A challenge to all you cigar box guitar builders

Not a cigar box guitar but a challenge to your instrument building skills. Check out this baby and see if you can make one for me :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmoJj9cvOJU

Intonation and saddle position on cigar box guitars

Intonation is the ability of the guitar to sound and play "in tune" at the correct fret positions and if it's wrong, a guitar won't play good at all. Not quite so critical on a fretless instrument as you play mainly "by ear" but you still want to get it right. Here's my method for setting the bridge/saddle position on my CBGs.

The neck will have already been marked out with the correct fret positions from a template which also includes the approximate position of the saddle. As you probably know, the 12th fret lies halfway between the nut and the saddle and gives you the first octave of the same note found on the open string. So that is the important position to get right.

I set the neck in the box to place the saddle about 1/3 from the tail. Don't know if that's the absolute best place for it but it seems right to me for aesthetic and playing purposes. When the neck is fixed and the lid fastened down, I string it up and place the saddle roughly where it should be. I keep the string tension low at this point so I can move the saddle easy. I use the shaft of a small screwdriver as a "slide" (easier to see the exact position over the frets due to it's narrow diameter). Next pluck a string open and either tune it to a set note with an electronic tuner or just listen to it if your pitch ear is good. Put the screwdriver slide over the 12th fret and pluck again. Is it the same note an octave higher exactly? If it is you were lucky and job done.

Assuming it's not spot on, keep plucking and move the slide up or down the string till you find the exact spot. Is it nearer or further from the saddle than the 12th fret position? If it's nearer the saddle (above the 12th) then move the saddle nearer to the nut thus shortening the nut-saddle distance until it's bang over the 12th. If the octave is below the 12th position then move the saddle nearer the tail of the guitar. Once you've got it in the right place you can either mark it's position, slacken the strings and glue it in place or just leave it unglued and tension up the strings to the pitch you want them. My preference now is not to glue because that gives me the option of fine tuning it in the future without ripping it off the box.

Happy New Year to all you cigar box guitar nuts

Happy New Year to all you CBGers. Thought I’d be seasonal and take stock of the old year, CBG-wise. Haven’t done as much as I would have liked but still quite satisfied for a part time effort. I’ve built three or four guitars, started my buskers kit flight case, learnt how to use my digital camera for making videos and put three on YouTube (had a few hundred visits in the first month, much more than I expected). Had some nice comments and e-mails and made some good contacts through it.

My job and serious illness in the family caused a lot of stress and dampened my creativity somewhat but in some ways this CBG thing helped me through. It’s fun and it’s a passion I enjoy very much. It taps into my need for creativity on many levels. I love guitars and playing them. I love music, listening and making it - especially blues. I love making things and bringing my ideas into existence. I like writing and taking photos. This thing combines all those elements – wow how much more can you want. Yeah, ok sex and money might be contenders!

What I also love about this stuff is the simple low tech element. How you can take a few cheap materials and recycle them into something cool, fun, exciting and totally unique. You get a new toy and a terrific buzz because you made it. It has soul. You don’t get that with a 4000 dollar guitar bought from your music store. I think Shane Speal says it all in his post on his excellent Yahoo cigarboxguitar forum. Quote


“MODERN CONSUMERISM AND THE CBG Now think about this following question: How much consuming can we continue to endure as a civilized culture before we say "enough"? We've seen unparalleled growth in spending, the stock market and more. Now there seems to be a growing discontent with "stuff". Have you noticed it? I have, especially this last Christmas. In fact, I kept hearing from families who decided to spend less money on extra crap and became more thoughtful in their actions. People want something DEEPER...more meaningful. Have you noticed that the cigar box guitar seems to be, by it's very nature, a SYMBOL of that back-to-basics spirit? Even though guitarists can buy a fantastically made Chinese guitar for under $200, so many are turning to our CBG Revolution because we offer something that the modern companies can't: TRUE SOUL. A cigar boxguitar cries and growls in ways you cannot control. It offers unexpected adventures when you pick it up. What Stratocaster can give you that? And in the same way, what perfectly packaged "widget" can offer you deep meaning and a true connection with the past like the way a home made piece of folk art can? Let's face it, CIGAR BOX GUITARS MAKE PEOPLE SMILE. They make people stop what they're doing and pay attention. The instrument, in it's magical simplicity, has the ability to break thru modern convenience and plant the seed of meaningful soul.What I'm saying with this is this: RIGHT NOW, PEOPLE ARE GETTING DISCONTENTED WITH MODERN STUFF. There has never been a better time to show the world the cigar box guitar. It's a symbol as much as a fun instrument to build and play. The pump has been primed, the music industry has collapsed on itself and now a doorway to do-it-yourself music has opened...with ready made audiences just waiting.”

