In The Beginning
Before I'd even finished my guitar kit (and if you have ever felt bad about your practical capabilities, you really should read all about it HERE) I'd got interested in the world of Cigar Box Guitars, and had decided that I would like to have a go at making one of my own.If you haven't come across them before, Cigar Box Guitars (CBGs from now on) go back to the roots of Blues and are quite literally made from a cigar, or any other suitable tin or box that will make a decent soundbox when you nail a plank to it and add a couple of strings. They are by their nature pretty primitive and require very little technical expertise to make something workable (I'm guessing you can see the appeal for me at about this point) but can sound quite beautiful when played by somebody who knows what they are doing. (Somebody else, then, that will be.)
Recently, there has been a renaissance and a lot of interest in the whole DIY music scene, and CBG's in particular, and there are a number of prominent players and builders of CBGs, mainly in the US of A, but with a healthy number popping up in the UK.
I can see Lonnie Donegan back on TOTP before the decade is out and if Joe Brown hasn’t got himself one yet, I guarantee he will in the near future.
In October 2009 there was the first (to my knowledge) UK CBG Festival in Birmingham, and I had planned to go along with my own CBG. As it happened, I couldn't, but I'm sure that it will prove to be the first of many and I'm definitely going to get to the next one.
This article aims to take you through the stages as I try to build myself a CBG. For the British CBG builder, this is also to show that it isn’t ‘The New CB Radio’, and doesn’t involve loads of blokes from Coventry calling each other Rubber Duck and pretending that they live as man and wife with their sister in a trailer in Alabama. Although, the CBG builders I’ve met from Norwich tend to be a bit reticent on the subject, but each to their own.
Specifying the specification
As I said earlier, there are a number of people making and selling CBGs these days, even in the UK. The nice thing about them, of course, is that there is no Fender or Gibson setting a standard for everybody to copy, which means that anybody making one can literally do as they wish without fear of people pointing their finger and saying sentences that start with 'You call that a...'.From what I've seen, there is a split between those that are trying to make something ‘plantation-authentic’, with as much of the guitar being built from scraps and throwaways as possible, and those builders that are trying to make something that is stylistically a CBG but in fact, has more of a modern guitar feel. In the USA there are so many builders that it is practically impossible to get a grip on who is doing what and more to the point whether they are any good at it. There are names such as Shane Speal the 'King' of the CBG, who has done an amazing job and much of the legwork in publicising the whole DIY/CBG scene, and then there are people (who really interest me most, I have to say) who are stretching things to the limits. People like Ted Crocker who not only build fine and interesting instruments, but also follow this up with parts for other builders. Things like bridges and piezo pickups and hand-wound magnetic pickups that are specifically built for three or four string instruments. All made by hand with not a factory robot in sight.
In the UK, it is all a lot newer and so far at a smaller scale, but again there are some really interesting players around and some excellent builders of CBGs, showing just as much imagination and craft as our cousins over the water.
Two builders that epitomise this for me are 'Smojo', who makes some brilliant CBGs from bits and pieces, and JuJu who is in my opinion a 'proper' luthier, and the man most likely to take CBGs into the mainstream as his builds so far are stylistically inspired and yet truly excellent instruments.
To put it into context, Smojo is the man that inspired me to build a CBG in the first place after I happened to come across his blog in which he details his builds and gives some fine advice on all things CBG, while Juju is somebody who's work I've only recently seen, but that I would buy a guitar from given the money or his inclination to sell me one. There are lots of other builders, don't get me wrong, but in different ways both of these have taken the principles on board and moved in their own direction and that ethic is what appeals to me most in the whole CBG world and why I fancy having a go for myself.
But given my own limitations, of which there are many, I have reminded myself that we all have to start somewhere, and back on Planet Erik, things are going to be a lot simpler than some of the things other builders are coming up with. What I meant by the distinction though, is that at the authentic end of the scale, a CBG can be as simple as a box with a plank nailed to it, and a couple of strings attached and tightened to some semblance of tuning. At the other we're seeing people adding pre-made guitar necks with truss rods and locking tuners and nuts, and amplifying it via humbucker pickups etc. As to which approach is 'right', well there is no right or wrong, just a matter of taste and I guess you choose where you want to stand between the two poles.
Personally, I like the idea of something more lo-tec and something that I will only want to play as a slide guitar, and so my specification is biased toward the traditional though maybe not in an aesthetic way.
Getting specific, for the neck, I'm going to go for a piece of mahogany (well, sapiele as it happens, which is from the same family, but easier to get hold of locally.) This will be about three foot long, two inches wide and one inch thick. Obviously, this would be too narrow for a normal six stringer, but I'm only planning to put three strings on, as that is all you really need to play slide, and I'm hoping that this will mean that a lack of a truss rod won't prove to be a problem.
Talking about truss rods, without one I'm told the neck will bend, but that for slide it really doesn't matter that much. Given how shonky my slide skills are, I can well believe it.
As for how to get the wood for the neck, if I was being a bit more Smojo-authentic, I would probably have looked around for an old shelf or door or something, and sliced it up into a number of neck-sized pieces of wood, but to be honest I ended-up getting 5 pieces of wood from a timber merchant down the road for a fiver. I don't own a buzz saw and am pretty lazy it has to be said, and there is no way in the world I would be able to cut wood into the correct sizes with a handsaw without throwing most of the plank away, so it seemed like a bargain to me. They even planed it for me so that it is relatively smooth.
