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So many questions...I'm thinking of building something that resembles a miniature lap steel guitar . Here's what I'm thinking -

* 6 string instrument tuned open D 

* very short scale length (roundabouts a concert/tenor ukulele size - around 23 - 26"

* no electrics, just a deep resonator box made from very thin plywood.

It's more of an experiment than anything else but I'm really stuck with what gauge strings to use. I've always used medium-light strings on my guitars but would these still be too heavy for such a small instrument? Would I have to use ukulele or classical guitar nylon strings to get the right tension without snapping the thing in half?

My thinking is that steel strings are better at sustaining the note played on them than nylon - especially important with a small acoustic instrument.

Am I mad or is this imaginary instrument do-able? :P

If anyone could share any insight on any of this I'd be very very grateful!!

I have been building these fun little stringbuddies for a fjew years now Here at BCB.
But for the first time i had to docter one of my favorit players, cose the Top string tended to run off while in high gear playing, becouse of the strait head i came up whit solution no 1 in the picture on the left. in the middel one ,the headstock is angled so the string problem was whit the tuning of the strings while the pressure on the tuners got to high so i plased a pin for tension release guidens. And the therd(3) is my favorite the slotted headstock gives me the most smooth playing and durable use of my crafted instrument, what is your exspirience consurning the Headstock Toppic?
Your Friendly BCB CBG Builder from Holland !

As of 1 hour ago I have officially completed my FIRST EVER build.

The last time I built literally anything was when I made a box as part of my technology GCSE coursework - a box with countless nails sticking out and faux-fur matted with black paint. A box that broke no less than 4 industrial staplers and a saw in order to complete. A box that has meant I have been labelled as someone with no craft ability for about 13 years!!

I started on 08/11/17, and worked a couple hours every Wednesday with some help from my dad.

Before and after:

Neck - some sort of hardwood.

Body - Habanos Romeo y Julieta

It's got dual piezo's stuck in and it sounds pretty sweet through my crappy old amp. Will be testing it fully tomorrow when my sisters ain't sleeping.

Tried my hand at pyrography - never even seen a pyrography set before, but I've burnt on the frets and some logos here and there.

The action was too high originally, but I switched out the nut for something smaller and now it can be played - more or less - slide and fingered, which is pretty cool.

There's some imperfections, but all in all I think it went pretty well. I've got 4 more boxes, loads of neck-wood, and 1 more set of strings, so I'll hopefully be starting #2 fairly soon - gotta finish my Les Paul (copy) kit first!

Going to try and figure out how to play slide and record video as soon as possible!

Dear team

After many failed attemps at fretting I am planning to try again and after some help.

1) What is the best fret wire to use?

2) What's the best scale length to use?

3) What is any string height compensation required against scale length?

4) Could I be using incorrect strings and will that make a huge difference?

What is the trick to making these work and play well?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Mr Bug

(This is clever on an old banjo I have for just an interesting photo, note brass tube to typical 6 string tuners one not used, I kept my kids tooth to make a banjo nut from shhhh dont tell the tooth fairy)

As a novice getting the hang of playing any instrument, especially a CBG is very confusing. Playing the instrument in a Blues style is even more complicated if you do not understand its development. I have yet to find a good primer on blues. I am not an expert but the following appears to be valid from all I have read:

The major "D" for blues has a "D" for the I chord, and "F" for the iii,  a G for the IV, an "A" for the V, and a "C" for the vii. A minor D7 uses the notes of 1 = D, 5 = A, 3 = F, and 7 =  C. The Major D7 uses D - A -F# or Gb - C. the big difference is the F and F#. Tuning was developed to facilitate easy playing of these 7th chords and the major and minor chords.

Contrary to popular belief the earliest known blues is from Appalachia. It is mostly settled by "Gaelic" people of Welsh, Irish, and Scottish descent, and blacks. The experts believe the Gaelic people [which included the Druids] migrated in the far ancient past from India, as did the Gypsies. So first look at other scales related to this heritage. 

