cigar box guitar soundholes

Had an interesting question from a reader and after spending a while replying, thought it would make a good post for others. Norm asked:

I've cut the neck for a 6 string acoustic CBG to learn on. Have a beautiful piece of leopard wood for the fret board. Trying to select the box. Going to go with kind of a plain Jane so I won't feel bad about cutting a sound hole in the middle. Since some of the art work on the CB's I have picked up is so beautiful I can't bring myself to put a big hole through it!!!

My question is this. I'm going with a 25 inch scale, how large of a diameter sound hole should I cut and how far from the bridge do you think I should place it. I'd like to get the biggest sound as possible. Would you suggest reinforcing the inside of the box? I am building with the neck and tailpiece as one unit going all the way through the box.... hmmm that right there would limit placement of a central sound hole. What would you suggest with that in mine? Maybe two smaller sound holes on each side of the neck/tail piece? If so what size diameter or radius?

Answer

There's been a lot of debate on CBG forums about soundhole sizes. I'm not an expert luthier, I reckon you probably know more than me on regular guitar building. I tend to like to keep things fairly quick and simple in the original spirit of CBGs being rough home-made instruments. I do like to know the science etc behind things though but don't actually apply it to my builds. Here's a link to one article http://hal9000.ps.uci.edu/Weber%20H90%20Physics%20Paper.pdf just Google "helmholtz resonator" for more info.

As far as I understand, soundhole size has nothing to do with the scale length but is relative to the volume of air inside the box. I'm sure there are online calculators to give optimum sizes if you can work out the internal volume of your box. Theory suggests that size seems to affect the frequencies more than actual acoustic loudness - larger holes better treble but less bass. Some CBGers don't bother with holes at all and some put one in each corner. It seems that it doesn't make all that much difference what you do. I guess that's becuase the poor acoustic properties of a cigar box can't be altered enough to actually hear a big difference in audio quality. It's more a question of visual aesthetics where you place them.

My personal slant is usually to put one about an inch diameter in one corner. Sometimes two or three smaller ones. (I think the optimum worked out by someone was surprisingly small - only about 3/8 inch for the average size box). I built one with it in the centre but hid the neck by fitting a sink drain cover over it. Very little 'hole area' when you add it together but it sounds great and is one of my favourites. I also fit piezo pickups to all my guitars so if I want some volume and variety of tone I just run it through an amp.

I reinforce the box by simply running a bead of wood glue (PVA) around the inside of the corners. Some people use wooden beadings glued for extra strength. I think soundboard bracing would be overkill.

Theories seem to go right out the window with CBGs. Standard acoustic guitar builders consider the type and thickness of wood for the soundboard, type of internal bracing etc. Doesn't seem to make much difference to a cbg. Example I built one with a very thick lid. I thought it would sound dead but it has the best sustain of them all. In fact it's the thinner box lids that seem to be a little dead, I would have thought the opposite though perhaps they give more volume. A pal built one out of an all-cardboard box and it sounded great.

My advice would be not to get too caught up in all the technicalities or striving for the ulitmate sounding CBG. Just have fun, experiment, try a different approach each time you build one and see what works. You will be surprised what does. Every one I've built has sounded and felt different, some better than others but unless I use the exact same box and neck wood, I doubt I could repeat any one exactly but that's one of the things I like about it all - variety and the element of surprise. Don't get drawn into being too precious about them. It's a guitar made out of a cigar box after all! You're not competing with a Martin or a Gibson. Be guided by your imagination and whims and just enjoy the whole creative aspect.

Slack Key music

My last post on the Balalaika drew a very interesting comment from 'Wood Finery' about 'Slack Key music'. I love to go off in different musical directions so had to find out more. He sent me a link explaining it, so here's the starting point if you want to find out too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slack-key_guitar

So from there I just had to hear some and found this on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6jZ8O7oAU8&feature=PlayList&p=A97B34248F91C95A&index=3

and this sweet little lady playing her own composition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VsMxS5u6lM&feature=PlayList&p=A97B34248F91C95A&index=2

So how does this possibly tie in with CBGs? There are several connections. Slack Key seems to be of Hawaiian origin and is basically played with a detuned guitar to an open chord - typically open G or D - same popular tunings that blues guitarists use for bottleneck or slide work. Same tunings as we tend to use for CBGs. The two styles, blues and hawaiian music, may seem miles apart in musical content but if you read up on the history of blues you'll find the connection. At the time that blues was gaining popularity in the early 1900's in the USA, so was Hawaiian music. Many blues players borrowed the styles of Hawaiian players, detuning guitars to open chords but playing them in their own bluesy styles. One of the main differences though, seems to be the use of a slide in blues (often attributed to the story of Charlie Paton hearing a guy playing slide with a knife on a railway station) whereas the Slack Key music I've seen on Youtube so far seems to be fingerstyle. I have also seen Hawaiian slide playing but not referred to as 'Slack Key'.

