Australian Wood Review – September 2019

http://www.woodreview.com.au 53

PROJECT

on the top and side surfaces, 150mm
from the top end of the neck. Then
measure from the nut down towards
the bottom end of the neck and make
a mark at 622.3mm. This is the bridge
location and will give you a scale
length of 24-1/2".

Now lay the neck down on the cigar
box and line up the bridge location
such that the bridge is approximately
three-quarters to the bottom of the
box (photo 1). Roughly mark the
location of the box on the neck so you
have an idea of what part of the neck
will be in the box. Finally, find the
centre of the neck width and mark it
at the bottom end (photo 2).

Box work

Often times there are various labels
and export stickers on the cigar
box. In Canada and Australia there
are some pretty graphic photos of
what smoking can do to various
parts of the anatomy. I typically
take off the graphic stickers and
leave the export labels in place. I’ve
found the easiest way to do this is
with a heat gun or even a hair drier
set to its hottest setting.

In order to let the neck into the box,
you have to create notches on either
end of the cigar box. Place blue painters
tape across the ends of the box. Find
the centre of the inside of the box width
and mark it clearly with a fine marker
on both ends. Now line up the neck
using the centre mark you made on
the bottom end with the centre mark
on the box ends (photo 3).

M8 bolt as nut

nut height

150

10 0

40

10

36

10

15

15

10

c

812

70

622.3

headstock

5/16ӯ holes

5mm Ø holes

back of neck

10mm radius

cigar box

tailstock

strut

strut

M8 thread as bridge

bridge height

Fig.1 Components, mm not to scale

MATERIALS AND SUPPLIES

PART QTY NOTES

Cigar box 1

Neck 1 920 x 36 x 18mm

Box struts 2 reference inside of box for measurement

Tuners set of 3 Shane Speal signature 3-string CBG tuners

Strings 1 set 3-string open G string set

Rivets 3 medium aluminium 6 x 5mm