The next thing to decide on is the box, and for this first attempt I've gone a bit traditional. More than very traditional, in fact. My initial thought was that I would struggle to get a cigar box, and so instead I would use a biscuit tin or chocolate box or something. If I do this again I might well, but I happened to come across a cigar box on eBay for three quid that is (apparently) from the 1880s. Now, it hasn't shown up yet, so time will tell, but it looked quite decent and old in the photo so worth a try. If that is no good, I'll go into Bristol and find a tobacconist and see if any are going cheap there. I would like to do more than one of these (until I get a good one) so will no doubt need more than one box sooner or later.
(Update: The box never showed up, and instead I bought another couple from eBay. There is only one proper tobacconist in Bristol, and having spoken to him, he seems inundated by people wanting boxes to make guitars - but has got two with my name on that I'll pick up soon. I'm guessing that this lack of traditional tobacco shops is going to be much the same across the UK - London apart - so maybe eBay and car boot sales are the best bet. Just thought I'd mention it.)
Anyway, I've got a box. The next consideration is how to fix the strings and then tighten them to pitch. Again, I'm going more traditional than not, but hopefully a bit pragmatic around the edges. My plan is that the neck will run through the box, with enough sticking out of the bottom to fix the strings to.
To do that I'll need to drill some holes and have some kind of washer or bush or something to stop them trashing the wood.
At the top of the neck I have been thinking about weird nut and bolt arrangements, and maybe next time I'll try that, but to start with using a couple of cheap tuners makes the most sense. When I was doing my guitar kit I was missing a couple of tuners and ended-up buying a new set, so I have three handy. Recycling in action; can't be bad.
As for the nut, I'm not sure. I've seen people use proper guitar ones, and others use bolts or keys, so I think I'll have an experiment and see what works best. Similarly, for the bridge, I have seen plenty of CBGs with acoustic guitar ones, but I'd rather not go that far. The tuners were a practical thing, but nuts and bridges I think I'd like to use something more interesting and back-porch.
And other than glues and varnish and nails, I don't think there is much else. I do need to make some soundholes to let the tunes out, but they can be cut and maybe a tea strainer or bath plughole or something will handle the aesthetics, if I bother to cover the holes up at all. We'll see.
Oh, the other thing that is more modern I was going to try was to electrify it, so it can be played through an amplifier - which'll cheer the neighbourhood moggies up. I've heard that this is really easy and so I've invested heavily in a piezo disk (59p from Maplins,) a jack socket to plug a lead into (£1.29p from Maplins) and a bit of wire that was in a drawer to join them together (free). I don't know how well it will work (I read somewhere that they are OK, but a bit bass-heavy) but it seems a nice idea. I might get brave and put a volume knob on there too, but time will tell.
And that is that. Just a case of doing it now, I guess.
Step One: Measure Three Times, Then Cut
As I mentioned earlier, the basis for the whole CBG is that there is a plank of wood running all the way through the middle with things joined to it. The cigar box is pretty and works as a soundbox, but the wood is king and so seems the best place to start.
Before we do anything, there are a few decisions to be made.
The first thing to decide is what your scale length will be. i.e. How far it will be between the nut and the bridge. This varies even for 'real' traditional six stringers, and in the CBG world anything can go. Personally I chose 24.5", although I couldn't honestly tell you why.
After that of course, you need to decide on the number of strings. Again, people make all sorts of different guitars, so it is up to you. Personally, I've gone traditional and am building a three stringer, mainly because that is nice for slide, and enough notes to fret a chord. It will also fit onto a two-inch neck easily enough.
Thirdly, and another fundamental question, is whether to fret the guitar or not. Obviously, fretting is a whole can of worms, but means that it will make the guitar more playable. I've decided not to as I want to keep the CBG as trad as possible, and only play slide on it. Also I can't see me pulling the fretting bobbins off at the moment and would rather get a CBG built then wreck dozens of necks with my dubious woodworking 'skills'.
OK then, we've gone for 24.5" scale, unfretted with three strings. Decisions made.
Now that we know what we are dealing with, the next step is really important and one that you need to get right if the guitar is going to work at the end of all of this. Basically, we're going to mark up the neck in the following ways:
a) Headstock:
At the top of the neck we need to decide how big the headstock will be. I've gone for five inches, but as long as there is room to put the string winders there it is entirely up to you. Once you have decided, use a pencil and your best paw and draw a heavy line horizontally across the guitar.
b) Nut:
Assuming you aren't going for some weird contraption and are either using a bolt or a proper guitar nut, you will need to be cutting a slot across the neck. This will be directly below the headstock, so counting down from the line you just made, draw another a 1/4" further down. Later on we'll remove some wood here, but for now just colour it in so that you remember why it was there.
c) Nut to Bridge:
Nobody is going to hold you to it, but at this point I found it strangely calming to measure 24.5" down the neck from the nut slot, and draw a line. This is where the bridge will be placed on the top of the cigar box. (At least notionally, I'm sure we'll move it around a bit once we are trying to get the guitar in tune.)
d) Tuning Peg Holes:
As I said, I'm going to be using three guitar tuner things, but whatever you will be using to tighten your strings, now is the time to decide where you will drill the holes.