The Hindu scale is 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • b6 • b7. The Ethiopian scale is 1 • 2 • b3 • 4 • 5 • b6 • b7. An Oriental scale is 1 • b2 • 3 • 4 • b5 • 6 • b7. The Spanish Gypsy is 1 • b2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • b6 • b7. Adding to this music style mixture were Italian and Portuguese people who used the Maximilian scale. And in this area were also Germanic and Italian neighbors. 

As a result of all these cultures they gravitated toward a compromise scale called the Dorian. The Dorian scale is 1 • 2 • b3 • 4 • b5 • 5 • 6 • b7. Combine all these cultural scales and you have a good 7 note blues scale for riffs and arpeggios. 1 • 2 or b2 • 3 or b3 • 4 • 5 or b5 • 6 or b6 • b7.  So, to round out the blues scale you can add elements of the other related scales. Over time the The abbreviated Pentatonic  Blue scale of 1 • b3 • 4 • b5 • 5 • b7 was often used.

The African slaves brought to America and the Appalachia a unique "instrument" to teach children to play music. It is the forerunner of the Diddley Bow. On the side of the house a one string device was fixed and was played by "fretting" it with a piece of bone, ceramic, or metal. This "slide" fretting carried over into the Blues style. Tuning was often modified to facilitate the slide style. 

A style of chording followed on multi-string instruments to facilitate this slide style and blues tunings. However, real blues is never slide alone but requires some finger fretting. The slide set up allowed for the bb often encountered in Blues.

In Blues the root can be played as a major, minor or 7th, This also holds true for the IV and V. The vi is always played as bvi, the vii as bvii, and the iii as biii. The I for "D" can be D, Dm, or D7, the IV G, Gm, or G7, the V as A, Am, or A7, the vi as Bb or Bbmaj7, the vii as C and the iii as F. 

Finally, there is a lot of commonality in all the Appalachian music. Blues, blue eyed blues, bluegrass, and Bakersfield country all share a lot of the elements and instruments developed in the Appalachian area to accommodate these styles. To truly understand Blues requires some understanding of its Appalachian cousins and the Appalachian instruments it originated on.

The most confident build I've done. I went real slow and careful; considered all my previous mistakes and avoided them. I went fretless because it's the most enjoyable to play for me. It feels like skinny dipping to me. Three strings tuned to Open low G, with "WHAT A GUY" carved into the board. It has a three string Ted Crocker pickup I bought in 2011. It's made from a deep Jaime Garcia box, because my nickname is Jamie. Maple neck, no staining or sealing but I think I'll do that in my next build. I no longer feel like a beginner with this build.

I am still trying to figure out the notes on an open D, 4 string in relation to reading music scores.

Does the first D string note fall below the position shown on my chart?

Where is middle C on an open tuned 4 string CBG on the chart below?

So where do the high notes occur on a music score then or are the duplicates ?

If this was chromatic this would be sequential but as it's open tuning its surely not?

I'm not quite getting the translation to music score notes can anyone clarify?

This was my 10th guitar, and my first serious attempt at a 4 stringer:

I was never really happy with it: the box I had made (out of 6mm ply and 3mm sapele for the soundboard) was big and a bit unwieldy, I had also originally intended to have only 9 holes on either side but unfortunately a beer and drill related accident meant I had to add more to make it symmetrical.

I also had a couple of problems with this guitar - the neck was not secured well enough to the box and there was some uplift on the neck. Not a bow in the wood as such, but it was making the action uncomfortably high. I also managed to leave it leaned against an external wall in very cold wet weather, and the damp made the soundboard all spongy and raised the grain on the neck. You could say I had some bad luck with this build.

I worked on a couple of other projects for a while and came back to this one, with the intention to rebuild the box. I started by making a pickup for it:

Well, I made a couple of pickups... the one on the right is obviously the one for the 4 stringer. I used a scrap of oak from the fretboard for the top of the bobbin. 6400 wines of 42AWG and alnico 5 magnets. I was going for a nice mellow tone on this one so I didn't want to overwind.

I had a couple of pre-made plain craft boxes left over so I planned to use on of those. The only problem is they don't sound good (very thick lid etc). I planed off the original lid and made a new one out of the same solid sapele stock I used for the original. I used a bit of Rustin's walnut stain on the box to make it look a bit more interesting.

