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Here is a recent conversation I had with some one interested in one of my Cigar Box Guitars. Some people don’t appreciate art.

Him: can you make me one for 100 bucks.

Me: No.

I’ve seen several questions on scarf joints recently. Since a quick search didn’t reveal a recent tutorial, thought I’d contribute.

Disclaimer: I’m not a woodworking or scarf joint expert, guru or genius. Just building instruments in my garage, like many of you. I also know that there is more than one way to skin a cat, so this isn’t presented as the ultimate solution. There are other ways to do this, but I’ve found a method that works for me and am sharing. We’ll be using power tools, so safety first!

This method uses a table saw and scarf joint jig. No room here to describe the jig, but there are plenty of plans on the internet. Here’s a good one:
http://www.theamateurluthier.com/amateurluthier/htmlpages/scarfjig.html

A quick note on table saws. If you don’t have one, get one. I know, they’re messy and take up room, but it’s also the single most valuable tool in my shop. I bought mine on Craigslist for $75 and, while I’d love to upgrade, it’s built cabinets, flooring, speakers, cajons and many stringed instruments.

What angle do you cut your scarf joint? I’ve seen this question many times and there’s really no right or wrong answer. The general consensus seems to be that anything from 10-15 degrees works great. I chose 11 degrees for several reasons: research, works well with my zero frets and I like the look. Just pick an angle, it will be fine.

You’ll want a sharp, high tooth-count blade. I’m using a 60-tooth and that seems to work well. Also make sure your blade is dead square to the table. If it’s not, you’ll get a slightly tilted joint (not impossible to fix, but why make it hard?) And cut your stock to a workable length since it’s difficult to accurately scarf an 8-foot stick.

Clamp your stock squarely and securely to the jig and make a deliberate cut - not too fast, not too slow. Let the blade do the work. Tip: when the blade makes it cleanly through the stock, stop the saw and wait for it to spin down, then slide it back. Sometimes, when I pull the stock back through the running saw, it messes with the square of the cut and/or adds lots of saw marks.

Now, you have a neck and a headstock. Since 1x2 lumber is ¾” thick, you’ll need to resaw the headstock so your tuners will fit properly. I cut mine to ⅝” since that works great with the Gitty economy tuners. Also, most commercial headstocks are similar in thickness, so check your tuners and cut accordingly. With the fence set and the scarf toward the blade, run it through your saw - and be sure to use a push stick! Sharp spinny things are dangerous!

With your freshly cut neck and headstock, it’s time for some glue. What kind of glue? Any good woodworking glue is fine. Titebond, Elmers, whatever. Gorilla Glue and PL Premium will work too. Just follow the directions. If using woodworking glue, spread a decent coat evenly across the joint. You don’t want gobs on there, but a little extra won’t hurt anything. Squeezeout is your friend. It tells you there’s plenty of glue in the joint.

I use 3 “A” clamps on my scarf joints and that works for me, but whatever clamps you have should be fine. Be aware that clamping pressure will make the joint slide some. One simple solution is to sprinkle a little table salt on the glue (just a pinch). It will create some friction for clamping and dissolve in the glue. Or, you can just manhandle it into submission, which is what I do most of the time. Wipe your excess glue with a damp rag and place the joint on a hard flat surface to cure. Check back in about 10 minutes to make sure things haven’t shifted. If they have, you still have time to square them back up before the glue sets. With woodworking glue, give it at least 2 hours before you remove the clamps. Longer is better. Overnight is best.

When your scarf joint is set, it’s time for some sanding. If you got it perfect, you’ll have a flat, level neck, ready for a fretboard. Mine are never perfect. In fact, I deliberately set the joint just a tiny bit proud of the neck so I can sand the whole thing flat. To do that, I clamp an old belt sander belt to to top of my (flat) table saw and work it till I’m happy. You can check your progress with a metal ruler, looking for gaps and oversanded spots. Sand till flat and you’re ready to go.

You’ve probably noticed that I do my scarf joints in the “over” position rather than the “under” variant. All of my instruments have a fretboard which covers the joint and provides an extra layer of stability for the scarf joint. Everything here works for “under” too.

One final tip: inevitably, I end up with small gaps - either in the joint, around the joint or along the fretboard. This is usually due to minor chipping, etc. Fixing this is pretty easy. Once you’ve identified a place you’d like to repair, clamp the neck for aggressive sanding. Run a bead of superglue in the gaps, let it sit for a few seconds and then wipe the excess off with a rag. Grab a medium grit sanding block and sand the area till you see it disappear. The pressure of sanding will push the sawdust into the gaps, mixing with the superglue and creating an almost invisible repair! Larger gaps may take a couple of passes, but when the superglue is fully cured, the color will match since you’ve filled it with actual joint material. This is a great fix.

