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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)

Hi folks,

I thought I'd share a few of my tricks and techniques which I employ on my builds to make them sound and play better. Obviously to some of the more experienced builders out there these may seem obvious, but that aside these are all things I wish I knew when I began making these.

1. The nut

The nut is an extremely important part of any guitar's construction, and has a huge impact on the intonation and the clarity of the tone. All of my guitars are fretted so I set up my builds to play with fingers rather than slides. Some of these steps are unnecessary if you intend to only play with a slide.

My tips for nuts would be:

• Use a hard material. I always use bone these days but a hardwood/corian works fine too
• When you file the slots, do so at an angle down towards the headstock so that the string rests on only a tiny area right where the nut meets the fretboard. I use the same size small triangle file for all the slots and it works just fine.
• The 'break angle' at the nut is important - the strings need to slope downwards towards the tuners. This will help open strings ring true. Where possible wrap the strings around the bottom of the tuner shaft a few times before feeding them through the hole
• When setting up intonation, use your tuner to ensure that if the open string plays a G, the first fret plays a G#. If the note sharpens when fretted, you need to make the slot deeper. Be careful not to go too far of you may get buzzing on the frets, which would effectively mean a new nut
• When you are happy with the intonation at the nut, take the strings off and sand down the nut so that the strings are resting in a shallow, rather than deep, groove - I tend to find they ring out a bit better this way

2. The bridge

Much like the nut, the bridge is very important for both intonation and allowing the strings to ring out as they should.

I use a floating bridge for all of my builds, as they are super easy to set up and I like the way they look. There is good information on setting bridge intonation all over the internet so I won't go into that here. My tips for bridges:

• As with nuts, hard materials will transfer sound better than soft ones. I use bone and hardwood for mine. I made a blog post on how I make them here
• I make the slots for the strings to sit in using a small triangle file. They are very shallow, with the break angle towards the tailpiece holding them firmly in place
• I sand my bridges to a point at the top - this way the string is only resting on a very small area at the top. If the string is sitting on a flat surface this can cause buzzing
• I tend to find bridges with a smaller amount of surface area contact with the soundboard (or cigar box lid) sound better (but please don't ask for the science behind this!)
• You may have noticed my bridges are rather high (this one is 3/4" tall) - see number 3.

3. Back angle

I started using a back angle on the neck on roughly my 12th build. The difference in playability compared to a straight neck is huge. It is actually quite easy to achieve and well worth a try.

As you can see, using a back angle on the neck allows for a much higher bridge, and the action stays nice and low all the way up the neck.

• Imagine that the neck is resting on 2 blocks, which are at either end of the box. Make the block at the front of the box slightly lower than the one at the tail, and you have a back angle. Easy! The tail block on this guitar is 10mm taller than the front one.
• If you're a bit more of a perfectionist you can cut the blocks at an angle to the neck rests flat on them (recommended)
• Coupled with having the fretboard sitting higher than the box, you will achieve low action and a good amount of clearance between the strings and the soundboard, making the guitar easier to play with fingers or a pick.

4. String gauge

Although it is standard CBG building practice to use strings 3,4 & 5 from a 6 string set, I have found better result using strings at equal tension, which is probably more important on instruments without truss rods to prevent the neck warping over time. I also find equal string tension easier to play.

• I use the MPUSTC String Tension Calculator to work out which strings I need for a particular build. It's easy to use; just enter your scale length and tuning and it does the calculation for you
• For this build I used GDG tuning, and went for 44,28 and 20w, with each string having a tension of between 10.4 and 10.8kg over the 630mm scale length. I tend to find anything below 9kg to sloppy, and over 14kg too tight
• I also find that using equal tension makes setting the intonation at the bridge much easier. I usually manage to achieve close to spot on intonation at the 12th fret
• If you want to give equal tension a try, just go to your local guitar shop and ask for the individual strings you need. If anyone's going to understand your needs, it will be a fellow guitar geek!

Well, I hope this is of some help to those of us just starting out with this rewarding hobby. I suppose my best tip would be not to think too much about it, otherwise you'll end up like me :(

Cheers!

Richey

Here are some tips that I do

1) Pick a song and learn it, doesn't need to be difficult

2) Personalise it by slight changes or the way you do the melody

3) Negative space is just as important as positive space, stops, rhythms, breaks etc....ie not one big thrash of mush

4) Pace the song speed matters, generally faster drives the song slower gives more moody feel

5) Now play it slightly more relaxed than you usually do, but put real feeling into your voice highs and lows

Blues was a feeling so put your mind set into that emotion before you sing. If you feel sad and sing it it will come across.

6) Sing to the notes of the guitar most old blues singers sing to the actual notes they play, it helps you keep in tune with your singing and sounds very Delta blues.

7) Go for it with your singing and don't hold back, don't worry how it sounds as you develop you can adjust it, someone who goes for it comes across as trying even if you arn't that great at singing and eventually it comes.

8) listen to the recordings and play them back until you like the version you do.

9) listen to the songs you like and break them down into tiny pieces, what is the bass doing, the rhythm, the notes players, the notes sang and try and replicate this.

10) Feel the blues, learn your way learn a blues scale you are familiar with so you can jam in it, take your riffs and join them to make songs. See Uncle Johns blues song writing blog for lyric writting and away you go.

The old blues players were desperate to get out of the cotton fields and that was their driving force to get good.

i.e Try harder and don't hold back!! ... to fail is to learn a bit more

Good luck and May the blues force be with you 

Harmonica Playing:

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/instant-naked-raw-brutal-blues-harmonica-your-first-lesson

Uncle Johns Blues song Writing Blog:

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/profiles/blogs/songwriting-recipe-for-a-simple-blues-song

String expression

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

String Expression

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_x2stMysdY

Shoving it all together, sing to your CBG:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpSM2sovbZg

"I made up a lot of the songs I sing. It's like you hear a record or something or other. Well, you pick out some words out of that record that you like. You sing that and add something else onto it. It's just like if you're going to pray, and mean it, things will be in your mind. As fast as you get one word out, something else will come in there. Songs should tell the truth... When I play-- if you pay attention, what I sing the guitar sings, too. And what the guitar say, I say."

Mississippi Fred Mc Dowell 

"There's no way in the world I can feel the same blues the way I used to. When I play in Chicago, I'm playing up-to-date, not the blues I was born with. People should hear the pure blues - the blues we used to have when we had no money.

"The blues tells a story. Every line of the blues has a meaning".

John Lee Hooker

"The term Blues may have come from the term "blue devils", meaning melancholy and sadness; depressed mood."

(George Colmans one-act farce Blue Devils (1798))

If you have any other tips or comments  drop them below:"

I hope this helps you feel and play your blues...