The small samples I've heard of Slack Key so far are beautiful and I shall be spending some time exploring it more. Many thanks to 'Wood Finery' for bringing this to my attention.

latest cigar box guitar

Here's a piccy of one of my latest cigarbox guitars. It's tuned to low open E. Neck is mahogany and it has a piezo pup. Bridge and nut are threaded bolts. Strap is hand made from some webbing with strong hessian twine to anchor each end.

I've had a go at a stompbox using a cool looking French butter box. I attached a piezo disk and amped it up but it sounded rubbish. Just a plain tapping sound. I want a deeper thump but as yet don't know how to get it.

balalaika

I just bought this at a charity shop for about £8 ($12) for my collection of cool instruments. It's a Russian folk instrument called a balalaika . I thought you might find it interesting. This one's not top quality and has some water damage to the bottom right but it's a nice little thing. I was interested to notice how much it has in common with my cbgs. Three strings, small soundhole, simple moveable bridge, no truss rod, string anchorage over the bottom.


Apparently it is normally tuned to EEA - the two Es in the same octave. At the moment it's only got one steel string but even so I've had a lot of fun with it. The string is under very low tension so I can get some really big note bends. I've tried it with a bottleneck too. I can get some really buesy sounds out of it, though that's not how they are normally played.

february cbg update

Two new cbgs on the go, should be finished soon. A Ramon Allones green box and a Robaina white box, both with mahogany necks made from some solid shelves I acquired on Freecycle. There's some good stuff to be had from that site. The other day I got a Realistic megafone speaker. It's one of those metal horn shaped things for outdoor use. I'm thinking about building it into a rough old wooden box with one of my Smokey type amp modules as a sort of busker's amp.

I've finished the cigar box amp booklet (I think) and the first copy has gone out to a friend to test drive it. He's an electronics novice so he will be able to tell me if there's any tweaks needed. Once I'm happy with it, I'll put it up for sale for about a fiver (£££). I'll post details on it for anyone interested.

I bought an old 1970's USA license plate off Ebay. Mainly because I think they are cool items and partly because I have ideas of using it in some sort of CBG related item. I'm thinking of a stomp box using it as the footplate. I'm also trying to figure how I can add some beer bottle tops to it to rattle like a hi-hat when stomped.

Saw Seasick Steve live at Leeds alst week. Absolutely love that guy. He played a couple of cbgs in his act as well as his 'Trance Wonder' beat up old solid body electric. I can only say that if you get the chance to see him live - go go go.

The Cigar Box Nation site continues to get better. There are so many fantastic creations to be seen in the photos file and lots of advice in the classroom section. If you haven't had a peek at it yet it's well worth it.

I've been looking at steel resonator guitars and whipped myself into a frenzy over one. It's made by Republic Guitars and is called the 'Resolian'. I have a cheap wooden bodied reso which I like a lot. This type of guitar is very loud and has a lovely bluesy sound and just a cool looking a cbg. I'm hoping to sell a few more cbgs and some of my nondescript standard guitars to fund the reso.

what now

I've just about finished the GPO tin amp. It's such a cool little bugger - I love it. Mostly because it's a little beauty of an old tin, secondly it turned out better than I expected. It's the first amp I've made from scratch using the diagrams on the beavis audio site. Basically, it's like the guts of a Smokey amp. The tin lid is working great as a gain control. Whacking it up full gives some wicked distortion. I fitted a jack socket to allow it to be connected to a speaker cab but as I haven't got one I can't try it through a nice big speaker yet. I'm hoping to get time to record a short vid of it on Youtube soon.

Some new ideas I'd like to do this year.

Make a speaker cab from a rough old wooden box that had French butter in originally. Or it might become one of those box drums that you sit on and drum with your hands.

