project - Blogs - Cigar Box Nation

Millions of years ago in the darkest damp depths of the amazon jungle, between a tiny cluster of the tallest trees never know to man, a tiny sink hole formed. Zillions of small insect like creatures one by one fell down into the deepest depths of this ever widening sink hole.
Slowly decaying over millions of years the life of the planet.The noxious fumes collected in to tiny pockets within the underground rocks,slowly mutating into a substance similar to laughing gas but far more toxic to all living creatures.
As the planet was slowly super heated with global warming from man's lack of care for anything enviromental, The fish died, the icecaps melted, the sea level rose, the towns were flooded one by one.
Man was driven to the highest ground to seek refuge and survive. Underneath the rock beneath the sea, tiny bubbles appeared bubling from ther surfaces,like tiny crustceans blowing smoke rings in anger .
The Swamp Gas slowly escaped into the atmosphere further choking the planet into a run away life threatening thermal situation. Only the dinosaurs had experienced the harm of the Swamp Gas millions of years ago.
This is the story of Swamp Gas, mankinds downfall...a gas mask won't help you now guys !

ADD YOUR SWAMPY SCRATCHING LINKS AND VIDEOS BELOW FOR ALL TO ENJOY (OR ENDURE AS THE CASE MAY BE):

The Coalhouse Project

Posted by Ted Crocker on September 15, 2012 at 10:00pm

Hey Ted, can you make me 70 unique Crocker instruments in 5 weeks?

"No problem…"

(See the next 35 instruments HERE)

First 36 ready to ship!

Rand Moore's Cigar Box Ukulele Project 2, Part 1

Posted by Rand Moore on August 10, 2010 at 1:00am

Hi All.

I completed my Cigar Box Ukulele Project 1. The instrument turned out pretty good, but because I chickened out and only put diatonic fretting on the neck, I discovered that it makes ukulele playing a lot more confusing rather than simplifying it. Perhaps, with GCEA tuning, diatonic fretting doesn't work. I know I was confused, so I re-tuned it to "D-A-d-d" and used a nut and bridge set up to support dual course melody strings spaced 1/8'' apart from each other and 3/8'' apart from "middle" string (which is 3/8'' away from the bass string). So, it ended up as a short necked stick dulcimer (strum stick) with dual course melody strings and diatonic scale. I actually like playing the instrument a lot, except a lot of song tabs also use notes off string 2 which is a single string, so it sounds "odd" switching from single string to dual coursed and back periodically thru the song. So, I'm thinking of doing a 5-string long neck string dulcimer with dual course melody and middle strings, and a single bass string. Or, maybe dual course everything, but then the melody won't stand out so much from the drone strings.

Well, I have been a bit side-lined due to frustration over my poor woodworking skills. Then I decided to read up on woodworking in general on the Internet, and one of the articles I came across was the need of a good, solid workbench. This rang a bell with me, because the table I was using as a workbench is really shaky. It was built out of junk wood collected by my father-in-law and just nailed together. So, I have modified the table so that the back side is more rigid, and have added some additional pieces so that the table fits well tightly against the front porch wood railing, so essentially I'm using part of the house to stabilize the work bench. It also now has a 26'' wide x 13'' deep x 1'' thick "marble" top, so it's a lot more steady now. I have also sacrificed some wood to use on my workbench to help me hold my work piece tightly. I have no vice, and only 2 clamps, so I have to get creative sometimes in terms of how to clamp things down and hold my workpieces steady so I can cut them accurately. The results have been pretty good, so now I am starting up another Cigar Box Ukulele project. This time a tenor cigar box uke, with a 17" scale length.

The other thing I want to build is a hardwood miter box with 15 degree and 90 degree cut angles. But, I think I'll wait and make it in China as my collection of tools, parts and instruments has grown significantly and I need to port it home in my luggage. That's in 9 days. So, I'll wind up my current Cigar Box Ukulele project (project 2) and then carefully pack everything for my return trip.

-------------

For CBU Project 2, the neck will be an inch longer, and the bridge on the box will be moved back to about 2/3s of the way to the "tail piece". This will provide a 17'' scale length. As I recall, the string spacing is a slight bit wider on a tenor uke, but I'm planning to use 3/8'' sting spacing like on my concert uke. I feel more comfortable with that string spacing. However, I like the idea of having a longer scale as when I playing up the neck, I'll have more room for my fat fingers. On my last project, the last few fret positions get hard to play, so hopefully a longer scale length will help correct for that. A 17'' scale length is also about the same scale length as a prima balalaika, so I'm thinking that down the road a bit, I may try to make it imitate a balalaika by using balalaika sized strings and tuning. This instrument will definitely be chromatically fretted. Here's a diagram.