As we are having three strings, it might not be a surprise that we need three holes. On the headstock then we need to mark two on the left and one on the right. These I'd just space evenly and if you are planning to do something fancy with the headstock, take that into consideration. One tip is that the two on the left should be slightly out of line, maybe half an inch, so that there is room for the strings to pass each other. Makes sense, I guess.
e) String Holding Bits:
As with the tuner holes, at the other end of the neck we need three holes to thread the strings through. At this point I'm still not sure whether to go with a hinge or a through neck kind of arrangement, but the latter is the easiest, and so I'm going to simply mark the holes.
To do this is easy. I've marked off a few inches at the bottom of the neck and drawn a line. This will be the part that sticks out from the bottom of our box. Measuring the width, I've divided the neck into four and drawn vertical lines on the face of the neck below the imaginary bottom of the box.
Between these four lines, we have three gaps, and it is in these gaps that I will drill my holes. Easy peasie. Unlike the headstock, these can be in a line.
(As it happened, I used a hinge instead, but I figured that somebody might find my line drawing and measuring expertise a comfort if they went this way. Well, you never know.)
f) Frets:
Yep, I know I said we wouldn't be using frets, and this part is optional, but despite the fact that I won't actually be using fret wire, I would still like to be able to see where I am on the neck, so I am planning to at least mark where the frets should be. Even if it is using a marker pen.
There is a good reason why I left this to last.
To calculate the gaps between frets is an arcane art and something that I think will involve runes and human sacrifice. Luckily, other people have done this for you and there are a number of places on the web where you can find the measurements. (I’ll put details at the end of the article of good places to find this out.)
The secret to getting these marked accurately is to measure every single fret from the nut. It seems easier to do it fret-to-fret, but that way you will introduce multiple 'thickness of the pencil line' errors, which on their own aren't bad, but collectively can put you well out of kilter by the time you get to the twentieth fret.
Other than that though, it is as simple as measure, draw a line, repeat until you've done them all. Oh, and check, check and check a wee bit more. If you have some kind of set square, that will save you measuring both sides of the fretboard, but then so will anything with a 90 degree angle.
So that is the measuring, and I really would recommend that even though you are happy with them, go and check them all another couple of times. When you start cutting and drilling, it is going to be a bit late.
Step Two: Preparing the Box
As I mentioned earlier, the cigar box - or whatever you are using - has the job of amplifying your guitar, and so the bigger it is the louder your guitar should be. How this works is all very scientific and beyond my meager brain, but in terms of the CBG we're going to have to fit the neck so it passes through the box and that involves a bit of work.
Now, I know I'm not the brightest, but even I have worked out that this is very likely to mean that we'll be cutting a couple of holes for the neck to pass through. As with preparing the neck then, it makes sense to work out where these will be placed and how big they are going to need to be.
Of course, it isn't quite as simple as having the neck go through at any point, there are the strings to consider which will be running on the outside of the box (so you can play them,) so we will need to cut the holes at the very top of the box so that the neck is level with the lid. As this is impossible, it will also mean that we'll need to remove a piece of the neck that is as thick as the box lid.
If that isn't totally clear, lets put it this way.
Neck passes through box.
There are two holes, one in and one out.
The holes in the box will need to be the height of our neck, so about an inch.
While the neck is in the box, it will have to be thinner to accommodate the depth of the lid.
So if the neck is 1" deep, and
the lid is 1/4" deep,
the piece of the neck that will be inside the box needs to be 3/4".
As for the box then, we need to mark the in and out holes so that we can cut them later. This is easily done - measure the box and find the middle, then mark our neck width on there. Do the same both ends, and then to check, open the box lid and lay the neck across the top to check that your marks line up. You could of course do this to start with, and make sure that the gaps either side of the neck are equal. Whatever boats your float.
Once you have marked these, colour in the little rectangle on either side, it will make things simpler when you come to cut them.
Step Three: Scalloping your neck
No, I'm kidding, we're not going all Swedish and sweepy tippy tappy at this point.
As I mentioned in Step Two, we need to make the neck thinner where it will be within the box, and marking the bit of wood we will be removing on the neck is again a good idea.
To do this, I simply lay the box on the neck where I see it sitting. Next, I made some pencil marks for the start and end positions of the box, then I measured the depth of the box lid (1/4" on the one I'm using here, which I'd guess might be pretty average), and on the sides of the neck marked the same distance. After that I coloured in the area we'll be removing later on.
How we do that, I'm not right sure at the moment but I guess it will be with a chisel or a file or rasp or something.
Step Four: The First Cut Don't Hurt At All
Well, At this point I was going to be congratulating myself on how controlled everything was. I'd have measured and marked and was ready to get going, but at a steady, grown-up speed. It was going to be lovely, and hopefully the whole build would be over in about a week - tops - with a minimum of stress and confusion. Not that there is really a rush, apart from that the first CBG meet in the UK was happening in October, and I would have liked to go with something I'd built myself. However bad it may have turned out.
Needless to say, life wasn't going to be that simple, and a week or two of Swine Flu around here had meant that I've not been able to get cracking. Kids at home while you are trying to saw or drill, isn't much of a runner and a bit of peace to think is a no-no. It had basically been bedlam and every time I'd even looked at my pile of CBG pieces I've been greeted by tears, coughing or violence. (That'll be the three-year-old.).
Anyway, after a lifetime in the seven circles, I must admit that morning I just though 'sod it', gave up on the idea of control and a Steady Eddie pace and grabbed myself a little saw and went for it on the box. (Heh Erik, where you going with that saw in your hand?)
