Resonating Cigar Box Lid?

Posted by Tim Porter on April 12, 2010 at 4:43am

Hi,

   I'm building my first CBG and having amaased all the odds and sods I need am carving the neck out of a lump of mahogany. I have done a bit of research and have found two conflicting bits of info.

One school of thought says I need to space the neck away from the underside of the cigar box lid to allow it to reswonate.

The other says I should attach the neck firmly to the underside of the lid.

I have shaped the neck so it sits on the floor of the box, so can do either at the moment as it bridges floor to underside of lid.

   What's the consensus on here as to which is the 'best' construction?

 

        Cheers,

 

            Tim Nice But....Confused

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Replies

  • Mark April 12, 2010 at 5:47am
    Yup, "best" is very much a subjective thing. It all comes down to what makes the sound you most like. And probably the most effective way to discover that is to build a few guitars and learn by trial and error. And don't worry too much about errors because the odds are they won't be disasterous and might even be quirkily interesting.

    I tend tend to build my guitars with space between the top and the neck (for reasons along the lines of what John said), but I made one with the top resting on the neck (although not rigidly fixed to it) and it turned out to have a really nice acoustic tone. Go figure...
  • ChickenboneJohn April 12, 2010 at 4:54am
    Sit the back of the neck against the back of the box on the inside, cut the top of the neck inside the box so the top of the box is free to vibrate. You can fix the top of the box to the neckstick, but then you've effectively built a solid body guitar, OK if you are using a magnetic pickup, but if you want to use any of the (albeit limited...but that's part of the the whole CBG sound) acoustic properties of the box, leave the top free to vibrate.

    There's no rules..so trial and error are all part of the experience.
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