Adjustable "strat" style bridges for cigar box guitars
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- Опубліковано 10 лип 2024
- This is a quick rundown to address some problems I've seen with installing this type of bridge. I was driven to do this by seeing two almost identical problems in the same week of people posting online about problems with getting the action and intonation right when using this type of bridge.
In my opinion, they aren't really suitable for novice builders, as it is quite critical to get the positioning right for intonation, and even more important to get the neck in the right relationship with the top of the guitar to ensure a reasonably playable action. However, when correctly installed they are great, but they do need care and thought to get them to work at their best. www.chickenbonejohn.com/ - Фільми й анімація
Thanks for taking the time to explain such a key element of attaching the neck in your cigar box and getting the right fret board height. I've been dreading that step while waiting for all the parts to arrive. This gives me a much clearer idea of what kind of height I'll need my fret board to be as I'm attaching it to the box body.
Great tip on scale lengths never being shorter, I’ve allies my hardtail midway and bottom out with a sharp intonation adjustment! Thanks
Good Sir, many thanks for your information! You freely share your valuable knowledge with the CBG world and that should be recognized. Kudos!
I have learned more from watching your videos and your explanation as to why,than any other videos.Thank you so much.
I know this is one of your older videos but I want to tell you how helpful it has been to me .Thank you for sharing your knowledge and insight !
Only just seen this. Good advice. My last two builds were made exactly like this BUT I set the bridge saddles in the centre of the backplate when setting the scale length. Fortunately I had just enough movement backwards to intonate them, so no harm done. But take note to set the saddles forward as in this video. Thanks John.
Brilliant! It has explained so many aspects to me and full of wonderful tips
Many thanks
Regards Chris
My recent builds, thanks to your great info vids, are getting to be much better! Thanks, and keep us posted.
You just answered about 5 of my questions and I'm not through watching. Some of my questions I didn't even know I had! Chickenbone, you're a champ! Just subscribed.
Just trying to do our best.
You are the best info anywhere on the net! Many Thanks.
Thank you for posting this excellent and informative viddy! I am starting on my first CBG, and this information is invaluable.
Ok. I’m only on G #3, so I’m gonna stash this hardtail bridge away for a cbg a little further down the road. Thanks so much for taking the time to explain to us!
John, greatly appreciate this video in bridge placement. Loved the way you raised the fretboard 1/8th above the box, great tip.
Have subscribed for more tips. Steve in NH
Thank you so much John for all the information you are sharing. I have been looking at these type bridges and know they are really nice but have not tried installing them. I will try my hand at the basic bridge first as you suggest. Keep up the great videos you are the best on youtube. You are straight and to the point. Greatly appreciate your videos.
I am loving your videos John :-)
I am a Maker of many many years, but have NEVER tried anything musical, nor do I have any skills playing an instrument. I am going to build a cigar box guitar and am confident I will hardly screw ip at all if I learn from your tips. Thank you sir :-)
This video was really helpful as im building my first CBG with a Hardtail bridge.. And now i know exacly how high my neck needs to be so thank you very much for that! Will subscribe aswell!
The adjustable bridges are great! Just made a 6 string license plate guitar and used similar 6 string bridge...awesome!
So many answers in one video, cheers John!!
Hi John, greetings from The Netherlands. A few weeks ago, I completed my first three string build. I opted for the adjustable bridge. I used one with a 13mm string spacing. I have gorilla hands. I followed your advice and it came out a treat. I based it on a 24" scale. I used red oak for the neck and white oak for the heel: i.imgur.com/iwSJ0Nr.jpg. Thanks to your advise, the installation and setting up of the bridge was easy. The intonation is right on the money as is the string height for slide. I'm going use these adjustable bridges for all future builds with magnetic pickups. It's as you said, accuracy is very important. As long as it's not attempted casually, I can't see any problems fitting these bridges. Thanks for the advise, it's proved to be immensely helpful.
I love your videos and Thanks for Sharing!!!! I appreciate you and so do many many others.
Thanks once again for sharing your immense knowledge
Excellent words of wisdom John . Ive made a few . I will never glue again I Thanks ..
Where have you been John? Good to see you again all excited about cigar box guitars! 😎
Where have I been? On the road, touring and doing guitar shows, and in the workshop making lots of guitars. I've not had much time to do this sort of thing as we are simply doing our best to keep up with the demand for our guitars.
thanks for the info brother, love your videos
John is right! When building a CBG, glue is NOT your friend. Screws. No glue.
Very nice info John.
Thank You John!