Da-doo-da-doo-dooo.
Needless to say, this wasn't wise, and despite instantly regretting it, I carried on anyway, which was even more not-very-wise. Well, to be honest it was good to be doing something, but leaning on an ironing board, kids running around my legs and me unable to find my glasses meant that I made a complete mess of it. Don't think any of the 'lines' I cut were true and although the neck dropped in most of the way, there were a couple of gaps around the edges as my nicely drawn-on and coloured-in rectangles ended up cut with 45 degree angles on either side.
Dumb dumb & a bit more dumb, but there we are. Sometimes you just go for these things and repent leisurely.
I guess I can fill the gaps somehow, and if I can find my file I'll at least be able to level things off so they don't look ridiculous, and to be honest it is a first attempt and I'll make sure it looks OK in the end...but, I can't say I'm happy.
I let meself down, I let me family down, I let you all down and basically, it was pure dumb.
Lesson One - Don't rush, and make sure you have plenty of time and peace and quiet to work. Even when you haven't.
Bugger.
*
Having calmed down, and found a file, I had a few quiet minutes filing the holes so that they are squared off. As they weren't deep enough for the neck to fit flush with the top of the lid, I've filed them down so that it does.
Calm.
I almost feel zen-like now.
Just wish I hadn't given up smoking.
Step 5: A Close Shave
After the disaster of the box, I thought that rather than hiding and doing something easy, I'd be better off stretching myself and braving the woodwork side of things again. I should explain, when it comes to woodwork I am a complete no-hoper, and have in the last forty years managed to achieve absolutely nothing. IKEA shelves fall to bits, curtain rails don't stay up and basically if it can go wrong, it has already happened to me, I just ain't noticed yet. So despite managing to put a guitar kit together without killing anybody (not least because I was being guided by my six-year-old son at times) I can't say that building a CBG is entirely a natural thing for me to do. And woodwork is bottom of the list of things that are wise for me to try, as far as I'm concerned.
There, got that out of my system.
Next then, I thought it would be best to get all of the woodwork stuff out of the way as soon as possible, and being as the part that was worrying me most was the thinning of the neck (so that it fits inside the box and lets the lid close - you remember), I figured that was the place to be.
Thinning the neck out (I'm sure there is a technical name I should be using for this), I see it as being three stages, so that is what I've done.
a) Marking your territory
First up I decided that it probably made sense to cut the edges of the trench so that there is a fixed line. I've decided to call it a trench by the way. No good reason, I just have to stop writing 'thingie' at some point in my life and this seemed as good an opportunity as any.
But to cutting the trench - to do this, I clamped the wood in my workbench and using a junior hacksaw carefully cut along the two lines I'd drawn to mark the edge of the box. It really was carefully for once as well, and more by luck than judgment I remembered to stop cutting at the right depth.
Job jobbed then, and all I need do is manage to remove the wood in between the two cuts.
b) A Rush and a Push
Yep, I'm running out of amusing titles for all these sub-sections.
At this stage I figured that removing a good amount of the wood, even if it is only roughly, would probably be a good idea. Assuming I don't take too much and work within the limits, as it were, I could then finish off with a file.
To start with, I went and invested a couple of quid in what is apparently called a 'rasp'. This is like a file but a bit more hardcore, and promises to get stuck in before the file comes along and does the finessing. It seems to work OK too, and despite the fact that they call this mahogany/sapiele stuff a hard wood for a very good reason, it didn't take long to get close enough to the shape we wanted - 90% of the way anyhow.
Cool. My new best friend, a rasp. A Snoop Dog among the hen house of Timberlake files.
c) Can't believe It Ain't Butter
Well, as you have probably guessed, the filing of the trench was the final stage of this little job, and didn't take long. One thing I'd read somewhere was that it could actually be a positive thing if the trench has a dip in it, so that the neck doesn't actually meet the top of the box all the way through. The theory being that it would allow for more movement of air, and therefore volume, if I remember rightly. Now I'm not sure if that is kosher or not, but I figured that it was an open goal of an excuse if I didn't manage to flatten the trench properly.
Still, I finished that little job and whilst it probably isn't perfect if you look closely, it was close enough I reckoned, and I'm pleased to report that I can now put the neck through the box, and close the lid. OK, there are still a couple of gaps, but I'm going to fill them with wood glue when the time comes to put this all together, so I'm not overly worried.
Result.
Step 6: Killer Driller
Well, as you can imagine, after the lid-fitting-drama of the previous step, I was all-a-buzz and ready to move on. Next on my list then, was to drill the holes for the tuners and also I had to decide once and for all how I was going to fix the strings at the bottom of the guitar.
Grabbing an electric drill, I put the neck back in the workmate vice thing, and dug out a 5mm drill bit. Now I know this will be a little small, but I figured I could use a file to get it exactly right. I must admit I could immediately see why those press drill things are so popular as trying to get the drill into the wood vertically is a lot harder than you'd imagine. Making sure all three holes have the same angle about them is harder still. But drilled they were and I'm pleased to say that it didn't take too much more effort for the stem part of the tuners to fit in quite nicely.
Incidentally, I said before that I was going to use some electric machine heads that were left over from my guitar kit joys, but as it happens I forgot that I'd got some pretty and flowery acoustic ones I bought for some long forgotten reason, and so I have gone with them instead. They look better, which is as good a reason as any other, I reckon.
