On a trip to Deadwood, South Dakota I stopped in the Deadwood Tobacco Company. They have some awesome Cigar Boxes. Sweet Jane above and Fat Bottom Betty below.
This build will be Sweet Jane, with a hickory neck and Poplar finger board. CB Gitty was my source for a three string hard tail bridge, mini humbucker and sealed tuners.
To get started I cut the scarf joint.
The scarf joint is glued up. I had both Oak and poplar for the fingerboard. I'll use the Poplar for this build, the lighter color should give a nice contrast to the darker Hickory and the red-ish colored box.
I glued some poplar scraps to the head stock so I can add some shape to it.
This is what I ended up with.
The mount holes for the bridge are wider than the neck....
NOTE: When I installed the bridge one of the screws broke off, probably a good idea to replace the low quality screws with some better ones on future builds. This bridge costs $12, (well worth the money) just spend another $1 on some better screws.
Using a half lap joint I added a block to the neck so the bridge can be mounted solid.
I ended up using a 24 3/4" scale, I didn't get any pictures of cutting the fret slots.
After gluing the fret board to the neck I put a couple coats of shellac on the neck before I started installing the frets.
I start the frets in the slots by hand, then use a scrap of wood and a hammer to tap the fret into the slot. Once the fret is in the slot a couple firm hits seat the fret flush. The excess is then cut off with some flush cut side cutters.
The sharp edges will be filed so I won't bleed all over the neck while playing.
I have some 1/4" brass that I like to use to make the nuts for my CBGs.
Filed to shape and the string slots cut I epoxied the nut in place.
I used painters tape to lay out the position of the pick up.
I used a carving knife to cut through the top.
It took about ten minutes to cut all the way through. Once the first cuts are made the knife tends to follow those cuts. I got very little tear out doing it this way, it should work for cutting sound holes too.
A nice fit for the pick up.
With the hole cut in the box I needed to cut a notch in the neck for the pickup to fit into. A bunch of cuts with my pull saw.
I knocked the waste out and cleaned up the notch with a chisel.
The notch lets the pickup be lowered down flush with the top.
With the hole and notch cut for the pick up I soldered the electrics together.
The pickup, volume and tone controls mounted temporarily to check the fit.
After the test fit I glued the neck to the lid, mounted the bridge and installed the tuners. There are a few more details to finish up (like put strings on it), but I'm close to being done. A couple of pics of where it is now....
I'm pretty happy with this build....
The Mini Humbucker really over drives my little CBG amp.
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