hi,, bought a box, 10" x 8" x 2", now i need a neck, how long should it be 36" ?, never played guitar before or built a cbg, here's a pic of the box,
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hi,, bought a box, 10" x 8" x 2", now i need a neck, how long should it be 36" ?, never played guitar before or built a cbg, here's a pic of the box,
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Check out the playing lessons under Community at the top of the Nation page. Go slow. Count your fingers before you start and try to end with the same number.
i actually had it done in 4 days , and 2 days i only spent 2 hrs on it !
get the WFRET program free , make your own neck / frets .
i used nails , cut em with snips , ground the edges smooth and a lil jb weld to hold em the slots i cut with a hacksaw blade / file . nothin to it . i wish i hadnt put it off for a year . i had a hacksaw blad that broke , so i cut 2 wood pieces for a handle , used jb weld / tape , and made what we call "the prison saw" . it came in handy quite a bit .
i used a skill saw , and a jig saw , also made guides out of scraps , hit some dumpsters for wood !
Roy Alderman said:
OR to make it a specialty slide guitar for your arsenal: get a new nut installed and set the thing with high action only for slide work! then it can just be your cool beater slide guitar you can set up DADGAD or whatever-- ---
if you want a funky fretted neck for your CBG build, maybe do a dumpster dive or yard sale find of a REALLy crappy student guitar or etc -- and if you want maybe recut the headstock profile and/or plug the tuner holes and re-drill how you want (you can always do a thin laminate or paint-job on it to hide the old holes or contour...just a thought -- personally I'm loath to break up a guitar and neck that strings up decently... If I found an old Supro piece of trash i'd refurb it for funk factor rather than chop it up for other projects
but if you're determined to get funky with it... maybe just chop the horns and contours off the existing body into a CBG-style rectangle or weird shape then strip it or stain/paint it up weird/add doodads or funky homemade hardware to it to make a quick funky guit-box that you know has a working neck pocket that fits, a working adjustable bridge and electronics already wired and routed... I'm just babbling, but maybe gets you thinking ....
I say just turn it into a killer slide guitar. Best, ET
PAUL HAMMERSLEY said:
[IMG]http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/w124-2door/CIGAR%20BOX%20GUI...[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/w124-2door/CIGAR%20BOX%20GUI...[/IMG]
A lot of my first two builds were "learning as you go" kind of affairs, but they both play well and look okay. Give yourself permission to F-up the first one and always remember to have fun. The builds should be enjoyable, just like playing - at least, thats my approach.
Good luck & welcome. Roy
just don't rush anything and you'll likely be fine...just over-measure and triple check as you go before cutting or etc.
you'll likely be buying a 36" strip of Poplar (get a nice 'heavy' feeling strip straight as can be -- sight like a rifle it at the store) and I say heavy and hardest strip you can find (I found softness and weight varies from piece to piece).
my first box: I cut the strip a little longer than necessary -- to 34 3/8" -- so the length of the headstock seemed a little long, but i went with it and it came out killer and actually visually balances nicely so the headstock doesn't feel like a stump -- but I don't have much space behind the bridge on mine -- which worked out fine for me (kept a nice break angle and gave a very Asian Lute flavor to the look) but you may want to keep your strip at 36" until you're positive of the layout and where you want the bridge located on your box, and then once that's marked you can hold the neck strip up to a real guitar and line that bridge mark up with the guitar's bridge saddles and mark off the fret locations and nut from there.
Remember that from Bridge to Nut should be just about dead on 25.5' -- unless you're a Gibson man and would like a 24.75" scale -- so before any mounting or cutting, find a real guitar and use that the mark your poplar strip so you know where your fret markers (incised like mine, or drawn or burned on like some other people do)
If you want your bridge farther into the box than mine, consider a "string retainer" of some sort behind the bridge so you have a sharp break angle over the bridge
then hold the neck strip up to your Cohiba box and see where you think you want the bridge mark to fall on the box -- then make marks where the BOX ends (clumsy explanation, but maybe you know exactly what I mean)
take a look at my build and see the string retainer I made for the headstock (since i'd drilled my tuner holes too early and found the nut was gonna be far from the tuners and I needed a sharper break angle) -- but that retainer worked great -- you might consider doing one at the headstock AND behind the bridge (could be a chance for a cool custom hardware thing you make)
anyway... please take a look at my 1st build -- I totally winged it (carefully) as i went and it came out like a fully playable and recordable instrument with really powerful resonance.
Another thought -- is buy some crappy (but identically sized) strips of wood (Pine? or whatever is cheap) and hack away on those to make your first line ups, measures and markings -- a dummy neck as a prototype -- just so you can feel confident to jam on the planning without fear of wrecking your nice neck strip or cutting your box too early
Um, not sure what else for now...oh -- I have no wood shop and limited power tools so I did everything with a super fine toothed hand miter saw and rasps and files...NOTE THE HEADSTOCK face needs to be lower than the fretboard -- I did mine by using two short strips of 3/4" metal angle iron and I clamped them tightly on either side of the strip as guides at the level i wanted the headstock face to be -- and I used a heavy rasp to take it down until the rasp hit the metal angle iron -- then used a fine file and sandpaper block to finish it off -- almost came out like i knew what i was doing...
so take it slow -- don't hack into your Cohiba box until you have a good plan -- and have fun. Just over-build and tightly glue and clamp and make the thing as solid as you can ---- ET
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