I hope this tutorial helps those of you with scarf joint questions. If I missed something, or you’ve got a better idea, please post below. Now, get scarfing!

Ok, I cheated and used timelapse, but thought it might be fun to watch.

Enjoy!

Hey builders! I need some random thoughts for the design of an unconventional stringed instrument.

I have this friend - to say that he's one-of-a-kind doesn't do it justice. Imagine a burly, tatooed biker dude with a nose ring... who loves kittens and guns and Bible study. And has plenty of other issues :-) Yeah, that's him.

Anyway, last night, he asked if I would help him design/build a unique instrument for his own enjoyment. He'd like 3 strings, round/rounded fretboard and he'd like to play it violin-style. He has thick, stubby fingers, so larger is probably better. And he want's to play it with a bow. Doesn't have to look, sound or act like anything ever made - or it could.

My first thoughts were something like a fretted erhu. Might be interesting.

Another design inspiration came from the Stash stainless steel bass.
I'm thinking diatonic frets just so it's simple to get good noises. He has no musical background or skill. Just interested in playing around.

My only personal criteria is that I have to be able to build it with available materials and tools. Not going crazy here. But I also want it to make reasonable noises and be something he can and will actually play with. Thoughts from anyone?

Thanks!

I put together a spamjo with frets. Seems to work great so I am going to set up a Canjo build hour at the Death Valley 49er Encampment in November to bring more attention to these instruments as well as CBG's. I will assist 20 lucky people putting together a canjo of their own. I am currently building a CBG - just need to add frets and strings.I'll post pictures of the CBG when finished. Will play both instruments at the encampment this year.

Cal Steibel

I've built with piezo's and mag's. Getting ready to experiment with them as a combo. I would like some opinions on sound, piezo placement, tone / vol. control and switching and anything else that might be useful.

The Woodwisher

We are wondering how many CBG Club's are out there. So if you meet together say once a week or month to share builds, play CBGs in a jam, please reply to this post so we can access an average worldwide.

I plan to built a guitar by screwing a Flat Texas license plate to a cigar box

1.do I need to cut a hole in the box below  plate?

2. Or use 4 screened Grommets ?

3. Any other hints? I have built a couple cigar box from kits

Thanks Brad Craig

Well, it was time, getting the European CBG Festival season 2017 started , the opening festival was the Boxstock Festival in Wolverhampton in the UK.
I had lots of good reasons to join that event, Chickenbone John, organizer of the festival gave Nicole and me the chance to fill a slot in the evening show, we were able to meet old friend and found new ones in the CBG scene and last but not least, getting me some British Breakfast Tea.(The taste of german tea is like drinking beer outside of Germany, most of you know what I am talking about )

Chickenbone John already knew, that I ran out of tea, so on the posters he left out one T in Captn Catfish, to remind me on every corner in Wolverhampton to get me some.
After a short flight and one hour on the road to Wolverhampton , I wanted to check my guitars and the Stombox, because that was the first time, I was travelling with them by plane. After opening my bag, I found a letter inside, written by the security agency, that everything was already checked and everything was Ok and not harmful. I am sure the guys, who checked the baggage, never has seen a Licenseplate Guitar and and a Stompbox before in their training on the screen. So, after everything was OK, it was time to have a party.

Saturday, 25th, the day of the show, started very british- with rain and a perfect full british Breakfast, in a Pub not far away from the Slade rooms. The venue of the Festival was named after the British Glam Rock Band from Wolverhampton.

At 11 o`clock the place was already filled by a couple of traders, guests and about 20 people, who wanted to build a Cigarboxguitar at Chickenbone Johns workshop.

5 hours later all participants own their fine Cigarbox Guitar and we got ready to prepare the show and the soundcheck.

Captn Catfish and Mrs. Nicky opened the Boxstock-Festival in the filled Slade Rooms, playing a Southern Rock- Country set for half an hour.

At this point we want to say a Big Thankyou to the audience for the warm welcome, to Chickenbone John for inviting us and to Chris, the soundman, who did a great job the whole night.

The Chickenbone Blues Band followed up,with a fantastic Bluesset, played by experienced Bluesmen. Not much rest for John, at the one hand he organized the festival with the workshop and additionally he ran a stand for his business at the Guitar Show in Birmingham for the weekend. My respect to get all that done in a professional way.

Then the Dusk Brothers from Bristol entered the stage and entertained the audience with their blues fueled swamp music played on their CBG`s assisted by their sonorous voices and their handmade stomboxes and foot operated cymbals.

