Another Cigar Box Guitar WIP

[Hermit]

I glued the label on tonight. The process went well.
I changed my mind in the end and decided to use contact adhesive for a cleaner job.

I pondered the method for a while and came up with the following:

First, I made a mask the size of the soundboard, with an oval cut out of the centre for accurate positioning. I made the oval cutout about 1mm larger all around than the label:

a. Main Label Positioning Mask.jpg


Next, I made a second glue mask, that I aligned and taped over the top of the first:

b. Main Label Glue Mask.JPG

This one was slightly smaller than the label, so I wouldn't get glue outside the label borders. I spread glue through it, then peeled it off.

Now I spread glue over the back of the label, then positioned it inside the position mask and smoothed it down:

c. Main Label Gluing.jpg

Next I peeled the mask off and voila:

d. Main Label Glued.jpg


The inner label was trickier, in a way. No mask, and only one shot to get it right.
I coated the back with glue, then, while the glue was still wet, quickly positioned it and smoothed it down. Lucky for me, it went pretty well. Not perfectly centred, but plenty good enough.
I had slight squeeze-out in two spots, so carefully removed it and again, voila:

e. Inner Label Glued.jpg

(I even got it right way up. )

I'll let the glue harden for a few days now before doing anything else. I'll let it sit overnight, then use a 20W CFL lamp to warm the area for the rest of the curing time.

On Monday, I'll apply a coat of gloss Estapol over the top, then maybe a second a couple of days later. (I remembered to scuff the surface tonight before gluing, so it's good to go for the Estapol coats when the glue's dried properly.)

Edit: Another tip that I forgot to mention - to hold each label piece still while spreading the glue on the back, I used a pair of dividers. If the labels moved around, I might have got glue smeared on the front.
Also, before gluing, (a few days ago), I coated both sides of both label halves with spray Estapol, so the glue couldn't soak through and mar the front.

[Hermit]

The poly's had ample time to harden, and all finish coats are done except the oil on the fingerboard, so I got stuck in today and shaped my version of a Ramparts bridge. I coated it in Teak oil this afternoon, so I'll let it harden overnight, then scrape the poly from the bridge area of the soundboard and glue the bridge on tomorrow, then Teak oil the fingerboard.

Not far from the end now. I can string it in a couple of days and set it up, finally.
I'll screw on the box lid last, when everything else is done. (Apart from the under-saddle pickup, I'll retro-fit the electronics after they're tested to make sure they work OK.)

These pics are a bit fuzzy, but visible. (The nut is just sitting there - still needs chopping down a bit and slotting.)

The body, lid and headstock:

bz. Ready for bridge.JPG ca. Box lid.jpg ca. Headstock done.JPG


The Ramparts bridge:

cb. Ramparts Bridge.JPG

[Hermit]

I had to get a bit accurate again today, to fit the bridge, for the first time since cutting the fret slots.
The scale is 25.34", so with compensation of 0.11", the total distance from nut edge to the centre of the saddle had to be 25.45", (646.43mm).

First I positioned the bridge with the help of a few small tags of masking tape, then made up a bed from multiple layers of masking tape, so that the bridge just fitted:

cd. Bridge bed.JPG ce. Bridge in bed.JPG


Next I scraped the whole area back to bare timber, to about 0.5mm from the edges:

cf. Scraping bridge area.JPG cg. Back to bare timber.JPG


Then I lightly chamfered the bottom edges of the bridge, to ensure it didn't sit up on the remaining poly finish at all:

ch. Bridge bottom edges chamfer.JPG


Now I glued the bridge in place, using minimal glue to avoid squeeze-out as much as possible. I don't have any fancy clamps/cauls, but since the bridge doesn't have to hold the strings and the glue only needs to stop it from sliding around, I just held it down firmly for 5 minutes until the glue was holding well, then removed the tape and cleaned up the beads of squeeze-out.

ci. Bridge glued in place.jpg


Finally, when the glue had dried for a couple of hours, I drilled the hole for the pickup cable on through the soundboard and test fitted the pickup, (just visible in the bottom of the slot):

cj. Pickup test fitting.jpg


All is well so far. I'll let the glue harden for a day or so while I finish the BS box I'm making, then get on with the job of shaping the nut and saddle and setting up.

N.B. I just thought I'd add - the under-saddle pickup is the reason I decided to go with a 'Ramparts' style bridge. The pickup steals 2.2mm of the slot depth. By using a Ramparts bridge, I could make it taller, allowing the saddle to still bed nice and deep above the pickup.

[Mutawintji]

Steve ... Excellent work on this, I have been following it. Foresight and technical skill at work.

greg

[Hermit]

Steve ... Excellent work on this, I have been following it. Foresight and technical skill at work.
greg

Not to mention a fair bit of luck Greg.

My scale measurements were made easy by copying a Martin guitar scale, compensation and saddle angle. All I had to do was measure accurately.
I didn't get done in time for my birthday, but not long now and I can finally give it a test spin. I'm never on time anyway.

I'll get a coat of Teak oil on the fretboard tomorrow, worked in with finishing the second BS box, then post some finished pics once it's strung, set up and tuned. (And the lid's screwed on.)