As for the thorny question of how we secure the strings at the base of the neck, I've decided to go with a hinge, so I'm going to pop along to Homebase tomorrow and see if they have a three-screw model that will fit the width of the neck. Whether that is a good idea or not, I'm really not sure, but then again, it is rare that I am.
Step 7: Slick Cut
One job I can't say I fancied too much, was cutting the slot for the nut (or bolt as it happens) to sit in. This very much sounded like proper woodwork to me and brought back memories of school where this phobia of mine originated. The last time I touched a chisel, it was being removed from my hand after some muppet decided to try and stab me with it.
Ah, happy memories.
But back to reality and out of the sepia, it was more how I was going to do it that had me wondering. First of all was the depth. I'd read somewhere that a third of the nut should be 'above water', but then somewhere else that it should be two thirds, so I was a bit unclear. Obviously going for the latter seemed a better idea as you can always take more away and all that, but putting it back is trickier.
Putting the neck back in the vice then, I grabbed the hacksaw and set about cutting to the required depth, about a quarter of an inch looked about right. This I did on both sides, which basically followed the two lines I had drawn that marked the end of the headstock and the start of the fret board.
Once they were cut, I resisted the urge to get a quarter inch chisel and knock chunks out of the neck, and instead settled down with a file and a small rasp thing and started working my way down. OK, if you know what you are doing the chisel is no doubt the best option, but I felt safer this way and more to the point it worked. Eventually.
Anyway, after a lot of trial and error, the bolt sat nicely and there we are. Sometimes the patient approach is best after all.
Step 8: The Angle of the Dangle
When you look at a six-string guitar, what you will notice is that the headstock is all at an angle. They don't just follow level with the fingerboard. This is done, I'm sure, for lots of good reasons like putting pressure on the nut so that the strings don't pop out when you are playing, but seems a real pain to me. Anyway, I'm guessing that it is really all about the angle of the strings hitting the tuners and going over the nut and everything, so despite not really knowing why, I'm going to have a go at taking some wood off the front of the headstock so that when the strings come over the nut, they will have a downhill ride to the tuners.
To do this then, I'm planning on using the rasp along the headstock so that it takes about a third of the wood off. This I can smooth off later, I guess, with sandpaper or a file or something. The alternative approach is (I think) to make something called a scarf joint, but as that is entirely beyond me even thinking about, I'm kind of hoping that this will do instead. Carving dovetails and other joints seems a bit beyond my 'nail a broom stave to a box' starting point, so I'm going to leave it alone.
As for the headstock's shape, I must admit I'm a bit undecided at the moment. It would be nice to do something different so it doesn't look like every other peg head CBG out there, but after drilling the holes, there isn't a great deal of room left over. I'll have a think though, something might come to mind.
To the rasping then, and back to the workmate and a lot of back and forth. Not a lot to say about it really other than it worked; apart from I've left the thinning of the headstock until I know for sure that I need to. No point creating trouble where there is calm, is there?
Step 9: Me and my girl, Fret cutting
OK, I said before, I'm not planning on fretting this guitar, but I'm not a good enough player to get away with not having at least a few visual markers. What I'm planning on doing then is cutting shallow trenches on each of the lines and then finding something to fill them with, even if it is just ink.
As jobs go then, this was repetitive, but not the hardest to date. I just put the neck face up in the workmate and one fret at a time used a saw to make a cut into it. Maybe I should go the extra step and put some wire in, but this time I'd rather just end up with something playable. If I do another perhaps we'll try and improve things generally including the frets and all that.
I'll have to have a think about how we colour the grooves, I guess, but other than that, we have completed all of the woodworking bits, and not being left with a pile of rubble and blood covered dust. I have to say it went better than expected.
*
As an update, I decided to burn the wood in the fret holes I'd cut. To do this I was going to use a soldering iron, but instead came across a very similar tool but one that is actually designed for 'pyrography', which was a new one on me, but is apparently all about putting designs on wood and leather. It cost a couple of quid and meant I didn't knacker up my soldering iron, so a bit of a result really. It set the smoke alarm off, but there we go, so does every meal I cook, so nobody noticed.
Step 10: Making a Piezo Pickup
As I mentioned earlier on, in order for the CBG to be plugged into an amplifier, we need some kind of pickup, and the traditional method is to use a cheap piezo buzzer from somewhere like Maplins or Radio Shack, so that is what I'm planning on doing.
In it's simplest for, we need a Piezo, a Jack socket and some shielded wire (it doesn't have to be shielded, but it will have less rattle & hum and local taxi cabs about it if it is). After that it is easy enough to do if you can use a soldering iron, and not so bad if you are willing to give it a go.
I fall into the latter camp, obviously.
Well, first off I removed the sleeve from my wire so that the inner copperness was exposed. The cable I'm using has two wires within one sleeve, which is good as there are two outputs from the piezo and two inputs on the Jack socket, which suggests a path that even I think I might be able to follow. I might have got confused otherwise.
First job then is to remove the two wires that are already connected to the piezo. This might seem a little radical, but the wire I'm using can be connected easy enough and is probably a better quality. I could connect the existing wire to my new wire, but I can't see the point of creating extra joints that might fail at some point. Simple is best, I reckon when it comes to all of this.
To remove the wire, I heated the blob of solder with the solder iron and used a beautifully named 'solder sucker' to literally hoover up the molten blob off the surface. The wire just comes away and it is pretty much a clean getaway. I did remember to note down which part of the disk the red wire was connected to and which the black or ground was stuck onto. (The red is the live and for the record it goes on the uncovered outer ring of the disk - the ground going to a hole cut in the middle of the 'label' - if you think the piezo disk looks like a record, that is.)
