Instrument Creation Blog

Sound...or something like it

2008-12-07T20:46:00.000-08:00

Summary of Project – Acoustics behind the instrument, Construction, Classification, How to play it

2008-12-07T17:41:00.000-08:00

In order to construct the guitar, our group had to have several meetings. We first met to talk about possible chordophone instruments that we could construct. We played around with the idea of building different instruments, such as a spike fiddle or a Styrofoam guitar. We settled, however, on building a guitar made out of a cigar box and wood. We chose this instrument because we felt it would provide very good resonating sound, given the tools we used to make it and because it allowed us to work with the elements necessary to build a guitar (i.e. tuners, frets, etc.). Therefore, we will start off talking about the construction of the guitar along with its classification, the acoustics behind the cigar-box guitar, and how it is played.
We chose the cigar-box guitar knowing full well that it was a chordophone and one that had a construction similar to that of an acoustic guitar. The construction process started with us first working manipulating a guitar box and cutting a hold into one of its flat sides, in order for it to resonate like a real guitar. However, the first cigar box we used was not sturdy enough. Therefore, we used a cigar box made out of heavier wood and drilled a hole into the top of the box. Next, we needed to construct the neck of the guitar. We measured a piece of heavier plywood for the neck of the guitar according to the measurements provided in a guitar building website. In order to attach the neck of the guitar to the cigar box, we had to cut smaller pieces of plywood and both glue and nail the blocks of wood together on the one end of the cigar box. The wood used for the neck was then glued and nailed into place on top of the wood blocks. The length of the neck was three feet long. The finishing steps of constructions were done at a following group meeting. Before this meeting, two of the group members got together and painted the guitar in order to give it some character. We began by making sure the neck was securely attached to the cigar box. Next, we sawed in marks on the neck of the guitar so that we could fret the guitar. The measurements for the fret placements came from a website on how to fret a guitar. We used guitar frets from an old guitar and super-glued them into place in the marks we had sawed out placed the longer frets at he furthest part of the guitar from the cigar box. A piece of wood was cut and sawed into shape for the head of the guitar where the tuners would be placed. This was then attached to the wood used for the neck of the guitar. Next, holes were drilled (three on each side) for the tuners on the piece of wood attached to the neck and the tuners were attached with a drills and screws. Several ideas were attempted for how to attach the strings of the guitar, which were 9-guage electric guitar strings. As well, several ideas were attempted on what to use for the bridges (i.e. wood, bottle caps, or a metal bolt). After much deliberation, a piece of wood was used for the front bridge on the end of the guitar, with lines sawed into it for each of the six strings. The six strings were attached by drilling the smallest possible holes on the underside of the guitar box and pulling them to the outside over the edge of the box and up and over the top of the guitar. The bridge that these strings sat on was on top of the guitar box and was a metal bolt. The strings were then attached to the tuners. While the strings did lift up quite a bit do to both tension and design of the guitar, they did play different notes, but could not be tuned. This was the construction of the chordophone.
The acoustics of the guitar must be discussed as well. The hole in the cigar box was cut enough to allow for resonating sound from the string, which was supplied by the hollowness and thin width of the box itself. The box was taped shut with electrical tape so the sound waves would not escape, but so that the strings could still be attached. The frets were used in order to play the different chords of the guitar. The tuners, which were supposed to help tune the strings of the guitar in order to give six different resonating frequencies based on length and diameter of the strings, only managed to tune two of the strings. The fret measurements were calculated by using an online fret calculator. The website had you enter the scale length of your guitar, which is the number of octaves, and also enter the number of frets that were going to be used. After entering in this information the distance between each fret was calculated. The strings were placed at different positions on the bolt so that they would each produce a different resonating frequency, and were electrical guitar strings because they provided higher amplitude of sound. The thickest or heaviest string produced the lowest pitch, while the lightest or thinnest strings produced the highest pitch. The reason why the thicker string produced the lowest pitch is because the thicker string has a greater mass, causing vibrations of lower frequency to occur. The converse would be true for thin or light string.
The guitar is played like any guitar would be played. However, as stated before the strings do not touch some of the frets due to the tension placed on the neck itself from the bridges. Still, the guitar can be strummed and can produce different notes depending on which string is played and where.

Finishing Up

2008-11-28T11:51:00.000-08:00

This is the base of our guitar that Megan and Kelsey painted.

This is the neck of the guitar that Megan and Kelsey painted.

We used plywood to create the head stalk. It was attached to the neck with nails and wood glue. Measurements were made for the placement of the frets, and for each fret a slit was made using a saw. Super glue was placed in the slit then each fret was hammered in individually.

Zac and Kevin drilling holes in the head stalk so that the tuners can be installed.

Kevin playing the nonfunctional guitar.

A piece of wood was attached to the inside and hole were drilled in this to slide the strings through.

The guitar is almost finished, but needed strings and a bridge still.

Zac attaching the strings to the tuners. For the bridge we used a large bolt.

Zac holding our finished functional guitar! Just needs a little more paint!

Construction

2008-11-19T16:31:00.000-08:00

Kevin cutting down the plywood for the neck.

Mussa, Kevin, and Zac building the neck.

Kevin attempting to cut the hole in the cigar box for the neck. This did not work!

Zac and Mussa attaching the neck to the cigar box.

We began construction on our cigar box guitar on October 30th, 2008. The neck of the guitar was built from plywood. Using a power saw, the plywood was cut down to 2.5"X26.5". At first, we tried to saw a hole in the cigar box to place the neck into, but this did not work out as planned. Instead, we used wood glue and nails to attach the neck to the outside of the cigar box. We did not have the strings at this meeting so we did not attach those to the guitar.

Deciding on an Instrument

2008-10-27T15:43:00.000-07:00

Our group met on October 23rd to discuss our options for which instrument to build. Each member of the group brought the research on his or her assigned instrument. From this information we created a list of pros and cons for each instrument. In this list we considered things such as how much time it would take to build the instrument, how much it would cost, what kind of materials were needed, and how much time the project would take.

We decided to build a cigar box guitar. It will be fairly inexpensive to make and is also very interesting in its design. We created a list of necessary items for building this instrument:

guitar strings
tuners
cigar box
wood for the neck
sandpaper
screws
wood glue
drill/screw driver

At our next meeting we will begin construction of the cigar box guitar.

Meeting with Mark

2008-10-08T15:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we met with Mark Sisson to ask for suggestions for building our guitar. Rather than get into specifics about the guitar, he actually gave us a few other ideas for what kind of chordophone to make. We brainstormed for other ideas and designs and came up with the styrofoam guitar, cigar box guitar, spike fiddle, hammered dulcimer, and a Japanese instrument called the koto. In order to find which will be the cheapest and easiest to make, our group decided it would be best if we researched each instrument. An instrument was assigned to each person to research. Each member is going to try and think about the materials that could be used in building the instrument and how the building process would even take place. Mark told us about a website that he uses to buy tuners and other products and suggested we check it out. At our next group meeting we will discuss what each member found in his or her research.

Our Group

2008-09-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

Our group is the group for Chordophones 1. We have discussed what kind of instrument we are going to make, and we are using this week to research and learn a little bit more about how we can construct our instrument. We want to make an acoustic guitar, and we have considered making it out of plexiglass, wood, and other materials. This week we will be meeting with Mark Sisson in order to see if we can acquire some help on our project and if he could offer any suggestions on how we go about taking the materials we want and making it into a guitar. We are also planning on meeting on Thursday before class in order to go over what we have found in our research and what we learned from Mark. That is what we have been working on for now.