I'm on my third CBG build, I decided on electric for this build.
One of the reasons for going electric is this box is thinner and heavier, I didn't think it would have the acoustics of a lighter, deeper box. This is just a guess on my part....mostly I wanted the higher output of an electric pickup compared to the piezo pickups I used on my first two builds.
I have the neck built, I'm going with Poplar with a Poplar finger board. The nut is wood, a scrap piece of hardwood flooring. The neck build went smoothly enough this time and I sealed it with polyurethane.
I purchased the pick up from CB Gitty, a "Basic Black" single coil Strat style pick up.
This is going to be another three string guitar and since the pickup is for a six string I'm mounting it on an angle to keep all the poles under the strings.
I used painters tape to protect the top of the box while did my lay out and cut the hole for the pickup. I used a 3/4" spade bit to get the opening started, I drilled down about half way from the top.
Then I opened the box and finished the holes drilling from the inside. This left me with two wood doughnuts and very little tear out.
I used a coping saw to connect the two holes and sanded the edges smooth. Two holes were drilled for the mounting screws.
A test fit and all is well. The pickup does hit the neck inside the box at this height but a straight edge shows the pickup will be about 1/4" bellow the strings.
I wanted a little more adjustment and room for the pickup wire so I cut a notch in the neck to let the pickup drop a little lower.
I'm committed now, the neck is glued to the box.
I let the glue dry overnight, then moved on to mounting the electrics.
With everything laid out I cut my wires to length. I pulled everything out and used my "Third hand" to hold everything while I soldered the connections.
Wired up and mounted.
The tail piece and bridge are wood. I used some more of the mystery wood, hard wood flooring scraps.
The tailpiece is glued and screwed, just waiting on the glue to dry before I put strings on. I still need to cut the string slots to depth in the nut and bridge.
Here it is, strung up and making sounds. I had to add a screw between the bridge and tailpiece, the lid was lifting with the tension from the strings. I also added four screws in the back to hold the lid closed tight.
It sounds good and the magnetic pickup works well with the distortion pedal.
I'm going to work on getting some recordings made and posted....
An after thought....
It's kind of funny. I didn't realize until after I had glued the neck on that the name on the box is Four Five.
I could have made it a 4 string or maybe a five string to go with the name. It worked out though since it's a Three string built on a Four Five box.