Amen

new project - cigar box guitar flight case

I've started it. It's shaped like a flight case and made from wood. It will hold two CBG's and have a battery powered amp built in. I'm pretty excited about it. The case is made from some old pitch pine boards that are painted a sort of grey/greeny blue colour and because it's old, it has gone crazy. That will form the edges of the case, sort of like a deep picture frame with a rebate along one side where a piece of plywood fits to form the main top and bottom of the case. It will have foam glued inside to form shapes for the guitars to lie in. I'm looking for some cheap velvet to cover the foam and make a nice inside. I'm putting some photos on here to show how it is progressing. Probably take a few weeks to finish. Keep dropping in here to see how it's going. First picture shows the bottom section from the outside. There will be a speaker for the amp mounted in it.

Second picture is a close-up of the nice old crazed paint. The actual colour is slightly greener than this.

Third picture is the inside of the bottom section with two guitars placed in to help work out the layout for the foam sponge.

Update 18th Jan - started fitting foam pieces around guitars and made some compartments for the amp, speaker and accessories. I put a wanted ad on Freecycle for some velvet to line it with and some kind lady dropped off two wine red curtains. It will look great when done. I had a suggestion from a CBG freind in the Netherlands to use the lid as a stompbox, so I'm going work on that plan too. Building this is on hold for a while. Three guitars have gone to new homes so I need to make a couple more now.

Cigar Box Guitar questions

I had a couple of questions asked about how to make a pick-up and anchoring strings. I thought it a good idea to post my answer on here too.

Q. - "I'm totally fascinated by the cigar box guitar and am trying to put one together right now. I think the first problem was how to get the strings/tail done, and I'm opting to just make very small holes and let the ball at the end hold things. The other problem is amplifying, a piezo has me stumped. I know Radio Shack has them and I've been told they simply wire over to an input jack ... but I was wondering if you have any suggestions as to how I can easily get the thing wired for amplification."

A. - The neck passes straight through the box and out the back about 5cm to provide anchorage for the ball end of the strings. I drill three holes about 1cm apart. I find that when strung, the strings start to cut into the wood so I make a small metal plate out of brass or alloy which I screw onto the tail just in front of the holes so that it takes the pressure of the strings off the wood and stops it cutting through. It helps keep the thing in tune as it stops you losing tension from them cutting into the wood.

Pickup - easy. It's a ceramic piezo transducer disc. Some people buy a piezo buzzer which has one in and they rip it apart. Hard work when you can just buy the disc anyway. It looks like a thin a brass disc with a white coating in the middle (like a fried egg). There are two wires soldered to it, one to the brass outer and one to the coating. Carfeully unsolder them and discard the wires. You need some screened twin cable and a 1/4 inch jack socket. On one end of the cable solder one wire to the inner of the jack and the other wire and the screen wire together to the outer. At the pickup end trim the outer covering back about 2 cm and cut off the screen. Very very carefully solder one wire to the brass and one to the coating where the old wires were. Be carfeul because the coating is fragile. If it breaks off when soldering just try soldering another small blob on another area, it usually works OK. Before fixing to the guitar, plug it into an amp and just tap the disc, if it clicks it's OK, if it's dead then you got it wrong. When OK I fix the socket into the body then glue the disc (brass side) with Araldite to the inside of the box just under where the bridge/saddle is going to be. I also add a blob of hot glue to stick the cable to the lid just to stop it flapping about and ripping your wires off. I don't bother with vol. or tone controls, just use those on the amp. Job done.

