Freeman Keller. I need some of your expertise knowledge

[Mikeo]

Over the past year, I have been working a so called maker space that has been a compete failure here at work. It's been mostly working with micro computers called Arduino's, some picture circuit stuff and a bunch of freeware. It's personally not that interesting or exciting for me. The woman that runs it, is going to try again to get students involved. I can do almost anything I want too, so I purchased the parts to make a cigar box guitar..

 

I thought the kit through CB Gitty was a bit cheap, so I did a plain cigar box and I purchased a neck that is marked out and ready to be fretted, and hardware too. Anyway the neck is like a maple fret board tele or strat, so you don't add the fret board later. I had them cut the fret slots this time around.

 

I was thinking to make this playable I will need to raise the neck about a 1/4" off the top of the cigar box. I was wonder if I should also put a 1-2 degree tilt on the neck too. Otherwise the neck is just gonna stick out straight of the cigarbox, and the string might be a lil high off the fretboard.

 

 

The saddle bridge I purchased from CB Gitty is not super tall about .4 inches. or 12/32" ish.

 

I have a good size knee mill at work, hooked up to a cnc. I was gonna just skip the cnc part, and just hand crack a 1-2 degree angle on the top of the neck where it meets the top of the cigar box.

 

 

 

I'm in no big hurry to do it, but I'd like to do it right and make it playable. All guitars I know of have a slight angle to the neck.

 

Personally I'd rather be playing and than building, but this should keep me busy on Tuesday night for 2-3 hours here and there. I got a few other hand tools and guides to do the frets work I also will be doing my own nut and not using a chopped screw.

 

 

 

It's a 3 stringer, but if it comes out well I'll do a 4 string and maybe make one for a buddy of mine.

 

 

I have OJ up like all the time, but I will shoot over here and get your professional advice. on the neck tilt question. Your work is amazing.

 

 

PS the neck is flat on the back and I will probably putting a curve on that with a rasp and a lot of sanding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Freeman Keller]

Should be an interesting project. A couple of questions - first, as far as I know most cigar box guitars are tuned to an open G and frequently played with a slide. Do you want to be able to fret yours? I'm also assuming that you neck sits on top of the box and the bridge is what they call a "flying bridge". It looks like the idea here is for the bridge to impart energy to the box top.

 

 

 

 

If you are going to do the slide thing then you'll want a pretty high action and you shouldn't need to set the neck at an angle. If you want to fret it you might need to. What I would do is put it together like shown on your box top and put a straight edge on the top of the saddle going to the nut. Tip the head end of the neck down until you get an action that you think will be playable (you might want to wait until you get it fretted). Plane or mill that into the back of the neck where it sits on the box. You could also make a tapered shim that runs under the neck from zero thickness at the edge towards the nut and thicker under the bridge end, or you could just shim the bridge end and leave a gap under the neck.

 

Archtop guitars frequently have a shim like I'm describing - the neck and fretboard stands a little proud of the top and the shim sets the angle. Rather than trying to calculate it (altho that would be an interesting geometry exercise for a student) I would just fiddle with it until you get it right.

 

 

Please post some pictures of this, maybe at the acoustic forum (or put a pickup in it and really shred!)

[Mikeo]

Thanks a bunch.

 

I hope to play slide on it and also fret it.

 

I am going to mill out a slot to raise the fret board off the body of the cigar box about a 1/4 inch.

 

I though about running a tappered piece of wood on top of the neck where it meets the cigar box top. I could easily mill that taper too. If I glue a piece of wood too it and it's wrong I could probably plane it off.

 

Since this is my first one ever, I bought the neck which is a scarfed head stock joint. They cut the fret slots, but I still need to put the frets in and get em all smoothed out.

 

I think a 1-2 degree tilt on the neck would be fine, but I really don't know.

 

I take some measurements off an acoustic and a fender tele and calculate how much the neck is tilted from the body.

 

 

 

Thanks again

 

[Freeman Keller]

The neck angle with respect to the top of the guitar can vary from zero on many classicals (it can even be negative) to about 4 degrees on Les Pauls and archtops. It can be calculated but there are a dozen things that affect it (many of those won't be present in your instrument). When I build any guitar I have some rules of thumb that get me close, then I tweak the neck angle to get closer, then do the final adjustment at the bridge and saddles.

 

If you think about the way Fender does it, there is no neck angle (to start with). The body is flat, the saddles are a certain distance above the top of the body and the neck stands proud of it also. That gets you close. Some times that isn't close enough, I'll bet a third of the strats out there have some sort of shim in the neck pocket to change the angle. Maybe a degree, maybe half a degree, whatever that particular guitar takes to get closer. Then the final adjustment is made with the little screws.

 

One problem you will have is that don't have much adjustment at the saddle - you can possibly file some string grooves in it or maybe sand a little off the feet, but you are going to need to be pretty close before you do this. I think you will end up putting everything together, then tweaking the angle until it feels right.

 

I'll add, however, that since I've never built one of these things I'm speculating, just like you. Have fun and report back.

 

[Mikeo]

The neck angle with respect to the top of the guitar can vary from zero on many classicals (it can even be negative) to about 4 degrees on Les Pauls and archtops. It can be calculated but there are a dozen things that affect it (many of those won't be present in your instrument). When I build any guitar I have some rules of thumb that get me close, then I tweak the neck angle to get closer, then do the final adjustment at the bridge and saddles.

 

If you think about the way Fender does it, there is no neck angle (to start with). The body is flat, the saddles are a certain distance above the top of the body and the neck stands proud of it also. That gets you close. Some times that isn't close enough, I'll bet a third of the strats out there have some sort of shim in the neck pocket to change the angle. Maybe a degree, maybe half a degree, whatever that particular guitar takes to get closer. Then the final adjustment is made with the little screws.

 

One problem you will have is that don't have much adjustment at the saddle - you can possibly file some string grooves in it or maybe sand a little off the feet, but you are going to need to be pretty close before you do this. I think you will end up putting everything together, then tweaking the angle until it feels right.

 

I'll add, however, that since I've never built one of these things I'm speculating, just like you. Have fun and report back.

 

Will do.

 

I'll start with a zero neck tilt and go from there.

 

I have some pine I got at our carpenter shop if I need to make a wedge.

 

 

Thanks again.