Notice the changes in my design of the sound box. A single large sound hole in the middle replaces two smaller ones on either side of the strings. This is made possible by doing away with the through-the-body neck. Instead, I have beefed up the side of the cigar box which will receive the head/neck assembly, which will be attached using two 2'' long #10 wood screws. What is not shown in the diagram is a 2'' heel attached to the bottom side of the neck to make this connection stronger. Here is a diagram of that.

Also notice that the bridge & tail piece has be redesigned into a single piece and is backed up on the bottom side of the sound board with another board to distribute the strain of the string tension better. I'm also thinking of mounting a pair of piezo pickups under the bridge, possibly as part of the bridge assembly. But, I have not yet decided to do it as some people say it will sound better if the piezo pickups are mounted to the soundboard away from the bridge as they will be less sensitive to other noise (I assume on the strings, like pick strike noise on the strings). So, likely I will need to do some experimenting; again, once I'm back home in China. My soldering irons, heat glue gun, etc. are over there.

Well, that's the plan for now. Have to go now.

- Rand.

Cigar Box Ukulele Project 1

Posted by Rand Moore on July 14, 2010 at 4:30am

I have found a couple sources for Cigar Boxes around my "summer home" in the SF Bay Area. I quickly made a one-stringer (diddly bow-like) CBG w/o frets, mainly to get the idea of how to attach the neck to the cigar box. Another goal was to make an instrument I could use to play around with a slider while using a chop stick to pound on the strings (a new style of playing), as well as picking while fretting with imaginary frets (also a new experience for me). Wish I knew more about how to play the Blues. My 5 y.o. daughter likes to fool around with this one- stringer as well, so I might just let her keep it as a toy. Anything to encourage her music interests. I can always add frets for her later.

Since all of the cigar boxes I've found are smaller than I imagined, I think they're probably best suited for use in a smaller instrument such as a ukulele. Fortunately, I'm familiar with ukes, and my favorite sized uke is the concert size (length = 24'' or 25'', a 15" scale with 17 or 18 frets, and 4 strings tuned GCEA). So I have been thinking about building a Cigar Box Ukulele (CBU). I'll use this Blog on CBN as my "thinking pad", and perhaps some of my ideas can be of use to other want-to-be Cigar Box luthiers (like me).

My first concern was how difficult it might be to reach the highest (pitched) frets (15, 16, 17 and 18) which are usually found on the part of the fretboard that overlays the body. With a somewhat bulky rectangular cigar box as a body, they might be hard to get to, so I decided I want to extend the neck a couple more inches so all the frets will be on the neck. To make sure this would work, I ran the Stew-Mac Fret Calculator to make sure I could get all the frets on a 10" neck. So, here's the fret positioning information for a 15" scale length ukulele:

As you can see, with a 15" scale length, you can have a 18 fret "fretboard" on the neck of 10" and have
5 more inches of space across the face of your cigar box before you reach the bridge.

Let's see. The cigar box I want to use is 7.75" wide x 8.0625" high x 2.75" deep. I want the bridge placed about 1/3 of the way across the cigar box from the tail piece. That's 2.58" across to the bridge, leaving 5.17" of space before the neck, where you'd strum with your right hand. But, the bridge will have to go (2.58 + 0.17 = ) 2.75" up from the tail piece to maintain the 15" scale length, with 5" on the box and 10" on the neck. Compare that to my 20 fret concert uke which has just under 4.75" of space between the last fret and the bridge. That's not bad. I never use those higher frets (19 & 20) anyways.

Time for another diagram.

Hmmm... Need to use larger print next time. Or, keep my diagrams smaller. Well, at least you can see the relative size and orientation of the parts.

By the way, this is not a left handed uke. I draw them as I hold them, not as the audience may see them. But, if you want a left handed CBU, all you need to do is to reverse the order of the strings. Everything else is symmetrical around the central axis running down the middle of the instrument, so it's good for right- or left-handed players.

The ruler above the neck shows the 15'' scale length, with 10" over the neck for the frets, and 5" over the box for picking and strumming. The nut and bridge will be a movable bridge (at least initially) so I can (hopefully) correct for any intonation problems, at least those related to nut and bridge height and placement. An instrument with "good intonation" is in tune throughout its entire scale, and that means my fret placement has to be exact, as well as good nut and bridge placement. Also, sometimes tilting the bridge counter-clockwise a millimeter or two can help with intonation problems caused by thicker middle and bass strings (but maybe not for the re-entrantly tuned 4th string - another problem to be solved later). So, it's probably a good thing to keep the bridge and nuts movable until you've completed your instrument build and have played with it a while and have had a chance to tinker with its setup to your satisfaction.