Next then, I stripped back each of the two wire ends on my shielded wire and soldered them, one to each part. I also finally remembered that perhaps twenty-five foot of wire might be a bit snug in my little cigar box, and so chopped a foot or so off the end and used that, before stripping the exposed wire and blobbing them with solder too. From here, it should be easie peasie to simply solder them onto the jack, and so it proved to be.
Not believing my luck, I plugged a guitar lead into the jack and then into a small amp, and tested to see whether it worked or not by holding a vibrating tuning fork over it. (I had one handy, you can just tap it with a screwdriver or something, but I was trying to look like I knew what I was doing in front of the kids.)
Anyway,
amazingly
it worked.
Bloody Hell.
I must admit I'll probably have a think about the shielding of the piezo as even like this it sounds a tad noisy, but more on that later.
Step Eleven: Finishing the neck
I think I said before that I was planning to keep the finish on the neck simple, and that is exactly what I have done. First of all, of course the neck needed sanding to make the top nice and smooth as well as the headstock. This I did by hand as to be honest I'd rather not use any power tools if I can help it. Not out of some kind of quest for jook joint authenticity, it's more that they scare me.
The top then, was pretty easy, just lots of elbow grease, and I did the same for the headstock to smooth out some of my dodgy filing and rasping. I decided not to do much with the shape, just a couple of curves to show willing.
As my 'handcarving' talents are pretty meagre, I've decided that rough is good, and that if anybody asks I'm building a replica of a CBG an escaped convict built from scraps on the side of the road with just rocks and sand for tools, so that he could play one last time before he died from a rattlesnake bite, alone and bluesfilled, a thousand miles from his momma and that lass up the road that he'd always fancied but never got around to strolling out with before he got nicked for something he didn't do.
That should do it.
As far as the neck goes though, after all of the sanding I simply gave it a good wipe with some Tack Cloth (available from all good Renault Dealers in Wolverhampton) and then put on a coat of some mahogany coloured Danish oil. The oil I rubbed on with an old T-shirt by the way, nowt flash, just rolled it up into a pad.
There is one last job I'm going to do once the oil has dried, and that is put some sort of name on it, I just haven't decided what yet. (If you read my Guitar Kit article, this may seem familiar.)
Step Twelve: Take it to the Bridge
Well, now that the neck is dry and has a nice little sheen to it, I think it must be genuinely time to start putting this thing together.
I had intended to follow the instructions on the oil can and put four coats of the stuff on, though I'm not sure if it makes the guitar better than if I'd just put one on, or worse than if I'd gone for ten. As it happens it looked lovely after one application and the grain coming through was awesome, so I never bothered with any more coats. I must admit I was a little disappointed with how the Sapiele looked up to this point, but with a bit of colour it is truly striking and I'm really chuffed with it.
Just call me King Shallow.
As for only doing the one coat, to be honest this sums up my approach to all of this guitar building lark - I just kind of go with the flow and accept that I'm standing on giant's shoulders most of the time, but if I can't see a good reason for something I don't do it until it proves that I should have. For now though, I'm just intent on at least getting one out of the way and then seeing what I think - can't see the point in making everything the same as every body else does, might as well be making Hank Marvin Strat copies, if you see what I mean.
Before we put the rest of it together, I'm going to drill a couple of holes in the box, one that will let us fit the jack output socket thing, and a couple more that will let the sound come out.
To do this I'm just sticking a bit of low tack masking tape onto the box and then going for it with my eyes shut. I wish I had a manual drill, but I haven't got one. Maybe for next time.
* (Insert your own musical interlude) *
Anyway, I managed that without too much damage and the box didn't split or anything, so all good stuff.
One tip I read somewhere was that if you want to strengthen the box a wee bit, it is a good idea to run a bead of plastic filler all along the seams of the box - on the inside, I'm guessing. This I've done, and it is drying now. Cool.
As for the bit-that-holds-the-strings-on, I did manage to get myself a hinge with three holes in that didn't look awful. Maybe not as ornate as it could have been but it'll do. This I've screwed onto the end of the neck so that one side of the hinge sits on the top. It will be through this that the strings go, running up to the headstock.
Speaking of the headstock, I've screwed the tuners into their holes, which is good as we are starting to look a bit more real and guitar like. I've also got a bolt that fits perfectly as a nut
All in all then, I think we're well on track and about ready to fit the rest of it all together, which is probably the third time I've said that, but there you go. I mean it most sincerely folks.
Step Thirteen: And Finally...
OK, I wasn't kidding, we're finally putting this thing together.
First up then, are the finishing touches to the neck. I can't remember if I said before, but I had marked the frets with pencil lines, and have now finished these off by burning them using a lovely little pyrography tool, which was well cheap and a fair bit satisfying to use. I did worry slightly when I remembered all the dire warnings of flammability on the Danish Oil tin, but it was fine and smelt glorious as it sizzled and spat as the wood burned. Maybe not the neatest luthier-like job, but if we're going for kind of rustic, it definitely worked. When you look at the fotos, you probably can't tell that it isn't real frets, which is fine by me. When you look from a distance, I can sometimes look like a real guitarist.