Thanks so much for your tips in your videos. I wish I saw them when I was building my first cigar box guitar.. Love the way you build the neck of your guitar. looks simpler and stronger. Do you have any videos on building resonator cones for cigar box guitars?
nice one thanks John..
Thanks a lot man! Good information! ;)
Thanks for the Tips
Great video, question: With the strat bridge, I did not notice any strings going through neck from the back. What technique do you utilize to ensure the strings are safely anchored before coming up through the bridge? Thanks
Thanks,CBJ...
Thanks for the video John - excellent timing, as I have just received one of these and was wondering about placement etc. All clear now. Also I'm probably a convert to screw in necks. One quick question - do you cut a rebate to get your necks free of the soundboard or leave them flush all the way through the box? Thanks.
The necks of my guitars usually make contact with the underside of the top all the way through.
Awesome bro how do you ground this bridge 😎
Really needed to be discussed. Thanks. Also isn't the fretboard slope to 3mm still necessary on CGB construction? Sometimes referred to as "ski slope" the gradual fret to string space increase eliminates buzzing. Nice feature. Thanks!
Fretboard slope, ski slope? Not heard of it! I set the neck in parallel to the top of the guitar. The neck needs to be straight but with a very small relief in the centre, (1/100" or .25mm) to help stop buzzing.
ChickenboneJohn ski slope-the fret board is planed in a tapered thickness..3mm as I recall..full thickness at nut and 3mm less at the sound hole. I'm doing CGB s to simplify a full guitar build struggle. setting the neck at a very slight upward angle does the same graduated string to fret spacing. Thanks.. enjoy your features.
Thank you for the great tips John, and yes, you are right, wait until you have everything before you start. Not a luxury I have here in South Africa. Everything has to be ordered from abroad, takes weeks to get here (at a small fortune) and , at my age, I lack patience. I have a lovely box which I want to use as an electric acoustic. Inline pickup, traditional ish sound hole and bridge. Which puts the bridge rather far back. Would I be right in saying, that in keeping to 25.5 scale, the scale of the neck/fretboard would have to be shortened? It’s my first time build...
Set the position of the bridge on the box, measure 25.5 inch scale length from there, that will determine the nut position and the length of the neck. If the timber you have for the neck isn't long enough, you may have to use a shorter scale.
Chickenbone John Thanks John. It’s the box I’m using that’s larger than a conventional cigar box, so I’ll scale the neck and fret board down to compensate for how far back I want to position the bridge. I got my hands on a nice plank of maple, enough for six projects. Have a super day!
Excellent tips on building, thanks for sharing. What height frets do you use, or recommend?
Thanks again for posting.
I use Van Gent medium or jumbo fretwire, which is 1.1mm tall, and sometimes Van Gent super jumbo which is 0,9mm all x 2.7mm wide.
Isnt it easier using theese bridges if im making fretless?
Is there an adjustable bridge that is like the fender stratocaster bridge? I have a modern layer telecaster which basically has strat parts mounted on a telecaster body. I changed the neck to a MIM Fender roasted maple neck with the satin back. Well nowI messed up the scale so I'm looking for an adjustable brdge that would fit the strat style bridge that is on the Modern Player Telecaster. I hope there is a fix that doesn't involve too much work. I've basically spent WAYYY too much money on a indonesian telecaster. Thank you for any direction you could give me. Sincerely, Charles.
Sounds like you just need to get the neck installed in the right position, otherwise you are just chasing problems from one place to another. Depending on the model, the Fender PlayerTele with have a modern (ie non ashtray) bridge with 6 adjustable saddles) or Strat style hardtail bridge - moving it or putting on a non-standard bridge may give you issues with aligning wiht the thru' body stringing, so just get the neck fitted in the right position.
Hi John
Many thanks for your excellent videos. When you talk about string height (action) are you measuring from the string to the fretboard surface or to the top of the metal fret?
Always measuring from the crown of the fretwire.
@@ChickenboneJohn many thanks
Great. Got the "screw the neck to the bottom of the box". Thanks! But how do you securely attache the lid to the box? Glue, corner brackets or screws again. Thank you John. logan, Santa Cruz, Ca.
Never glue a box shut, because at some time in the future, someone will need to get at it to repair electrics, reset the neck etc. Because the bridge is screwed thru' the top into the neckstick or an internal block, this will hold the top firmly closed - you don't need to do anything else.
Thank you.
Do the strings on that type of bridge have to go down and through the body or can you run them through the back plate? ...
You can run them either way, but thru' body stringing is much better.
@@ChickenboneJohn Thank you.Do you have a UA-cam video on how to run the strings through the body,etc?....
