This is a refined version of the pine neck 3 string. This one features a maple neck with a maple fingerboard. I experimented with a brass tailpiece instead of strings through the body/neck end. It also has a Rat Shack transducer just in case Dilip wants to plug in. It has a neck and tail block and kerfing for additional strength. It rings out nice and loud.
Click here for a sound sample.
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This one was a 10 month labor of love for Clarksdale, Mississippi blues player Big Jack Johnson. I started with a nice cedar Punch box. A guitar scale length maple neck with rosewood fingerwood, and some nice gold Kluson tuners I had laying around. There is a neck and tailblock inside the box. Bone nut and rosewood bridge.
I decided to experiment with winding a magnetic pickup, vs. using a Radio Shack transducer. The pickup was a P-90 style made for 3 strings (see below). Added a volume knob and strung it up with some 11′s. The inside is shielded with about a mile of copper shielding tape. The pickup in this CBG was featured in the Pickup Workshop on cigarboxguitars.com.
The box was glued shut in the end, so I added an access hatch in the back for the electronics, and the pickup is also removeable in case it ever needs work. The peghead, pickup cover and access plate are covered in a hundred year old flamed mapled veneer I picked up many years ago from the old Star Piano factory.
I also ended up make a custom case for it out of 1/8″ luwuan plywood and a firring strip frame. Lots of screws and glue hold it together. It’s covered in a brown vinyl, with a brown furry interior.
Unfortunately it was STOLEN! on it’s way to Big Jack, so once I collect the insurance money, I will have to build another one. If you happen to see it on Ebay or around in a pawn shop somewhere, be sure to notify me!!!
Sorry no sound sample, but it sounded GREAT! both acoustically and amplified.
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Alnico magnets and 42 gauge copper wire. It was wound on a modifed old record player, about 3 hours worth of winding at 78 rpm.
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My first CBG was a simple one string copied from the photo Richard Johnston’s album cover. Then I stumbled upon Shane Speal’s CBG Yahoo group where I discovered a couple hundred people were already building and playing CBG’s. A whole new world opened up.
I took it over to show my nieces and nephews and they thought it was so cool, they wouldn’t let me leave the house with it. So I left it there for them to mess around with.
It has a real Gotoh type guitar tuner, a dowel rod neck-through-the-body, a bone nut and a rosewood bridge. There is no bracing inside this one. It has a single guitar string and is meant to be played with a slide. It has a guitar-length scale.
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