I cut my teeth on making cigar box guitars but over the last year I've moved away from making the 3 string variety, concentrating on solid bodies and either Ukes or mandos or tenor guitars for cigar box instruments. The main reason being there are many builders out there who build 3 string cbgs and sell them for a lot less than I do.
A local chap called Kev came to me the asking if I could do some improvements for a CBG he recently bought off Ebay as he wasn't happy with it.
I said I could have a look at it mainly out of curiosity to see what another builders work was like.
The problems he had with it was it was too quiet (amplified) the frets had sharp edges. Also the action was too low for slide. he wanted the correct gauge strings for GDG tuning and he wanted a volume an tone control fitted.
On arrival The CBG was of the basic stick through box job with the neck glued to the underside of the lid. The piezo fitted was stuck to the underside of the stick which is why it was so quiet.
It has brass frets which where very poorly installed into the neck with no separate fret board also the neck doesn't look particularly flat and the fret edges where protruding out about half a mm and very sharp actually scratching the skin of your hands.
The back of the neck had also been poorly finished and was quite rough on the back.
CGB's are mainly used with a slide so demand a fairly high action unfortunately this one sported a zero fret making it very easy to hit the frets at the nut end.
The bridge was a very small wooden one with 3 diagonal frets installed. I'm not sure what the point of the diagonal frets are if it's supposed to offer some intonation as it doesn't work as the strings still hit the bridge in a straight line.
The machine head nuts where also very loose and one of the machine heads is technically on backwards.
Ok for a CBG that cost about £40 - £50 This is can be expected but actually this one cost the buyer Nearly £80 with postage included. My CBG's start at a little more than that for an unfretted model (The fretwork on this being failry useless anyway) and they are of a much higher build quality. (even the ones that look rough).
It actually was quiet easy and a fairly quick job to put this right. Removing the piezo and fitting two on either side of the neck on the lid. (I couldn't remove the neck without damaging the lid otherwise I would have and cut a recess for the lid to resonate freely. Kev also wanted a volume and tone control fitted so I installed some removed from another guitar complete with a capacitor. As you can see from the pics one of the holes went a little off as the lid is actually MDF with a wood veneer which I wasn't expecting so my drill went for a little wander. (should have used the pillar drill)
The frets where filed and wet and dried to a hand friendly finish within 10 minutes. (Brass nice and soft) I also fine sanded the back of the neck and gave it a coat of liquid beeswax so it's now nice and smooth. tightened up the machine heads fitted D'addario A,D,G string for open g (GDG) tuning.
Kev wanted the CBG for pure slide work so I took out the zero fret and made a corian nut raising the action by 3mm I also put in a hardwood bridge with a much wider span and slightly higher elevation.
All in all just over an hours work now It is a fair bit louder and eminently more playable.
P.S this post is not meant to berate anybody elses work it's my honest opinion of this particular cigar box guitar and information on how I improved upon it.
A local chap called Kev came to me the asking if I could do some improvements for a CBG he recently bought off Ebay as he wasn't happy with it.
I said I could have a look at it mainly out of curiosity to see what another builders work was like.
The problems he had with it was it was too quiet (amplified) the frets had sharp edges. Also the action was too low for slide. he wanted the correct gauge strings for GDG tuning and he wanted a volume an tone control fitted.
On arrival The CBG was of the basic stick through box job with the neck glued to the underside of the lid. The piezo fitted was stuck to the underside of the stick which is why it was so quiet.
It has brass frets which where very poorly installed into the neck with no separate fret board also the neck doesn't look particularly flat and the fret edges where protruding out about half a mm and very sharp actually scratching the skin of your hands.
The back of the neck had also been poorly finished and was quite rough on the back.
CGB's are mainly used with a slide so demand a fairly high action unfortunately this one sported a zero fret making it very easy to hit the frets at the nut end.
The bridge was a very small wooden one with 3 diagonal frets installed. I'm not sure what the point of the diagonal frets are if it's supposed to offer some intonation as it doesn't work as the strings still hit the bridge in a straight line.
The machine head nuts where also very loose and one of the machine heads is technically on backwards.
Ok for a CBG that cost about £40 - £50 This is can be expected but actually this one cost the buyer Nearly £80 with postage included. My CBG's start at a little more than that for an unfretted model (The fretwork on this being failry useless anyway) and they are of a much higher build quality. (even the ones that look rough).
It actually was quiet easy and a fairly quick job to put this right. Removing the piezo and fitting two on either side of the neck on the lid. (I couldn't remove the neck without damaging the lid otherwise I would have and cut a recess for the lid to resonate freely. Kev also wanted a volume and tone control fitted so I installed some removed from another guitar complete with a capacitor. As you can see from the pics one of the holes went a little off as the lid is actually MDF with a wood veneer which I wasn't expecting so my drill went for a little wander. (should have used the pillar drill)
The frets where filed and wet and dried to a hand friendly finish within 10 minutes. (Brass nice and soft) I also fine sanded the back of the neck and gave it a coat of liquid beeswax so it's now nice and smooth. tightened up the machine heads fitted D'addario A,D,G string for open g (GDG) tuning.
Kev wanted the CBG for pure slide work so I took out the zero fret and made a corian nut raising the action by 3mm I also put in a hardwood bridge with a much wider span and slightly higher elevation.
All in all just over an hours work now It is a fair bit louder and eminently more playable.
P.S this post is not meant to berate anybody elses work it's my honest opinion of this particular cigar box guitar and information on how I improved upon it.
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