Squidoo

Just found this cool site where you can create a mini blog in a few minutes. They call each blog a "lens". I put a CBG lens on there. You can see it from this link.

http://www.squidoo.com/smojocigarboxguitars/

Cigar box guitar playing on YouTube

Been experimenting with some short videos on YouTube to demonstrate my CBGs. Here's a bit of slow improvisation inspired by the Delta. Check out my others at

http://www.youtube.com/smojomusic

metal slides for cigar box guitars

The guitars I make are purely for slide playing. The slide I use and like best is a heavy brass tube. I have tried pyrex which is a very thin glass. The glass is quite soft and scratches after a while. They break when you drop them too, hence I don't have one any more. They are too lightweight for my liking. Heavier slides are good for creating a decent vibrato too, they seem to "wobble" better on your finger. Real glass bottlenecks are cool being heavy but are hard to make. I've tried copper tubing making slides from hot water pipes but copper is too soft too and gives a dull sound compared to brass. I reckon a decent chromed tube would be good too.

I've been looking for scrap brass or chrome tubing to make some slides to go with my guitars. I called at a scrap metal merchant today and bought an old chromed towel rail. The type that is plumbed into your heating system. It's brass underneath. I reckon I can cut it up into small lengths, file the ends smooth and make about 40 slides out of it. I'm going to make one soon as a prototype so I'll report back on how good it is. I like the idea of recycling too. Most parts of the guitars are from recycled materials and it has a good vibe, good mojo, to make useful things out of scrap.

Update 19 Oct 2007 - I made a couple and they are great, nice smooth action and clean sound

next cigar box guitar projects

So I've just about finished my latest guitar and feel like a new challenge. I have an idea to make a sort of hard case to hold a CBG. I also want to build a battery powered amp into it too. It will make a complete "buskers" kit. It could take a while as I haven't designed it yet and will need to play around with ideas first.

I need to sell some of my "babies" too now. Getting short of space and a bit of working cash would help fund some more projects. I haven't really applied myself to selling them so far. A few friends have seen them and wanted one but that area has dried up. I need to do some marketing. Anyone out there got any bright ideas?

Making a Cigar Box Guitar - Part 4 - the bridge

There are different materials/items used for the bridge but it needs to be a hard material. Some people use a threaded eye hook. I tried it but wasn't happy. I make my own simple bridge using some hard wood like oak or mahogany - a small piece left from the neck will do. I make it about 5 cms long and shape the cross section into an upside down T shape. The saddle part where the strings cross is only about 3 or 4 mm wide. I make it using a small router bit mounted in a drill stand. I cut very shallow grooves (1 mm) about 1 cm apart for the strings to sit in.

I string it up temporary but not full tension and place the bridge in it's approx position. Pass the string through the bottom of the holes you drilled at the base of the neck. You need to find the exact spot for correct intonation. I use a tuner and play one string open and tune it to an exact note (e.g. A) The twelve fret should be exactly one octave higher. I use a screwdriver shaft as a slide for this process as the narrowness makes it more accurate. Place it over the 12th fret and move the bridge either further up or down the box until the octave is bang over the twelth. You can mark it's position if you intend glueing the bridge to the box. I don't usually bother as it gives me the option of fine tuning the intonation whenever I want.

The design of my necks means that there isn't quite enough backwards offset on the neck (like a Fender) to provide enough tension of the strings over the nut. Like Fender I get round this by fitting "string trees" which pull the strings down onto the nut. I sometimes use small screw eyes and thread the string through the eye. Sometimes I make a small metal bar with a hole at each end and two small screws through them into the headstock. The bar presses down on all three strings simultaneously. Once you have these fixed you can string it up and tune it.

These small refinements are something you can experiment with. Once you have the basic box, you'll find little ways of improving them. All part of the creative fun.

More refinement tips to come ......