Make a solid electric dulcimer. There's a brilliant clip on Youtube of someone playing one. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=L-Zt2MwrIwA

Make some more Smokey amp units to fit in cool looking containers. I've got some nice old tobacco tins.

Someone gave me a massive voltmeter that came out of an electric sub station. I might put an amp in that and try to get the needle to move when it's playing. That'll be a challenge.

Have a go at winding my own magnetic pick-ups. That should keep me happy for a while.

Now don't laugh but I've just been given an old Shackleton high seat chair. Remember those corny ads in the 1970s of dear old ladies looking at the catalogs and ordering these tall-legged armchairs? Well I wanted something comfy and free to sit on when I'm working in the cellar and that fitted the bill. You know, sometimes something is so unfashionable and uncool that it's cool for that reason alone. Well this is so uncool that it goes beyond that and becomes uncool again. Ha! It's beige too - yikes. All I need now is a zimmer frame! Actually thinking about it, I might look out for one. I could cut it up and make hundreds of slides. I might pimp up the chair. Maybe turn it into a CBG players version of Jimmy Saville's multi-purpose chair. I bet there's a cable tv channel on called 'pimp that chair'. I'm heading over to Youtube now - bound to be something on there. :)

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

A post to say Happy New Year to you all and thanks for visiting this site. I hope it’s given you some pleasure. I’ve enjoyed writing it and getting the occasional comment back from some of you. It has brought some new friendships and rekindled one or two old ones. Nowadays, more than any other time in my life, I am appreciating that gift of friendship. I don’t want this to sound like some sort of sermon or lecture but because I consider you all to be my friends to some degree or other, I’d like to offer you a little comfort if possible.

You know, there’s a lot of craziness going on in the world today, the likes of which we haven’t seen before. It can make us feel quite insecure and wonder where the hell it’s leading to. The trouble is, there’s virtually nothing we can do to avoid it or improve it. We can’t make changes on a global or national scale, we have to leave that to the madmen who are in charge. That’s the scary bit, and feeling powerless. But we can change our own little worlds. We do have the power to do that to some extent. So that’s my bit of advice to you all. We can try to make our immediate environment a place where we can feel more at ease. We can offer some comfort and support to those we meet during our daily lives.

I am constantly puzzled as to why anyone should want suffering of any kind to continue in the world. Why would anyone choose war, pain, fear and anguish over peace, love, comfort and happiness? We can have the latter just as easy as we can have the former. I had one of my moments of inspiration the other day. I was thinking about all the badness that goes on in the world and trying to understand where it comes from. I’d say it mostly comes from greed and selfishness. That’s why countries fight each other, why arguments start, why people steal from others. Then I tried to think of the solution. That’s when it came to me. It’s so simple and here it is. Just be nice. How difficult is that? We all have the choice of being nasty or nice. Nobody can force us to be mean, lying, violent or greedy. If everyone just behaved in the way that they would like others to treat them, we’d have it cracked in no time. There are enough resources in the world for everyone to have a decent life, if governments and world leaders co-operated and looked after each other.

OK I’m deluded if I think I’ve solved the world’s problems here but it really could be that simple if only everyone could embrace the principle. That’s the problem though. For some reason, many people seem incapable. Well here’s my slant on what we can do. Firstly, try to embrace those nice principles ourselves as much as we can. There are many good people out there who already do. In fact I believe there are more forces for good than bad but unfortunately, many of the people in positions of power don’t practise it enough. We can always do a bit more though can’t we.

Secondly, have a little courage and empower yourself – make your personal world one you can enjoy. Don’t be afraid to be yourself, follow your dreams, talk to a stranger, put a coin in a busker’s hat, sing out loud, say sorry when you know you’re wrong. Take time to visit an old friend or make new ones, take up a new hobby or learn a new skill, grow some fruit or flowers, or just sit quietly and listen to the birds sing and feel the sun on your face. Don’t be afraid to try something new because you think you’ll be no good at it or someone will disapprove. I can’t remember which rock star said ‘no-one gets out of here alive’ but it’s a great line and also true. The point I’m making is - it’s these small things that add quality to our lives and to those of others. The warmongers and governments can’t take those away from us. This is the world we can create for ourselves whenever we wish to.

