Taken today after making adjustments to the neck angle. The neck is held in by two screws (three once the bridge is fixed on to the end of the box) attaching it to another piece of mahogany running the length of the box and glued at each end (bottom of box is still free to vibrate). There are two pieces of paper just visible making a small change to the neck angle. The two pickups are visible. One disc under the lid and the silver wire going to the under-saddle pickup. The passive preamp is a waste of time. Volume needs to be up all the way and tone set right in the middle. If I use one of these again I will just leave it inside the box and won't make holes for the little knobs. The patch on the mahogany is just a bit of linseed oil to darken the bit where it shows through the main sound hole.
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Thanks John for the additional info...I have asked a few others some questions but I get sort of a "Grey" area of responces, so at least you respond and have given me much help...When I finish my project I'll get back to you and let you know how it all went...Thanks again John...Mike
Hi Mike. You are very kind. I am also very new to this stuff. I have made only one instrument (the one in the pic) and am still tinkering with it.
On mine the strings are very near the fingerboard at the nut and get further away as they head towards the bridge. To give you an idea, there is less than 1/32" (less than 1mm) at the nut but the string height at the octave (middle of the string) is somewhere between 5/32" and 3/16" (4mm).
The strings vibrate in an arc, so the point at which they need most room is around the octave (12th fret on those instruments with frets or fret marks). Of course my measurements are for an instrument without frets. If I were to add frets then I am guessing that everything would move up by about the height of the frets. My next guitar will be fretted so I will find out much more then. Another thing is that some people say that the string height should be higher if you are using a slide. I have heard others say it should be exactly the same. I don't know. Take your pick. I mainly use a slide, but I am also a novice player as well as pretty much a novice maker.
Just one other thing to bear in mind. The nut should probably be slightly sloped and so that it is taller under the lowest sounding string. As the lower strings are thicker they need deeper grooves which, on a parallel nut would put them slightly lower than the thinner strings. To give equal clearance between the strings and the frets (or fingerboard) you would need to start with the nut a bit thicker at the bass end. The counter argument to this is that lots of people use studding or bolts and they probably work just fine.
The best thing particularly with the first few instruments is to keep everything as adjustable as possible. I started with the nut too high, cut too much off it and then added bits of paper to bring it back up. It isn't glued in so I can always loosen the strings, slip it out and either file a bit off or add more paper. I experimented several times with different strings and had to widen and deepen the grooves as needed. I probably won't put a final one in for months yet.
I hope this is of some help. Remember, there are lots of people here with much more experience that I have. Best of luck and lots of fun.
Hey John you seem to have a great way of working the cigar box thing could you tell me if the strings are even across the guitar from the bridge to the nut or is there a slight angle to them...I new at this and thus I have no idea about most of this building...Thanks Mike
One is a disc piezo mounted on the underside of the lid (as you see it in the photo it is the bottom socket, the red and black wire and the disc covered with a bit of foam to deaden body knocks - which is doesn't really do). The other one is an under-saddle pickup with the grey/silver lead running from a hole in the lid to a passive preamp (the little grey box) and they to the other socket that you see covered in copper foil. Both pickups came with all connections already made. I could have soldered them to a switch but decided to set it up this way. I don't use the disk piezo much as it sounds rather hollow.
The under-saddle one sounds much warmer and fuller. Initially it was much quieter than the disc, but since raising the neck and therefore the bridge it has acquired much more oomph (technical term). The preamp is just dead weight. The pickup isn't so powerful that you want to turn it down, and the tone control is best left on its middle setting. Still, it doesn't do any harm.
Comments
Light but strong. Nice bracing.
On mine the strings are very near the fingerboard at the nut and get further away as they head towards the bridge. To give you an idea, there is less than 1/32" (less than 1mm) at the nut but the string height at the octave (middle of the string) is somewhere between 5/32" and 3/16" (4mm).
The strings vibrate in an arc, so the point at which they need most room is around the octave (12th fret on those instruments with frets or fret marks). Of course my measurements are for an instrument without frets. If I were to add frets then I am guessing that everything would move up by about the height of the frets. My next guitar will be fretted so I will find out much more then. Another thing is that some people say that the string height should be higher if you are using a slide. I have heard others say it should be exactly the same. I don't know. Take your pick. I mainly use a slide, but I am also a novice player as well as pretty much a novice maker.
Just one other thing to bear in mind. The nut should probably be slightly sloped and so that it is taller under the lowest sounding string. As the lower strings are thicker they need deeper grooves which, on a parallel nut would put them slightly lower than the thinner strings. To give equal clearance between the strings and the frets (or fingerboard) you would need to start with the nut a bit thicker at the bass end. The counter argument to this is that lots of people use studding or bolts and they probably work just fine.
The best thing particularly with the first few instruments is to keep everything as adjustable as possible. I started with the nut too high, cut too much off it and then added bits of paper to bring it back up. It isn't glued in so I can always loosen the strings, slip it out and either file a bit off or add more paper. I experimented several times with different strings and had to widen and deepen the grooves as needed. I probably won't put a final one in for months yet.
I hope this is of some help. Remember, there are lots of people here with much more experience that I have. Best of luck and lots of fun.
One is a disc piezo mounted on the underside of the lid (as you see it in the photo it is the bottom socket, the red and black wire and the disc covered with a bit of foam to deaden body knocks - which is doesn't really do). The other one is an under-saddle pickup with the grey/silver lead running from a hole in the lid to a passive preamp (the little grey box) and they to the other socket that you see covered in copper foil. Both pickups came with all connections already made. I could have soldered them to a switch but decided to set it up this way. I don't use the disk piezo much as it sounds rather hollow.
The under-saddle one sounds much warmer and fuller. Initially it was much quieter than the disc, but since raising the neck and therefore the bridge it has acquired much more oomph (technical term). The preamp is just dead weight. The pickup isn't so powerful that you want to turn it down, and the tone control is best left on its middle setting. Still, it doesn't do any harm.
Hope this makes sense.
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