --- maybe there might be one thing I did that makes yo go...'Hmmm'

best of luck --- and your slide work will improve DRASTICALLY (even if you've barely played slide before) in about 20 mintues...the CBG makes you get pumped -- like a random perfect golf swing that feels so good you're hooked just trying to master that feeling again --- one tasty sounding slide lick on your CBG hooks you...I haven't picked up my Strat once since I built the CBG and have about three new compositions going I would never have done without it... ET

Replies

BenBob May 11, 2010 at 2:18pm

Thanks Eric. I see what you mean about your fret slots, they look great. Nice gut-bucket you built there.
Eric Townsend May 11, 2010 at 1:04pm

Hey man, I made my first one a few weeks ago and it came out remarkably legit.

for your fretless neck --- maybe try what i did --- I cut slots , instead of using a sharpie or burning them in like some people do)

I marked the fret positions lining up a Strat neck, then clamped a chunk of metal to guide the saw at each fret position as I went (my miter box is pretty iffy)

when I finished the neck the slots obviously got darker looking than the rest of the board and from a couple feet away they almost look like raised frets. Kindof a nice clean look given the caveman approach.

I have some pics up of the build --- maybe there might be one thing I did that makes yo go...'Hmmm'

best of luck --- and your slide work will improve DRASTICALLY (even if you've barely played slide before) in about 20 mintues...the CBG makes you get pumped -- like a random perfect golf swing that feels so good you're hooked just trying to master that feeling again --- one tasty sounding slide lick on your CBG hooks you...I haven't picked up my Strat once since I built the CBG and have about three new compositions going I would never have done without it... ET
BenBob May 11, 2010 at 2:41am

Thanks Tim, I made some sawdust this evening!
Tim Fleischer May 10, 2010 at 9:47pm

Go for it Ben...welcome aboard!
Tim

This reply was deleted.

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