Hi Cigarnationers...
Joined just today, been thinking about building my own license plate cigar box guitar for some time. Have decided on a 3 string, interested in other suggestions particularly around the pickup to use.
I'm a steel string acoustic singer / songwriter.
cheers
Tony
Replies
Another question, I've been leaning heavily towards making my 1st 3 string cbg a fretted one. I play a fretted guitar and don't really play by ear as much as I'd like to so leaning to a fretted cbg as that's what I'm quite used to.
Comments?
On fretless gits, I like to make "fret lines" so I can get right to that point. Some learn were to play without visual aids and some can't do without.
All my gits are fretted and I've learned to use a slide without the "click-clack" sounds of hitting the frets. It takes time to get there, but I'm more of a fretted player anyway.
Thanks. A friend that learned the double bass originally put dots on the "fret" board (what doe they call it on instruments that aren't fretted?) and once she got more experienced didn't need it. I've been doing the same on my piano keys.
Fingerboard is also a name for it. Those dots can be helpful for learning the where the notes are. Just have to be sure your also training your ears also and not just the eyes so the dots don't become a crutch.
It's always good to start out with a pitch pipe to tune your gits when learning to play. It helps train your ear for the notes so you can pick up other places on the fingerboard/fretboard for the same notes at different pitch.
It's essential to learn where all the notes are on the board and hearing them is a big plus. Electronic Tuners are great for band/stage situations, but they can also be a crutch and hold you back from learning in some cases.
Thanks. I think I will get a pitch pipe. I've been playing (acoustic steel string) for close to six years now and being able to tune by ear certainly would be cool. I've tried to tune and then test with the electronic tuner but it didn't seem to do it for me.
For xmas my wife surprised me with the BBG - blues box slide guitar (I've seen them talked about on cigarboxnation), so that gives me an easy start to cbg. Still particularly keen to make my own, will pick up a good piece of hardwood for the neck next time we go into town where the hardware store is.
The Essential Pages at the top right of the page has some good info for building guitars. It's best to have all your parts together before starting to build your guitar, that way you can see how things are going to fit and what your parameters are going to be.
If you click on a members name, it will take you to their home page were pics of their projects/guitars/amps are on display.
It's good to get ideas from many sources to help plan your builds.
C.B.Gitty has a lot of pickups available for great prices along with video samples for some of the pickups. The 3 pole and 4 pole pickups are great in single or double coil/humbucker versions. The rod type piezo's are great. The PBass pickups do well for CBG's. Lipstick Tube pickups and the rail pole type pickups work great too.
Other sources out there for pickups as well. I like to listen to several sound samples/videos with clean and distorted sound to get an idea of how they will perform. You also have to consider how a pickup will sound and perform in a hollow box instead of a solid body guitar or semi-hollow body guitar. You may need to put shielding foil inside the box to stop RF noise and use shielded wiring too. You may also encounter feedback problems, but we can help you with all of that.
Thanks. Yeah, lots of reading for me to still do.
Back on subject, there are also plenty of sellers of 3pole single coil and humbucker mag pickups, I can send you some links, but not sure of shipping cost, something to check out
Sure, please send through the links. I'm leaning towards a six pole pickup, also have liked some of the slimline ones for cbg guitar. Glad I've not started building yet as the neck height may change depending on the pickup.
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