This pic shows the underside of the soundboard. I glued two 100mm strips together and used 5x6.5mm spruce strips for the bracing. The hole at the top is for the pickup. I added a scrap of 6.5mm thick sapele to act as extra support under the bridge to counter the extra tension of 4 strings.

I glued the new lid on, attached the neck (very securely) to the bottom of the box and finished everything with a few coats of Danish oil.

...and that's the finished article; 4 strings tuned GDgb, 4 pole pickup, volume & tone control.

Sound holes - just 6 this time, I used 6mm inside diameter grommets from a leather craft supplier on eBay. You might notice the magnets are a bit wonky on the pickup. Not intentional! Sounds fine though.

The bridge is made from a scrap of oak from the fretboard and a tiny strip of bone from a guitar saddle blank (I get 4 CBG bridges from one blank). I just use a drill to make the bridge 'arches' and sand it to a point. Volume (A250k) and tone (B250K) control with a .047uF Sprague Orange Drop capacitor. The tailpiece is a bit of sapele with a piece of brass sheet glued to it. The string ferrules are bike spoke nipples. The copper plate is connected to the ground on the back of the volume pot.

I loved working with sapele for this neck. Compared to oak it cuts like butter with a spokeshave and smells lovely. I'll definitely order some next time!

To make this headstock I cut a section out of the top of the neck blank and glued it to the bottom, then shaped it with rasps and sandpaper.

That's it. Now I can get back to playing it!

Rick

   I just finished this little guy for the good people at Collishaw farms in Cloverdale, BC. Patrick Harrison, who owns the farm, saw a little spot on cigar box guitars on the TV and tracked me down. He spent some time looking for a local artisan to build one for him. lucky for me, I am the only one in the Vancouver region. So far!.

   Here is a pick of how it turned out.

    If you would like to see more about it and learn a little about the build process, check out this link to my website.

http://wsbluesbox.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/ws-016-collishaw-farm/

    This is a cool one i built for a friend who is a well respected melodian musician here in Vancouver. His name is John Krieger. He wanted me to tweak it a bit and put a double octave string for the high strings and have a strum stick fretting on it. It turned out nice and sounded really beautiful. I used a nice Punch box i found in San Diego on a business trip and piece of Mahogany for the neck. The sound holes are decorated with some cool antique napkin holders i found at a flea market. I don't have any video of how it sounded unfortunatly but i was pleased with its volume and tone.

www.wsbluesbox.wordpress.com

    Here is another angle of it. The cool stand was made by my father who makes guitar stands, hardwood guitar picks, dulcimers, Psaltery's and other cool folk instruments.  

Hi peeps,

                Thought you might be interested in having a butchers at my 'tour bus'-I didnt want to clog up the nation with pics of a motor so I've placed them here.You can follow developments as the work on her continues throughout Spring 2011.

            Its a 2003 VW T4-they are used as surf buses around these parts and campervans too.It has only 45k on its 2.5 turbodiesel engine and believe me I was lucky to get it-they are like gold dust, especially in this condition.Being a family man, the Bellybus will be dual purpose-a rock roll seat/bed will be installed in the rear so the kids can travel when the old rusty Rover car eventually falls to pieces.

Pic 1-heres the Bellybus as was when bought-a regular panel van..

and heres a pic with the side windows installed-I had them limo tinted so peeps cant see any gear I might be carrying in the back-

On this third pic you can see the other side window also.With the tailgate open you can see I've not done anything to the inside yet-the wood panels and blue carpet were the previous owners work.I've just cheered it up a bit for now by sticking a few set lists from recent gigs up and chucking a few cushions in to sit on..I carry a sleeping bag under the drivers seat just in case..so far the Bellybus has taken me to gigs in Birmingham,Kent,London and across the sea to Belgium-at the wheel it feels like a family car-nice n smooth and not noisy at all..it drives with all the efficiency one would expect from a German vehicle..dubtastic ;o)  

So what next? well I need to remove the wood panels and insulate, remove the carpet (come on- carpet just aint rock n roll!) I'd like to have it wood everywhere,with gig posters and the like-kinda like a Bluesmans' wood cabin on wheels! I toyed with the idea of having a pic of Eric Clapton on the floor..heh heh..wipe your converse here.Anyway, this next pic is from some dudes T4 I found on the interweb-he's removed the ceiling panels and put wood in- like I want it-the ceiling is very cool but the rest of its a bit 'neat' for my taste-plus is that carpet I see on the walls..Noooo! still, you get the idea..well, seeing as I'm pants at woodwork I reckon Juju will be getting a call!