Sorry for the rant. It started out as a short post to wish you the best for the new year but I got carried away. Take care, have fun.

Merry Christmas

Just a short post to say a Merry Christmas to everyone. Thanks for visiting my blog. I'm still going strong with this stuff. The new cigarbox nation website that Shane Speal set up is brilliant. Go find it. Have a great holiday. Best wishes

David (aka smojo)

some cigar box guitar news

There are a few things to tell you about today. I've had a number of people asking about how to build a c.b. amp. I've been putting a small booklet together for a while now and just about finished it. It's going to be available at a very reasonable price. I need to do some work on a new site first before I offer it out. The site is called Folksy and it's a UK site catering for all manner of craft items. It doesn't have an image that fits well with CBGs but it will allow me to put items up for sale and take payment via Paypal. I'll post here when it's up.

I'm having a go at selling a guitar on Ebay. I've gone off Ebay recently as they seem to have got greedy and the hefty fees they take when you sell along with Paypal fees, eats into your sales. I tried a couple of CBGs there before and although there were plenty of watchers, they didn't sell. I noticed there have been a few UK CBGs sold there lately, so it might be a good time to try again. I've put my Quality Street tin guitar on. It has a nice natural reverb sound to it. It has the usual piezo pickup so you can amp it up. I've started the price at £35 which is about half of what I normally sell CBGs for so if you're interested, have a look here and you might grab yourself a nice little bargain. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=260331120035
Sorry to say this though - I am only shipping to the UK at present. The complications, cost and risks of shipping abroad are still too much for my brain to cope with at present. I will get my head around it one day but too much to think about at the moment.

I have a few unfinished CBG projects that you have seen on here in the past. I really need to knuckle down and get them done. I seem to have difficulty in focussing my attention on them for some reason. Too many 'irons in the fire' is my problem but it niggles me that I have all these half-finished things. They'll all be really cool when I have them made so I'm going to concentrate on them this winter. I've started work again on the GPO tin amplifier. The screw-lid-used-as-a-volume control idea has been the stumbling block but I think I have it sussed now. I also restarted the big case that will hold two CBGs and a built-in amp. Lot's to do on that yet though.

Finally I just found out Shane Speal has set up a new Myspace/Facebook type of site called Cigarbox Nation. Had a brief look and it looks really cool. Lots of stuff to help the CBG builders and players. You may know Shane as the self proclaimed 'King of the Cigarbox Guitar' who set up the Yahoo CBG Forum some years ago. He made a sudden exit from the CBG scene earlier this year due to various pressures but seems to have bounced back now.

more cigar box guitar basics - slide playing

This is aimed at beginners who may have never played slide guitar or a three-stringed CBG. Now you have your guitar tuned up correctly you need to get the feel of playing slide.

It's amazing how many beginners think you have to press the strings down onto the fretboard with the slide. No no no, think about it. The slide is taking the place of the fret wires. The pitch or note played on a string gets higher as it gets shorter. The normal fret wires act in the same way as the nut at the top of the neck. They create a solid point on the string, along with the bridge, to allow the string to vibrate. The slide is simply a movable nut allowing you to shorten the string length in variable degrees rather than fixed ones like the fretwires. You only need to put enough pressure on the string to get a clear note when plucked. You also need to place the slide smack over the fret mark - not between frets or on the dots.

So first practise doing that on just the top (first) string. I prefer the slide on my little (pinky) finger as it leaves the best three fingers free. If you want to play slide on a conventional guitar, you'll appreciate having them free for occasional fretted notes. So just try placing the slide over the third fret position on the first string and pluck it. Does it rattle? Not enough pressure, put slightly more on until it rings out clear.

The most important thing you need to develop is hitting the note accurately when sliding up or down to it. You can only tell by using your ears. Unless you are tone-deaf you will know when it's right. So try putting your slide over the third fret, pluck the string and while it's still ringing, slide smoothly up to the fifth fret. Does it sound right? Yep - you just learned your first lick. Now try adding some vibrato when you reach the fifth fret. Using movement in the wrist, simply 'wobble' the slide back and forth slightly above and below the fret position. That sounds much better doesn't it. Try these exercises, sliding from frets 2-3, 3-5, 5-7, 7-10, 10-12 then try them in reverse. Don't forget to practise the vibrato on the targeted frets.

More tips to follow soon.