I also drilled a couple (well three as it happens) sound holes in the box lid. I had been going thru all sorts of permutations and design ideas, but in the end went with the most straightforward -
sound needs to come out -
drill holes -
sound comes out.
Can't be saying fairer than that.
OK, it looks a bit mardy but what the hell. The neck looks like a corkscrew, so compared to that, who is going to complain?
I didn't tell you about that though. Basically, I think that the week or so off may not have done the wood for the neck any favours, as I left it in our conservatory, which is either freezing or boiling hot, and over the week was both. The upshot being that the neck (and the other four pieces of wood I had bought for other necks) have all ended-up slightly skewed. OK, I should probably have ditched them and started again, but I wanted to at least get one build completed, and as the box wasn't exactly perfect, I thought what the hell, lets see where we end-up. And there you go. I put it together, so who really cares.
But vague guilty feelings apart, I've moved on and have glued the piezo pickup to the lid of the box. I should probably have encased this in wood, but instead followed some advice and just smothered it with glue instead. The wood would (should) have reduced the noise, and the glue is meant to do the same. I'm seeing this guitar as a bit of a learning experience now, so we'll see.
I also built a primitive booster circuit to act as a pre-amp and give the thing a bit of oomph. This I've included with a rather cunning switch - basically you twist the jack socket. Don't ask, I thought it was clever and forgot that the lead would be in the way once it was plugged in, and so you have to take the lead out to switch on the preamp which is ridiculous. I also glued and nailed the lid shut, which will make changing the battery a bit tricky too. Screws or maybe just a nice catch would have been a better idea, I guess.
Heh ho
After that then, it was a case of inserting the nut and bolt for the, err, nut. This I glued in with wood glue though to be honest probably didn't need to, as the strings should hold it in.
For the bridge I used a key, but this proved too thin and the strings were too low and buzzy so I used a mint tin instead - one of the ones that is vaguely like a lipstick pickup cover. This worked well, though a touch tinny, and placed the strings about two inches above the fretboard. This was fine for sliding around on and sounded quite cool too - no loss of sound like you'd get with magnetic pickups. However, as a late change I decided that there were still too many buzzes as the strings were at times actually a few mill above the nut and so I have now clamped a bit of metal over the strings just the other side of the nut on the headstock side, to lower the strings and keep them firmly in the nut. Doing this meant I could go back to the key and have a lower action. In the end though, I replaced this with another bolt, and that has proved to be the best of the lot. Nothing like indecision to keep you busy.
Anyway, it works and the action is quite low now, which is good as I can fret to some extent as well as slide. I also had put a screw in to line the strings up better - so that they are evenly spaced. Kind of like a string tree, but more twiggy.
After that then, it was a case of putting strings on and trying to tune the thing. I used three leftover strings in the end - two are acoustic and one electric, but all seem to work OK. Despite the twosted neck, it did tune and the intonation is amazingly OKish most of the time.
So what does it sound like?
Well, a lot better since I arrived at the bolt-for-a-bridge, and it actually has a nice tone acoustically. When it is plugged in? Not quite so pretty to be honest, but certainly authentic sounding and pleasantly scratchy, and it is definitely a cool sound for blues and slide work, though I'd skip the glue and use wood around the piezo next time as there is a lot of extraneous noise.
All in all good then, just wish I could play them a bit better, but this isn't an awful time to learn and not the worst instrument to be learning on. Saying that, engaging the preamp is pure mayhem, and I don't think it is truly usable without me adding some kind of volume control. But even so, I'm glad I included it, as it is a Mark I and gives me something to test a few changes on before I make my Mark 2 CBG.
And that is the truth of the matter. This whole DIY bobbins is very addictive and at the moment I couldn’t even think about buying another guitar 'off the peg.' Why would you when you can have exactly what you want by having a go yourself? Building this, my first Cigar Box Guitar has been a real buzz and I think I have learned far more about how and why guitars work doing it than I have managed in the previous 20-odd years. If you are a guitarist it really is worth the effort, it costs not a lot and you do (quite easily) end-up with something that is fun to play. I’m already planning my next one and I can’t wait to get going on it.
Things You Should Know
Well, if you've got this far, I'm guessing that it is likely to be because you fancy having a go at building your own CBG, and that you are hoping that I will point you in the direction of somebody that knows a bit more about it than I do.
If that is the case, then you are in luck as to be honest there is only one site you really need to visit, and that is CigarBoxnation.com
I've deliberately avoided mentioning it until now, as once you go there you are unlikely to come back and read the rest of my tale - self interest, I don't deny it - but if you even have a vague interest in CBGs, it is certainly where you should go and find out more as there are some fine folks who will help with every aspect of your build - it really is about the friendliest community I've come across on the web - and quite literally you will find everything you need to know, whether it is plans, or tutorials on how to play your newly built CBG.
For example, there are free plans available for the best ways to build a CBG (and I was doing fine while I was following them - it was when I went off road that things went sticky), but to be honest it is the forums where you will really gain the most benefit. Ask anything you want and somebody always seems to pop-up with a useful reply.
Anyway, that was my first Cigar Box Guitar build and I hope you enjoyed hearing a bit about it. Hopefully, I'll find something else to do next, I'm thinking amps and effects pedals, I could do with a wee bit of fuzz in my life, but we'll see.
Erik Ryman
Parts List
In case you fancy putting your own CBG together, I thought I'd list the parts here, and keep it updated as they are bound to change as we go along.
