CBG Thank You

As I mentioned in previous posts, I'm teaching a Cigar Box Guitar class at Disney. A Friend of mine and his Father smoke quite few cigars, so they have been graciously donating their empty boxes to my cause. As a thank you, I've begun a project as a Birthday gift for my friends Father.

I have an extra half scale neck from a kids project I completed years ago, and an old Jackson humbucker also left over... It's amazing how much Crap gets left over. I have some scrap Oak that was laying around, so I cut it up as a neck mount. I didn't want to destroy the cool logo on the front of the box so I centered it between the end of the neck and the bridge and decided to mount the pickup under the wood. The magnetic field from the humbucking coils should be sufficient to pickup the sting vibrations through a thin amount of plywood. I assembled the neck mount and glued it in.

I'm going to use some scrap aluminum for the tailpiece and a hunk of Wengie for the bridge.
I'm just waiting for the Son to bring me a logo for the headstock and I'll finish this project really quickly.

It's really interesting how you can make these CBG's so quickly and they sound so cool.
It really doesn't take that much effort either. Just look around your house and find some objects that you don't use anymore and slap something together. People are fascinated by these things.
I recommend you all try to build one, just for the fun of it!

Finished Fret Job

Finishing up Ward's guitar I needed to put a new nut on. In the last episode of "Ward's re-fret" we had cut the nut and fit it to the neck. Now you can see how I finish it. Basing the string spacing on the old original nut I mark the new nut and begin the process of cutting the notches.

I'll start with a slightly over sized nut file to nail down the location of the strings. I will then use corresponding nut files for each string thickness to cut to the proper depth. For example for a high E string thats from a set of 9-42's, the string width is .09 or 9 hundredths of an inch. I have a nut file that measures .10 which is 1 hundredth of an inch larger than the string. Just large enough that the string will be held tight but wide enough for the string to move in the nut during tuning and wammies without hanging up.

Based on the string height measurements I took before I removed the nut. I will cut the depth of the nut to just above the height of the first fret. In this case the height of the fret is .05 or 5 hundredths of an inch. Using my thickness gauge, I will cut the nut to a depth of .065 or 6.5 hundredths of an inch. That's .015 or 1.5 hundredths of an inch higher than the first fret. For the thicker strings I'll go as far as .02 or 2 hundredths of an inch higher because they need more room to vibrate. I'm basing these numbers on the original measurements I took before I removed the frets and began the process. The idea is to give Ward as close to the action he had when he entrusted me with his baby.

When all is said and done the action was low but not too low so Ward could whip out his slide and get bluesy.

Fret jobs are a tough thing for a guitar player to go through. If you play a guitar for many years, you begin to feel that the neck was custom made just for you. It wears in just the right spots for your hand and you become comfortable with it. After a fret job it's like a brand new guitar. All those comfort spots are gone and it's like starting over. I try very hard to give my clients their comfort zones back. Sometimes that's not possible. Sometimes you can get decently close.

Ward came by to pick up his baby last night and seemed very pleased.

Cigar Box Guitars Class #2

Disney convinced me to teach another class in how to build cigar box guitars.
Since it's a lecture and demonstration class, and not a shop class, I created these diagrams to help my students when they get home and try it on their own. I thought I'd share them with all of you out there who may be interested in trying to build one. These are just basic diagrams. The bulk of the information will be the lectures spread out over 4, 2 hour classes culminating in tune up and play in the 5th class. I even throw in some basic electronics. But I think most of you will get the gist. Enjoy!