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Reboot


gitnoob

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Just logged in for the first time in, I dunno, a few years at least. Cool to see some of the same old names.

 

I thought it would never happen, but I pretty much stopped playing. And stopped building. And stopped buying (thank gawd). But it appears to be time to reboot (at least 2 out of 3).

 

Would you believe me if I told you I built 4 guitars in the last month or so? No? Good, because it's mostly a lie, but....

 

1) Spruce top, rosewood body OM. Started it about a year ago. Didn't like the bridge I made, so it's been hanging on the wall completed but for the bridge for months. Finally made a bridge I liked last week and glued it on. So that's done.

 

2) Somebody wanted a CNC demo. I gave them a few options, and they chose an electric guitar body. Cool! So I made a thinline tele body out of VG Douglas Fir. Made three tops for it -- zebra wood, flamed maple, and VG Douglas Fir. Ended up choosing fir on fir. Just soldered the pickups tonight -- still need to make a few metal parts and then string it up. Let's call that nearly done.

 

3) The CNC demo turned into a class I'll be offering this summer, but I also wanted to offer an easier class for kids. Hmm, how about cigar box guitars? Just completed the prototype. Fun project!

 

4) The electric and CBG got me thinking about the nature of guitars and inspired me to design a modular guitar. A little hard to explain, but I've got an almost-playable prototype.

 

That's my story. 4 guitars in about a month. Sort of.

 

Pics and more stories later. Maybe. :)

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garthman! I like quiet. And pictures....

 

I made a rosette out of cut-offs from my previous build.

 

But I didn't really like the way it turned out, so I ended up using a factory-reject Martin top I had.

 

I braced the upper bout using something like Martin's A-frame. A bit of a pain to get it to fit together nicely, but it seems pretty sturdy.

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DeepEnd!

 

The CBG was a lot of fun to build. Now I have to learn to play it.

 

I used some traditional guitar-building techniques. Scarf-jointed neck with headstock veneer. Fretwork. Ebony nut.

 

But the fretboard was made from some sapele scrap, the bridge is a large set screw. The side fret markers were made from toothpicks.

 

I mentioned that this is a prototype for a kids' class, so I'm trying to make the construction fairly foolproof. The box, for example, is laser-cut with finger joints to ensure a tight fit with the neck. It fits together like a puzzle -- kind of cool. I'll probably give them some sound hole and electronics options for the class. Oh, and headstock options too. I went for an uke-style with this one.

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Oh, man. The illusive independent thumb. I still love that alternating-bass stuff. I still try. But no. My stupid thumb still pays attention to what the other fingers are doing. I can fake it sometimes, but it's just muscle memory. If the fingers have to play some syncopated melody, the thumb knows. I watch it dumbfounded as it deviates from a steady bass. I will continue working on it though. Thanks for reminding me.

 

And I made a stand for my CBG today. Just a piece of maple with a live edge and a mortise in it to accept the end of the neck-through neck.

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Just saw your Freeman-made OM thread. Very nice! I made 4 bridges for mine. One of them was a pyramid bridge. Frickin' indecision. I dressed it up like a Barbie doll and ultimately decided to go with a run-of-the-mill rosewood Martin-like belly bridge.

 

But now I have some spare bridges for my next build. (And spare top. And spare neck. And spare fretboard. Did I mention indecision?)

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Did some more guitar stuff last night. Turned some brass Fender-style string ferrules on the lathe. I just couldn't imagine spending $1/ferrule, so I had to try making my own. Took about an hour, so next time I'll just buy some.

 

So if you had some warped 1/8"-thick walnut, would you toss it out?

 

Or would you laser-cut some f-holes into it, dust off your geometry skills to calculate the radius of the warped top, and then laser cut a finger-jointed box to make yet another CBG box?

 

It turned out well enough that I'm consider making another one, but next one will be a dovetail maple box with walnut top.

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I'm considering various approaches for the kids to finish their guitars. Here's a test of Tru-Oil on the walnut. I like it.

 

Also, another CBG prototype in progress. This one made with an actual cigar box (that everybody thinks is a laptop). It's only about 1" thick, so I'll make it into a pure electric mostly-solid body. Going for a tele headstock on this one.

 

Also a couple of purpleheart fingerboard candidates.

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Thanks, man, but I am truly a n00b at this stuff. Getting tapped to teach some kids has given me a deadline (which is a great procrastination killer) and forces me to think through the processes a bit. Having a blast helps too. :)

 

Nobody else building CBG's here? I'm finding it addictive and a great way to explore different design ideas.

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I know you've all been anxiously awaiting an update. Two classes complete, one to go. 14 CBG's complete. 6 tele's to go.

 

One CBG class was for younger kids who couldn't use power tools, so they made their boxes on the laser cutter and designed their own sound holes. I cut the necks on the CNC.

 

The teen class used actual cigar boxes, and they made their own necks, fretboards, etc.

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Yes. Sometimes with a bit of assistance. Those were a couple of my favorites. A few of the others were a little rougher. I'm still not sure what some of the sound holes are supposed to be.

 

But basically I tried to develop a fail-proof process for both classes, and it mostly worked.

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Child swings dead blow hammer, misses target, mashes a gitnoob digit. Brave gitnoob takes it like Rocky Raccoon. Reassure kid it's only a scratch. Goes to harbor freight and buys arbor press.

 

Good work there. Are there any players actually having fun with them?

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They all have an under-saddle piezo hidden in those custom-made hardwood bridges. So apparently the best way to have fun with them is to plug them in, crank up the distortion, and try to get them to feed back. But, yeah, they were a huge hit with the kids. I offered them all a free setup after they took them home long enough to hurt their little fingers. So some of them are now nicely playable.

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