Where do you place the hard bridge no matter what scale neck it tells where the bridge should be but what I'm asking here is do you place the back of the saddle at the point of where the bridge should be set? Can you do an actual setup and show us
Watch from about 6min 30 seconds and I talk about this.
@@chickenbonejohn714, Thank you also like your adjustable neck screw best ideas i've seen so far
what is the scale of that guitar? is there a formula for the distance from the nut in relation to the bridge ?
From 6min 30seconds I talk about setting the saddles and the bridge positioning when using these bridges. I can't remember what scale these guitars were - either 24 3/4 inch or 25 1/2 inch.
Thanks for the quick reply and advise. I was not sure if the fret count has anything to do with the scale of the guitar. Good information is hard to find :) and yours is right on.
Scale length is simply the distance between the nut and the bridge saddle (ie the length of the vibrating part of the string), and you need to set these bridges so that you can lengthen the theoretical scale length a little bit to "compensate" and get the guitar to play in tune. The number of frets is totally independent of this, and depends on where the neck meets the body and how far you project the fretboard past the neck/body joint.
Hello Sir! I just have two quick questions if you don't mind. 1. How do you ground with the "strat" style bridge? and 2. Where do you buy your wood from, for necks? I live both in the UK and Norway, and in Norway it seems extremely difficult to find any type of hardwood precut at 1x2" which means i need to buy large chunks and rip it myself which is time consuming. Thanks again!
And one more thing actually: Do you use the license plate as the actual top, or is it only covering the top of the box?
I sell hardwood blanks (I buy in bulk at about 200metres length at a time). The plate on this one is fixed to a ply top, but you can make them with just the metal plate as the top. Simply run an earth wire to the plate and the bridge and strings are earthed
I like your neck, Do you make them? Do you sell them? Marc
Yes, we make all our 3 sting guitar necks from scratch, and sell everything from basic blanks to fully fretted and profiled necks - www.chickenbonejohn.com/collections/guitar-necks?page=1
Do you put a neck angle on your 6 string cigar box guitars.
Not usually: I often install stock Fender style necks, so they go into the neck pocket exactly like any Fender style solid body when matched with a Tele or Strat bridge, so it's totally conventional industry standard "bolt on" construction.
Thanks for the help.
Secret to these cheap fixed bridges is in getting enough down pressure on the adjusting screws. I have tried to use these on a couple of builds without success. I am thinking that if the neck is high like you show It will be hard to get enough pressure on the bridge screw. If the neck is lower then in theory you can get more down pressure at the bridge. Any way I'm about to throw out my remaining fixed bridges and and stick with what works.
The important thing is that you set the neck accurately in relation to top of the guitar, so that the saddles can be set in a "neutral" position so that you can then take the action up or down. These bridges work really well as long as you get this aspect right. I now fit a lot of my guitars with adjustable bridges (we make our own in the UK) AND a micro-tilt adjustable angle neck to give ultimate adjustability.
Thanks for your reply John. I understand what you are saying but I'm having little success with the CB,Gitty bridges I am using here in Montana .
1. In the neutral position the strings are about 1/2" above the box.
2. If I set the neck height at 1/2' above the box then the height adjustment screws do not have enough length to lift the strings.
3. The screws are loose in the threads and soon vibrate loose , so I have tried Loctite on the threads.
4. The attachment screws 1" long require large blocks under the bridge which totally deadens the sound.
Obliged if you could let me know which brand of bridge you are using and how you fix them to the box. (Think I will try with nuts and bolts and no blocks as an experiment..
PS:I don't understand your comment about taking the action down as the bridge only lifts the strings.
PS: Chickenbone John's videos are great.
PS: People really like my bridges which are simply threaded bolts with squared cube ends. I have them in 7/16" and 1/2" and one of them gives me perfect action in combination with either 1/4" or 5/16" nuts.
I make my own adjustable bridges here in the UK. These bridges need a solid block or solid body to fix to - they are NOT designed for an acoustic style instrument with a thin top. They are a 3 string version of the "Stratocaster" bridge, and therefore are basically a solid body electric guitar bridge. As such they work great, giving great singing sustain if installed right. Don't set the neck too high. With the fretboard at 1/2" above the fretboard that is WAY too high. Using a 1/4" fretboard, it will be just right if the underside of the fretboard is just level with the top of the guitar, or maybe with a gap of just 1/16 under it.
Thanks
Quite right..NEVER..EVER glue ya neck..
You'll never get ya scarf off........
Which is why i don't buy guitars with glued in necks...I'm a clumsy bugger and have cracked a couple in me time....Screws come out though....
the address of your website?
tx
www.chickenbonejohn.com