The ruler at the bottom of the diagram shows the length-over-all of the instrument, which should be (ideally) 24''. Mine is a bit short, I believe because of the short size of the cigar box resonator. Notice that the stick (neck) of my uke will run through the cigar box and come out the other end, by about 1". There I will either use some kind of bracket for a tail piece or drill 4 holes in the tail end of the stick and anchor the strings on this side using beads or something. I'll figure out those details later. I prefer this method of mounting the stick (neck) through the box because the stick (neck) will hold all the stress from the strings once they are tuned. That means I won't have to set up any internal bracing or figure out how to do any special neck-to-box joints. Keep it simple, Sam.

Notice I use two sound holes on either side of the four uke strings. This is pretty "un-uke-like", because most ukes have a larger single sound hole placed strategically under the strings like any acoustical guitar. However, this change is dictated by the fact that my uke will have a stick (neck) running down the middle of the box where a single sound hole would normally be placed. A stick covering most of the sound hole would make the sound hole pretty ineffective.

The Headstock

I usually begin at the head and work my way down. As the diagram above shows, the four strings will be run from the tuners on the headstock, across the nut, down the neck and across the cigar box to the bridge and are finally terminated at the tail piece. The strings are drawn 3/8'' apart, which is pretty standard for ukuleles and stick dulcimers. If you prefer 1/2" apart, you can do it with a wider stick (neck). The separation between the two outer strings and their respective edges of the neck is 3/16''. So, with 3/8'' string-to-string spacing, the width of the neck should be very close to 1.5''. For 1/2'' sting-to-string spacing, the width of the neck should be close to 2", providing a 1/4'' separation on each side from the two outer strings and their respective edges of the neck.

However, on a typical ukulele, the neck usually has a taper of about a centimeter on both sides, getting wider as it approaches the body. But, for simplicity's sake, I am NOT going to cut the neck with a taper. This decision is based on the fact that I am working with hand tools (no table saws, etc.) and because my wood working skills are rather limited. For these same reasons, the back of the neck will have minimal rounding and there will be no heel on the neck as used on traditional ukuleles to connect the neck to the sound box.

As you can see, the headstock design will be rather plain and simple. Like your typical ukulele or guitar, the head will be tilted "downward" by about 15 degrees. This usually involves cutting the head-piece off the neck at a 15 degree angle, flipping the head over and gluing it back on to the neck. I'm told that this is called a "scarf joint" and that the shallower the angle, the stronger the joint. So, a 15 degree angle will be stronger than say a 45 degree angle because there is a larger surface area for the glue to hold the two parts together. You can also use wood dowels or screws for additional strength, but my experience (so far) indicates that they aren't really necessary if you are using a good wood glue, are clamping the pieces together and letting it dry overnight.

My headstock will be 5'' long, 2'' wide, and 7/16" deep. Yes, I know the diagram says 0.75'' (3/4"), but I forgot to take into account the requirement of the tuners that the headstock be 7/16'' deep. Your tuners may differ, so double check that measurement with your tuners. I'll have to figure out how to plane down the head to 7/16". Lot's of planing, filing and sanding, I guess.

The headstock build will also involve gluing two "wings" or side pieces on to widen the headstock to at least 2 inches. The 4 separate tuners will be placed in a "2 by 2" configuration with about two inches separation so there will be plenty of room to route the strings to their respective tuners. Hmmm... Since I have to add to the width of the head, and plane it down by 1/4''; maybe I should go back to the hardware store to buy a piece of wood that is already 5'' x 2'' x 7/16'' (more likely 1/2'' deep), and preferably in the same kind of wood. That would simplify the job a lot.

Also, in the diagram above, I have added maybe 1/4'' to the length of the neck between the nut and the headstock for a 'slop factor", as my hand-sawn cuts aren't usually as accurate as I would hope.

I'll be focusing more on the headstock on my next post.

- Rand.

We just introduce the first short scale travel CBG made in Japan !!

Posted by FUMIKAZU TAJIKA on February 7, 2010 at 11:18am

Hi,
Over two years. It's a long way to introduce our first CBG project. We are the team. 3 of us create the CBG,play the CBG,and spread the information about the CBG over here & there. Please enjoy the sound of our little revolution.
Best Regards,
Tj

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwWxCghk7CI

project (5)

The Swamp Gas Project - A collection of experimental FREE Swampy music - Please add your Swampwitch music links

The Coalhouse Project

Rand Moore's Cigar Box Ukulele Project 2, Part 1

Cigar Box Ukulele Project 1

We just introduce the first short scale travel CBG made in Japan !!

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