1. Neck - A Piece of Sapiele (Mahogany) 36" x 2" x 1":
I decided to go for a hardwood to minimise the bend on the neck, but people use any kind of wood that is handy. Oak seems to be a favourite with a lot of CBG builders, and they probably know better than I.
2. A Wooden Cigar Box:
In the UK these are a bit tricky to get hold of, but if you have a local tobacconist it is worth asking, and most will just charge a pound or two. If you can't find one by that route, I've got most of mine from eBay where they will generally cost a fiver or so, but watch out for the sizes, it's hard to tell in the fotos, so if they don't mention a size, it is always worth asking before you bid.
Speaking of which, the bigger the box the louder the guitar will be. You can make them with smaller boxes (the one I'm using here is 6" x 4" x 2" which isn't that big, but is OK), but bigger is best it seems. If you just can't get a cigar box, or don't want to pay for one, many people use anything else that they have to hand. Quality Street tins are big, tinny and very loud, but literally anything that you can cut a couple of bits out of is fine too.
3. Strings:
Collected wisdom is that you can use anything from fishing line to parachute cord. Personally, I'm going with three acoustic guitar strings (E, A & D) as I've got some to hand and it makes sense if I'm using guitar tuners.
4. Tuning Pegs:
Again, people use bolts, classical guitar tuners and anything else they can think of. I've got a few tuners left over from a guitar build, and so am using them. (As it happened I remembered I had some acoustic tuners and I used them instead, purely because the looked nicer.)
5. Nut:
For the nut, I'm going along with the CBG tradition and using a bolt.
6. Bridge:
Again, the traditional approach is a bolt, although a lot of people are now using acoustic guitar bridges. I'm sticking with the lo-tec for now though and using a key. Or maybe a bolt, or a tin of mints. I'm not actually sure to be honest until I try them and see which works best for me. (Again, I tried many thigs including a mint tin, but ended-up using a bolt.)
7. String Fixing Bits:
I don't know what to call these, but basically at the bottom of the guitar you need something that will keep the strings in place. The ‘trad’ approach is to drill some holes thru the part of the neck extending out the bottom of the box and pull the strings through them. These holes can get cut by the strings when they are brought to tension, so some washers or a piece of holy metal are often used to keep them in one piece.
This was the approach I was planning to take, but then I thought that maybe I could find a hinge and use that as more of a traditional looking guitar bridge. I ended-up getting a three holed hinge from Homebase, which was brass coloured and looked pretty nice if not too flash. Pack of two for a couple of quid, so there we are. I did have a thought that maybe the holes might be a bit big to effectively trap the balls on the end of the strings, but I guess I can add a washer or something if that proves to be the case. (Edit: As it happened the holes were perfect, although I had to use some stronger wood screws as the tiddlers that came with the hinge wouldn't stay in once the strings were connected.)
8. Finishing Materials:
I'm not going to get too carried away with the finish, but for the neck I'm planning on using a mahogany coloured Danish Oil. The wood has a nice grain and it would be a shame to waste it. As for finishing the box itself, I'm not sure that I am going to. I like the idea of it looking a bit battered and time worn, and so leaving it ‘au natrel’ seems the best idea. I did think about varnishing it to give the paper a ‘nicotine’ finish, but we'll see. No big deal either way. Other than that though, there will be a handful of 1" nails and some wood glue to join it all together.
9. The Pickup:
In order for the CBG to be played through an amplifier, it will need some kind of pickup. The most common way to do this is by using a piezo buzzer, which is a little disk with a couple of wires hanging off it. This you need to connect to a jack socket (so you can plug your usual 1/4" guitar lead into it) with some wire.
Sounds expensive, eh? But as it happens it is dead cheap. For mine I got a piezo for £0.59, a Jack socket for £1.29 and the wire for £0.68 for a metre from Maplins. I bought wire in the end as I wanted something that was shielded as I'm guessing that this kind of pickup could be quite noisy.
Anyway, obviously these need soldering together (which is something I've recently learned how to do to some extent), but if this is something that bothers you, or you will need to buy the soldering iron and everything else, it is probably good news that you can buy a pre-soldered piezo pickup or 'harness' all over eBay for a few quid, and no shame in that. Just search for 'Cigar box guitar' and plenty will pop up, although mostly from America, so if you are in the UK it might be worth looking around the UK builders. I'll put some links to all that sort of stuff later on.
And that is it. Depending on how and where you buy everything, I'd guess that the materials really shouldn't cost you more than £10-£20, which isn't bad if it works and not the end of the world if it doesn't.
Next Steps
Have a look at www.cigarboxnation.com
One easy to follow plan so that you can build your own CBG is THIS (pdf)
Another more detailed one by Brian Lemin which I followed some of the time although the abortion I created is nowt to do with him and entirely my fault.
One from Make Magazine in video form, which is worth a watch, though annoying toothy.
If you want to buy pickups for your CBG and are in the US of A, Ted Crocker seems to be the man.
In the UK you have less choice, but my own little web site www.Jooky.co.uk sell a variety of piezo pickups and Cigar Box Amps, and are cheaper than importing. (Excuse the blatant plug.)
Smojo was the inspiration for me to build a CBG, his blog is here
Juju I mentioned - here is his web sit
Shane Speal is worth a royal visit here.
You can get the fret calculator and some other cool things from Belly Jelly music.
And you can read more of my DIY Dunce escapades HERE, until one of them kills me.
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