Headliner of the evening was Hollowbelly with his great One man Punk Blues show, crowning this great CBG-Festival.
we spent a great time in the UK, thank you all for coming and joining that weekend with us, I finally got my T(ea) , hope to meet you maybe again at another festival in Europe:
The Delta Calluna, the Dutch Festival in August, the Smokin`Guitars in September in Germany or the B.S.A Festival in France.
Captn Catfish & Mrs. Nicky

So I'll start this Blog only about 2 years after getting registered, and after 2 CBG's already built in the last 3 years... with a presentation of my latest built, a Cohiba Ukulele.

Scale is 350mm, the box is of Cuban origin (not to worry, I'm residing in the EU), the neck is made from scrap wood (probably ash), bridge and nut are from home grown prune wood harvested in my own garden.
Strings are, so far, classic guitar strings I recycled after having them replaced, well, on my classic guitar.

Have a look:

Now, that little lady is far from being perfect. Still, it is playable, and keeps its tune.

Finished my Sound Box Guitars kit two weeks ago! Slide only 3 string, tuned Galax style (to "G" with all 3 strings), ring Voodoo slide on order. Created antiqued Chinese lacquer finish look with two coats of acrylic paint-black base coat with metallic/bright red top coat. Shall post images once the film is developed. Added 3 brass tacks to stop the strings from cutting into the neck on the front of the guitar at the tailpiece.

Trial and errors of fundraising

We are always learning the do's and don’ts of fundraising. I can share our experiences and how we have been able to improve the overall end results. After all, we are trying to reach a goal to raise money for some cause. Here at our St. Louis Festival, the three of us take turns picking our favorite Nonprofit 501c, has to be legitimate registered organization. Sometimes we pick the same cause two years in a row like this year we are having Six String Heroes of Jefferson Barracks back because this year was my turn and last year these guys not only came out and set up a booth with us but they interacted well with the public and stayed involved all day. That's never happened before so I felt for that reason alone they're invited back.

Good fundraising takes a lot of energy and good accurate track of records. I prefer pay pal because it aromatically generates a receipt that I can use as proof of transaction. This protects me and the organization that has to keep transparent books by law. I do take checks and cash but I cover myself through confirmation emails or messaging on FB. The old saying, cover yourself, not the original quote but you get the jest.

Now how do we advertise? Any and every way possible to reach those kinds of folks you think would respond well. Flyers are the least effective and most people find them annoying and trashy, sorry but research shows them to have an effectiveness of about 1% their value and effort. Plus a lot of cities will fine you for code violation so check your county laws before you paste these up on telephone polls. Coffee shop windows are fine with permission, not sure how effective. I do well by posting on line to associated pages and from there, friends share and I get more circulation. That method has proven very effective. My work place is massive, plus the culture is very supportive of these raffles. So how this works is I don't flood them with emails or posters. I put one up in each break room, and each payday I personally go around and sell tickets by inspiring them to win something unique and fun while supporting a great cause.

#1 key is that we actually learned by starting months in advance, we have increased out goal by 70% from previous years where promote a little before and during the event. Pre-ticket sales are the way to go!

#2 and just as important a thing i learned from the Lab techs at work who are fundraising masters is to not under sale the tickets. $1-$5 tickets will kill a fundraiser and for some reason or another, people don't respond as often to sales as with a $10 or $20 purchase. So we offer 2Xtickets for $10. or 5Xtickets $20.

Results are amazing, we when from average $250.-$350. take in to $1400.-$1700. for same items raffled. Our goal this year is to top $2000. The final result is that Six String heroes will be able to purchase more guitars for Veterans and someone with one ticket will take home a handmade guitar.

Does anyone else have their own success stories on this topic?

SD

finally got the nerve to fret the neck and ran out of glue half way through. so i got some more glue today i am using Loctite Gel Control in a silver bottle with blue side grips. worth the $5.80 AUD it cost. the other glues i tried either took too long to set or soaked into the wood and didnt stick to the frets.

The frets are made from a Champion branded split pins 7/64 x 50 mm. even though we have been metric since the early 70's there are still some weird combinations around still... 

2 mistakes i made. first dont cut the frets until you have sanded the neck! i initally cut the frets too long and had to nip about 3mm off and then round them with a file. i used the square in the picture to keep the frets square.. mistake 2 was starting at the nut end. if i had put any thought into it i would have realised that the frets were too close together to use the square at the bridge end....the other frets get in the way!!

would i do this again for frets? maybe but i would take more time and get the fret lengths even. the trouble with the split pins is the metal is quite hard. it took me one night of work to cut and dress the ends of 20 frets. they turned out slightly different sizes and i didnt get all the frets even from side to side.

still i am pretty impressed with my first try.

the box is cut for the neck, but changed my mind about using a piezo pickup. will attempt to engineer my own CBG Nation Collaborative Induction Pickup. as soon as the parts arrive from ebay ...

got to fix the neck to the box next,leaving the top unglued for pickup testing.

then i have to stop procrastinating and fix the amp i am halfway through rebuilding. got to play it through something...