 Well thats it for now peeps-I'll update as the Bellybus develops over the coming months.Cheers, HB

UPDATE-MARCH-

             Well I've been busy stripping out the Bellybus and adding insulation to make it more comfortable when I ever need to kip in the bus-unfortunately my dream of having Juju fit out the inside is not to be as he is inundated with guitar orders and has a kitchen to build, so its down to yours truly.I am taking my inspiration for the interior from the cover of my album and am using hessian to carpet the walls-its cheap too-I'll be going for a mild rat type look (and believe me, with my woodworking skills its just as well!)  hessian/distressed gig posters on walls etc..

              Anyway,heres a few pics-this really is the boring bit..insulating/cutting panels and so on..rear wheel arch is covered in flashing tape to quieten road noise..

more insulation in the roof space-silver backed bubblewrap-

I've made doorcards and panels from 3.6mm ply-heres the doorcard for the rear tailgate sitting in me garage-as you can see I got my mate Bansky to decorate it  lol   

bit more exciting/fun than the generic grey one anyroad.

Ok dudes-more updates soon..

UPDATE APRIL-

         Ok peeps the rear seat is in,and I've got all the hessian where I want it-begun to stick up posters and stuff-heres a few pics-

This heres a close up of the 'mojo hole'-a take on honesty windows from strawbale eco houses if you will-I put in a used (knackered) bluesharp, a glass slide and a used plectrum.I really like the roof cos it cost me nowt-I just reversed the original panels! It added no extra weight-I was gonna put in thin tongue and groove but it weighed  a considerable amount and you'd pay for that at the pumps, so I decided against it-plus these hardboard panels give that ratty shed look I wanted.seat down into the bed position-king size-nice!gotta dash peeps-more pics later..

UPDATE MAY-

floor getting installed today-it might look fancy but its just 12mm outdoor grade ply and I varnished it 3 times-might not last  years n years but of course I have the option to lay a harder wearing floor on top at a later date if I feel the need.I've put 2mm of neoprene rubber strip all around the edges to cut down on the possibility of squeaks where wood meets wood or metal-what with the bus moving and all that.Left a little space in case of expansion due to heat also.It fits nice, but dont zoom on this photo or you'll see how bloody awful my woodworking 'skills' are!!

ok you zoomed didnt you?! DIDNT YOU?!!!

right next,so heres the riser that goes under the rear seat and houses the rear 6x9 speakers-I found a tea chest on the local dump-as you know, they have stencils sprayed on from being shipped all over the world and I thought I'd take it apart and make panels out of them.All the stencils are genuine apart from the Hollowbelly one which I added then sanded slightly to match it with the others..

so here it is in situ just to give you an idea-I've installed the floor and the riser is just sitting there unglued for now-seems prudent to ensure the speakers work before I stick the panel in.. I sprayed the speakers covers matt brown as they were brand new, then knocked em back a bit with sandpaper-the 2 rusty metal bands in the centre of the panel are those metal strips that hold the tea chest together.I used them to hide the join between the different panels, as well as add a bit more grunge..

the opposite wall panel now looks pretty boring so Im on the lookout for a few more tea chests-alternatively I may leave it so I have more space for future gig posters as and when they arrive..

ok thats it for now peeps-I'll get back when I next do something else-the step probably..

      July/August-ok so heres the step and riser going in-I used the offcuts from the free tea chests for the riser and also the rusty metal strips from the tea chest edges to match the pattern under the rear seat.The actual step is the same 12mm marine grade ply..oh and I used the 'Hollowbelly Punkblues' stencil I used on the cd flightcase-just sprayed it with black car spray,then white over the top..and Bobs yer uncle as we say in the north.

the lights are coming on nice...