cheesy yes...I just thought with so much wood in the walls...why not 'chamber' it...it was already lightweight wood, but it reduced the weight a bit and the whole thing sounds like a percussion wood block when you rap on it --- hopefully it'll translate to nice tone. Will look t the photo you just posted...E
Hi Bluesheart. Thanks for the comment. Some of what I do looks anything but professional and my attempt to make a magnetic clip to keep the box closed was a total failure. Back to the drawing board.
Hi Eric. Thanks for all the help and the links to the photos of your bracing work. I'm not intending that the box takes any of the string tension beyond bridge pressure. I have put up a pic of the neck with it's reinforcement piece attached. Time will tell if this is sufficient. The pic can be seen here.
By the way, looking at your drilling out work, you didn't happen to invent gruyere cheese a few years ago did you ;-?
shoot, I think I just noticed where your problem may arise...the rout for the pickup is SO close to the edge of the box, there won't be enough neck wood to support the tension...I looked at my CBG1 build which is identical in some ways to yours, but I used a piezo so didn't interrupt the neck-through...I actually think you may need to do a mix of my CBG1 and CBG2 --- you may need /or want to cut another neck notch in the bottom (side of the bottom half) side of the box, and have your 'second' support layer run a few inches or more outside the box...like a neck heel on a bolt on guitar body... and have that second center block run teh length of teh body and glue to the back end --- not sure If I'm explaining myself right...but you might know what I mean...looking at this photo I think there'll only be about a half inch of neck attached to the body --
I know what I'd do for an easy fix...if you run into visualization problems I can do a sketch-plan of my solution and send it to you.
on the 'drill out' you'll see that the stacked and glued center block floats about a 1/4" above the back soundboard and is supported at the front and back by little strips ( to anchor the whole box to the neck and tame the drumhead' quality of the back.
My center block does have a neck heel that runs outside the box, for a more 'bolt-on' build strength
hey, not that my CBG2 build is the same...but maybe look at the pics I have of teh body block...I made it so it floats above the back soundboard(but a little support at the necka dn tail so the back doesn't HOWL too much, but still has a nice large drumhead surface...but I'm gonna run two stainless screws at teh neck joint (I figure if 4 screws do the trick for a bolt-on with zero glue, I assume my two screws going in after the neck was glued and clamped well -- shouldn't really need he screws but I like the idea that side-to-side pull tension will be erased and just help take the load off the glue)
anywho --- I stacked various pieces of wood to make a center block WIDER than the neck...the block itself has a rout to accommodate the pickup depth 99 the rout goes a bit UNDER the bridge location, but is solid under where the tail piece and bridge string retainer.
I think as long as you have a block that goes through to the back of the box, then it's not like the box is gonna be taking all the tension.
another option if this box is precious to you for one reason or another...is you put this build aside for a second and qickly build another neck and block just like it out of crap pieces you can stand to use up -- hack it out , piece it all together and have a real mockup to hold in your hands and decide where any weakness might lie once it's strung up.
Im just a huge fan of overbuilding for strength
speaking of, I'm not sure you even need those tasty braces where they are on the top...the neck will be glued right to the top with only a short rout for the pickup right?
I'll be psyched to see your final...I'm getting there with my CBG3 so will post pics when done.
You are spot on. I have a second piece glued on a few inches from where it goes into the box and continuing almost all the way through to the tail. I will put a pic up tomorrow or Friday if I can. Having said that, cutting so much away from the neck fills me with dread. This is the first one I have done with a magnetic pickup so all I can do for now is hope that I have it right. Time will tell.
hey man, just wondering (since I like to brace things as you do) --- how do you manage to rout for the pick up and not wreck the strength of the through-neck? do you glue the neck onto another strip 'in the box' so you can rout nearly through the neck and still have the whole thing supported? My CBG 2 build is a 'set-neck' onto a purposely overbuilt through-body block...should be strong and solid when done, but wondered if you have a simpler method of just a second neck strip in the box... ET
Comments
cheesy yes...I just thought with so much wood in the walls...why not 'chamber' it...it was already lightweight wood, but it reduced the weight a bit and the whole thing sounds like a percussion wood block when you rap on it --- hopefully it'll translate to nice tone. Will look t the photo you just posted...E
Hi Bluesheart. Thanks for the comment. Some of what I do looks anything but professional and my attempt to make a magnetic clip to keep the box closed was a total failure. Back to the drawing board.
Hi Eric. Thanks for all the help and the links to the photos of your bracing work. I'm not intending that the box takes any of the string tension beyond bridge pressure. I have put up a pic of the neck with it's reinforcement piece attached. Time will tell if this is sufficient. The pic can be seen here.
By the way, looking at your drilling out work, you didn't happen to invent gruyere cheese a few years ago did you ;-?
shoot, I think I just noticed where your problem may arise...the rout for the pickup is SO close to the edge of the box, there won't be enough neck wood to support the tension...I looked at my CBG1 build which is identical in some ways to yours, but I used a piezo so didn't interrupt the neck-through...I actually think you may need to do a mix of my CBG1 and CBG2 --- you may need /or want to cut another neck notch in the bottom (side of the bottom half) side of the box, and have your 'second' support layer run a few inches or more outside the box...like a neck heel on a bolt on guitar body... and have that second center block run teh length of teh body and glue to the back end --- not sure If I'm explaining myself right...but you might know what I mean...looking at this photo I think there'll only be about a half inch of neck attached to the body --
I know what I'd do for an easy fix...if you run into visualization problems I can do a sketch-plan of my solution and send it to you.
E
et_cbg2_angle and
CBG2_bottom drill out
on the 'drill out' you'll see that the stacked and glued center block floats about a 1/4" above the back soundboard and is supported at the front and back by little strips ( to anchor the whole box to the neck and tame the drumhead' quality of the back.
My center block does have a neck heel that runs outside the box, for a more 'bolt-on' build strength
hey, not that my CBG2 build is the same...but maybe look at the pics I have of teh body block...I made it so it floats above the back soundboard(but a little support at the necka dn tail so the back doesn't HOWL too much, but still has a nice large drumhead surface...but I'm gonna run two stainless screws at teh neck joint (I figure if 4 screws do the trick for a bolt-on with zero glue, I assume my two screws going in after the neck was glued and clamped well -- shouldn't really need he screws but I like the idea that side-to-side pull tension will be erased and just help take the load off the glue)
anywho --- I stacked various pieces of wood to make a center block WIDER than the neck...the block itself has a rout to accommodate the pickup depth 99 the rout goes a bit UNDER the bridge location, but is solid under where the tail piece and bridge string retainer.
I think as long as you have a block that goes through to the back of the box, then it's not like the box is gonna be taking all the tension.
another option if this box is precious to you for one reason or another...is you put this build aside for a second and qickly build another neck and block just like it out of crap pieces you can stand to use up -- hack it out , piece it all together and have a real mockup to hold in your hands and decide where any weakness might lie once it's strung up.
Im just a huge fan of overbuilding for strength
speaking of, I'm not sure you even need those tasty braces where they are on the top...the neck will be glued right to the top with only a short rout for the pickup right?
I'll be psyched to see your final...I'm getting there with my CBG3 so will post pics when done.
E
Hi Eric.
You are spot on. I have a second piece glued on a few inches from where it goes into the box and continuing almost all the way through to the tail. I will put a pic up tomorrow or Friday if I can. Having said that, cutting so much away from the neck fills me with dread. This is the first one I have done with a magnetic pickup so all I can do for now is hope that I have it right. Time will tell.