Banjos & Such @mayor@banjo.town

Guess I need some more patch cables 👀

Forgot to include the source photo:

"The Egyptian Fandango" is neither Egyptian nor a Fandango. Discuss. #sheetmusic

Also got some nice component bits and bobs for the #lm386amp in today’s mail.

The switch is absolute overkill (it was hard to get a sense of scale in the product photo) but it is way more satisfyingly tactile than any rocker switch will ever be. You *know* when you’ve turned this switch on.

The pilot lamp jewel works quite nicely with a warm white led, and who could resist these jolly red knobs

Found a sweet handle for the #lm386amp

Finally got some photos that give a better sense of the color (although it does not shine like this except in direct sunlight.)

I’m not over how playable this instrument is compared to the first one I made years ago. Granted that one was stolen before I had a chance to tinker with it, but I know the fret work on that one was not as good, and the scale was shorter and less forgiving.

I need to make the nut slots a little deeper and see if I can seat the 13th fret a little bit better or file it level, but overall it’s pretty cool. #cbg

Here's some "clean" harmonic minor noodling over a loop from the other night. My understanding is that piezos tend to sound a bit hot no matter what, but especially when attached directly to the top of the instrument like this one is. I've read that attaching them with a blob of hot glue as a bit of a cushion is a popular technique to calm them down a bit, but honestly my impression is that a super-cheap piezo transducer is never not going to sound the way it does.

I have a cheap single-coil electromagnetic pickup for my next build, I'm curious to see how it sounds on a #cbg compared to a "real guitar"

Alright! Here's some sloppy minor pentatonic bullshit on the new cigar box guitar, recorded straight into some high-gain GarageBand amp presets. Clean tones later 🤘#cbg #cigarboxguitar #lutherie #garageband #instrumental #fediversemusic #musiciansofmastodon

Still trying to get the bridge dialed in, and probably going to try some lighter strings.

But overall, I call it a success, especially in terms of the frets and the intonation.

#cbg

Alright, here goes. Bracing for potential disappointment in the form of catastrophe for structural failure, undetected fretwork problems, etc… #cbg

I haven’t soldered anything in 20 years and it shows, but this will get the job done. Leaving the pickup taped in place for now, gives me the option to move it later. #cbg

That seam on the peghead sure seems more prominent than it did a couple of days ago

With my somewhat bungled neck attachment, bridge height is going to be like 7/8” 😣 which will probably be fine, but also silly

Well, it’s a bit of a disaster inside but I did the dowel stick thing, deliberately drilling the neck hole a bit large and using epoxy putty to set the dowel at the right angle. The neck is proud of the body by about 1/4, which I’m not thrilled about, but it feels solid.

Definitely not worth the trouble of doing anything other than a through-neck on a #cbg 🙄

I’ll be putting one or two more coats in the front of the headstock, but I’m calling the neck done at five (I think, is easy to lose count) coats. The back of the neck looks great. The fingerboard… well, it’s a learning process.

That means I have to get the electronics wired up! I know I ought to let the finish cure for a few days, but could feasibly have this thing strung tomorrow night. 👀 #cbg #lunchbreaklutherie

Attempted to breadboard a bare-bones #lm386amp circuit tonight, but no joy. Not sure if I screwed something up / shorted something out or if my breadboard is just a POS (which it is, I never have any confidence anything is actually making contact.) will try again with fresh eyes in daylight.

Also, I somehow have no LEDs at all? I *know* I bought an assortment once upon a time but that was two moves ago and who knows where they are now

Made myself stop at one coat, it was humid today #cbg

That went about like I expected, but filing through the stain was actually a very good “ok that’s enough” indicator; making a note to self to use charcoal or chalk on future projects. I’ve gained an appreciation for how forgiving this stain (basic oil-based Minwax “Honey”) is for touch-ups.

All-told the filing and beveling didn’t take more than 30 minutes or so. Should be able to start putting tru-oil on later today. #cbg #lunchbreaklutherie

not sure what’s lack of experience installing frets vs compromising the sharpness of the fret slots by applying finish after cutting them (the grain filler is water based.)

Things seem to be better after doing another pass with the saw to clear debris out of each slot.

With an unradiused fingerboard it seems to me that, once I get all the frets hammered in and filed, I ought to be able to put the entire thing in the jaws of my workmate table to give it a good even press for good measure.

I am going to order a pair of flush-ground nippers right now because I already tell how tedious it’s going to be to file those ends down. #cbg

Good enough. #cbg

Should have drilled the tuner holes before starting the finish, of course. Terrible tear-out despite using a sacrificial block behind. Maybe a poplar thing? The wood seems really fibrous. Time for some more filler (and it will be covered up by the machine heads anyway.) #cbg