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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Range View, Australia
    Posts
    656

    Default Tenor Bevel Top Cigarbox

    This is a tenor bevel top guitar, most likely a one off. Made to give context to my cigarbox tables. I actually know people not very interested in luthiery !

    cigarbox table link https://www.woodworkforums.com/f187/c...tables-161976/

    scale............23 1/4 in, tuned in 5's cgda
    body............cut from one piece of PNG Rosewood 420mm x 220mm x 50mm
    neck............kwila
    fb and
    veneers...... Solomon Blackwood
    Top.......25mm
    sides.....9mm
    back......2.6mm
    The top graduations are 90% off the saw and worked after it was glued to the sides. No recurve as such but worked to 3mm on the sides and ends.
    The sides are carved to a C profile, 3- 4mm at the centre. This greatly improved the tap tone.
    The tone bars are thinner but taller than a mandolin, about 10mm under the feet, falling away to nothing. At this stage I worked the top and the bars
    flipping it over and testing deflection at the ff's with finger pressure. I spent a day working the top, bars and sides. As crude as it is it was an absorbing
    challenge.
    The bridge started out twice as big and took 3 goes to get the final size.
    I didn't organise proper tenor guitar strings and am making do with tenor banjo strings gdae. The 2 wound strings seemed floppy so it's now cross tuned
    like a fiddle aeae, big improvment.
    In the end it's better than I expected but just ok. It's like a talking dog. You don't care what he says...he can talk!
    I would like to make a regular tenor but a 5 string, cgdae, giving it the range of a fiddle/ viola.

    I would love to take credit for the calligraphy ff's. I saw them on the Mastronet site about 6 mos ago in an unrelated thread. I can't find the thread.













    Cheers, Bill

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Thornbury
    Posts
    262

    Default

    nice looking piece

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 1999
    Location
    Cheshire England
    Age
    71
    Posts
    252

    Default

    Really nice!

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Range View, Australia
    Posts
    656

    Default

    Thanks for the comments.

    The good news is I didn't overbuild the top. The bad news is it's going down slow.
    I haven't played boogie in years. With the open tunings, that's what came out.
    This is the first time we've used Soundcloud. It sounds better thru headphones than thru open speakers.
    AEAE, then back to natural GDAE, and with the saggy top GDGD. No pckups.

    ZOOM upload boogie9 by Jim816274589 on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
    Cheers, Bill

  6. #5
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    Burleigh, Gold Coast
    Age
    32
    Posts
    15

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Ball Peen View Post
    This is a tenor bevel top guitar, most likely a one off. Made to give context to my cigarbox tables. I actually know people not very interested in luthiery !
    Beautiful piece Ball Peen. I love the grain in the rosewood body. I'm thinking of making a tenor cigar box from paulownia and this thread has inspired action!

    Still not sure about whether the neck will hold.. Truss rod? I really just want to start experimenting with paulownia because I know that there are chinese dulcimers and various japanese instruments that utilise it. Alot of people on forums write paulownia off as too soft but if that is the case I still want to use it want to find a way around those issues.

    Excuse my novice-knowledge but I've never seen a Paulownia CBG and the resonance of the timber is really nice. Maybe its soft nature will dampen the sound???
    Any tips would be hugely appreciated, I'd love a summer project to tinker with.

    Jack

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Range View, Australia
    Posts
    656

    Default

    cheers Jack,
    I'm afraid I don't have any first hand knowledge of Paulownia. If it is being used for the instruments you mention it must have something going for it. A project like this is a good way to find out. Maybe something harder for the neck. I epoxied a carbon fibre poltruded rod in the neck in leiu of a truss rod. ( LMI luthier supply )
    Cheers, Bill

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Arundel Qld 4214
    Age
    86
    Posts
    701

    Default Paulownia for sound

    I used to sell Paulownia and sold some to a few guitar builders. I also had an inquiry for a high end, very high end, maker of guitars wanting to by paulownia. He wanted me to send photos of planks and then he would select what suited him. I have been told the Japanese use it a lot in some of their instruments. I think the problem with the timber that is available in Australia is that the planks are not wide enough but as I don't make instruments then I can't speak from experience.

    Whitewood

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Minbun, FNQ, Australia
    Age
    66
    Posts
    12,881

    Default

    Cliff.
    If you find a post of mine that is missing a pic that you'd like to see, let me know & I'll see if I can find a copy.

  10. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Thornbury
    Posts
    262

    Default

    Hey Ballpeen
    It sounds great - though to me i can't pick up any boogie. I hear straight old school delta - the early years.



    Cheers
    Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can? -- Sun Tzu

  11. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Range View, Australia
    Posts
    656

    Default

    I wish it was old school delta. I guess it's more hodge podge than anything. Usually I record someone else playing. The tenor had 'em all a bit stumped because it's tuned in 5ths like a fiddle, viola, mandolin or cello. So it was me by default. My playing is pretty ordinary, that's why I build.
    Cheers, Bill

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