Walnut neck with cherry sides on headstock. This was my first magnetic pickup. I just became a man all over again!!! Used a piece o reclaimed maple flooring as the bridge (you'll notice the nail hole)
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Thanks for contacting me about this build. The Bridge is actually in a pretty standard position compared to a normal guitar...about halfway between the back of the box and the center of the guitar is where the best resonance/vibration takes place. It just worked out great with the number of frets I wanted and the scale length I wanted to use. As far as the box, the Padron boxes have by far the best tone of any I've used. I've built 65 of these things and love the padron boxes..what I don't like about them is that they all seem to require a lot of bracing and reinforcing. I didn't have wood linings in my box but when I do, I usually remove them. This guitar was basically a hollow body with a magnetic pickup...it was my first magnetic pup installation and I really was just experimenting. I don't use CB Nation much anymore to post new stuff (just because I am so busy, but it's a great forum!) but you may notice my other guitars on my website that have magnetic pickups. The configuration I use now is much different than this one..but I will say, it sounded great. I was really thrilled with it. One thing I would recommend is that you use some copper tape to shield the entire inside of the box and make sure you find a way to ground the strings themselves. I now use chrome guitar bridges to give me something to ground the strings to. That and the shield tape will make a noise free CBG. Good luck with it..e-mail me at info@slackjackguitars.com if you have any questions.
Travis,
Did you remove the innner wood edging, or did you keep it to add stability/strentgh? I'm starting my first build on the Padron 4000. I'm surprised at how close to the center of the box you installed the bridge. Can you educate me?
Dave
Julian, I stopped the neck about a third of the way into the box. I reinforced the whole box, including the center from the back til it meets the neck so that the tension doesn't cause me any issues. The neck is sitting on top of a piece of poplar I planed down to get the height right. I shimmed the neck to have a slight back angle and glued it to the poplar, which was glued and screwed to the box....not sure if any of that makes sense. I have pictures if need be.
Great job Travis, I wanna use a pickup for my next project, but worried about weakening the neck to make room for it. Did you reinforce the neck underneath at all? Real nice CBG mate, nice one.
Comments
Thanks for contacting me about this build. The Bridge is actually in a pretty standard position compared to a normal guitar...about halfway between the back of the box and the center of the guitar is where the best resonance/vibration takes place. It just worked out great with the number of frets I wanted and the scale length I wanted to use. As far as the box, the Padron boxes have by far the best tone of any I've used. I've built 65 of these things and love the padron boxes..what I don't like about them is that they all seem to require a lot of bracing and reinforcing. I didn't have wood linings in my box but when I do, I usually remove them. This guitar was basically a hollow body with a magnetic pickup...it was my first magnetic pup installation and I really was just experimenting. I don't use CB Nation much anymore to post new stuff (just because I am so busy, but it's a great forum!) but you may notice my other guitars on my website that have magnetic pickups. The configuration I use now is much different than this one..but I will say, it sounded great. I was really thrilled with it. One thing I would recommend is that you use some copper tape to shield the entire inside of the box and make sure you find a way to ground the strings themselves. I now use chrome guitar bridges to give me something to ground the strings to. That and the shield tape will make a noise free CBG. Good luck with it..e-mail me at info@slackjackguitars.com if you have any questions.
Travis
Did you remove the innner wood edging, or did you keep it to add stability/strentgh? I'm starting my first build on the Padron 4000. I'm surprised at how close to the center of the box you installed the bridge. Can you educate me?
Dave