[Hermit]

I got it strung & set up today - it's not at all bad to play and has more volume as an acoustic than I expected.
As a bonus, when the lid's open it doubles as a stand. I screwed on a couple of buttons for a strap as well, while I was at it.

I couldn't get a good pic indoors due to glare and couldn't take it outside because it's been pouring rain all day. I'll take some more outdoors after the electrics are fitted and the Sun is shining again. (Hopefully tomorrow.)

ck. Front.jpg cl. Back.jpg cm. Back open.jpg

I tested the preamp this afternoon, too, just plugged into the PC sound card. It works fine, with no audible noise, so I'll wire up the electrics tonight, then it's all done, except for maybe a last bit of fine-tuning the action once I get the feel of it.
The preamp has the volume and tone pots soldered on-board, too close together for decent knobs, so I'll remove the tone pot from the PCB and run short leads to it, so I can mount it a couple of inches from the volume pot. No problem, as long as it doesn't introduce extra noise. I'll run an extra grounded lead to the pot body to take care of that, (I hope).

My fingers are already sore from playing with it today.

[jow104]

Hermit it looks good and hopefully will sound and perform as well.

So give us a recording and vocal, waltzing matilda would be nice.

[Hermit]

Hermit it looks good and hopefully will sound and perform as well.
So give us a recording and vocal, waltzing matilda would be nice.

Ha. Fat chance. Believe me, the last thing you want to hear is me singing.

[Hermit]

I got almost all of the electrics fitted last night. Still no sunshine, so the pics aren't the best.

I can't wire the 6.5mm jack yet, I have to wait for a right-angled 3.5mm plug to fit into the preamp and clear the lid. I don't have an amp or 6.5mm lead yet anyway, I'll buy them next week.
For now, I'm running a 3.5mm lead out through the bottom 'f' hole, from the preamp to the PC sound card. Where would we be without duct tape?

I made a pick last night while I was at it, Merbau to match the body & neck. No finish on it, I'll leave it natural.

cn. Output Jack & Knobs.JPG co. Electrics.JPG cp. Merbau plectrum.JPG

[Denim]

Looks fantastic Hermit. Will you be uploading a soundfile of how it plays?


Regards,

Denim.

[Hermit]

Looks fantastic Hermit. Will you be uploading a soundfile of how it plays?
Regards,
Denim.

Thanks for the good feedback, Denim.
I won't upload a sound file just yet. It's been 30+ years since I picked up a guitar so I can't get any decent sounds out of it yet. It doesn't sound too good through the cheap PC sound card, either, and doesn't like the higher strings - less volume.
I'll see what happens, but maybe in a week or two, when I get the amp, set it up better and get a little more practice.

My setup isn't perfect yet, either - I need to raise the low E string at the nut and lower it at the saddle end. (A bit of buzz.) This is all new to me, I need a little trial and practice. I cut the nut a little short, so I'm ordering 2 more to keep going until I get it spot-on. I haven't glued it in place yet, it's just held down by the strings.
The saddle end is easy, just need to shave it a bit. I'm glad I made the Ramparts bridge - plenty of adjustment left. It makes removing the saddle much easier when it's shaved short, too.
The high E string can go a little lower at the nut and saddle.
My measurements were good - If I tune each string open, then hit the 12th fret harmonic, the tuner tells me that they're virtually spot-on.

For some real sound, I'm buying the little Mini Supro amp that _fly_ recommended.

For now, I did manage a better photo, at least. : -

Edit: For some reason, the uploader keeps telling me my pic is an invalid file. It's the same resolution as all my others, so I don't know what's going on. Just wasted an hour trying making it smaller, taking new pics etc. I give up.

[jow104]

Hi. Hermit, will it sound like this ( yamaha club forum members)

All you ever do is bring me down - Duo Astral Plane cover 2. version with a special guest - YouTube

[Hermit]

Hi. Hermit, will it sound like this ( yamaha club forum members)

All you ever do is bring me down - Duo Astral Plane cover 2. version with a special guest - YouTube

God, I hope not.

For now, I'm trying to get around this problem of being unable to upload images. Dunno what's going on, but it's bloody annoying. It says that everything I try is an invalid image file.
Tried different, even tiny, pics, different formats, different threads, always the same problem.
I really wanted to post decent finished pics of this and another project I just completed. It's bloody annoying. I might try uploading to PhotoBucket, then linking, as a last resort.

[_fly_]

Steve,
I just DL your plectrum picture and tried to reload it again in this reponse.
It says its not a valid JPG file.
I'm guessing its the forums problem and not yours.
Peter

[Hermit]

Steve,
I just DL your plectrum picture and tried to reload it again in this reponse.
It says its not a valid JPG file.
I'm guessing its the forums problem and not yours.
Peter

Thanks for that, Pete. I've started a thread in the Help section, just waiting on a response.

I just uploaded it to PhotoBucket, then tried to link to it inline here, still says 'invalid file'. I'll wait and see what the 'powers-that-be' say in the Help section. Hopefully just a temporary setback.

N.B. I've also tried uploading to other threads with the same result, so it's not just this thread, either.