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How about both? I'm building a 5-string banjo that's got 4 tuners on the head, like normal but uses a tuner at the tail for the 5th string. It keeps the neck profile streamlined, but you still get that short drone string.
Anyone got pics of the tuners in the cigar box? Sounds like a neat idea!
If you stuff the tuners inside the box it makes a very compact guitar, great for traveling. I don't know who but someone in here has done it this way.
Anyone got pics of the tuners in the cigar box? Sounds like a neat idea!
Well OK then...is this far fetched?
Using three separate tuners instead of a 1x3 would allow you to space the strings closer together, but watch out to make sure you have enough room that the tuner knobs are free enough to turn without interfering with each other. Also you want to drop the tuners down deeper into the box so the string holes sit lower and so the break angle of the strings over the bridge will be a sharper angle. Did you complete the build? How did it turn out, Tracy? Maybe I'll try this sometime.
-Rand.
Hi Tracy,
At first glance, your method of installing the tuners looks super simple, but when you get down to actually doing it, the process is fairly difficult. Mounting the 3 tuners on the block of wood is not hard, but when you go to mount that board with the tuners into the cigar box, then you realize that you have to disassemble the 3 tuners so than you can drill 3 more holes in the side of the cigar box where the tail piece usually attaches. You need to make one hole per tuner knob, and then you have to reassemble the tuners with the 3 tuner knobs oriented so that their shafts go though the side of the cigar box while the board with the tuner base plates and shaft is in place, and then you have to put on the gears and screw in the 3 little screws. And all the holes and all the parts have to line-up perfectly. I also see in your photo that you had to drill 3 more holes in the back board so you could stick in your screw driver to tighten the gear screws. IMHO this method is just too tough.
However, I have started building a headless CBG using a modified version of your approach. In my approach, I cut out a piece of wood in the back side (tail-end) of the box through which the tuner knobs can easily pass. This makes the installation process much simpler. The other difference in my design is that my tuners have the string hole mid-way up the shaft (because they are the only ones I have in stock... I usually build instruments with slotted headstocks). So, my tuners are mounted a bit higher than yours and the shafts stick up even higher (not a good thing... maybe next time I'll saw off the excess part of the tuner shafts... the metal shafts are not that hard to cut with a hack saw). Instead of a standard "neck-thru", or "neck-almost-thru" neck attachment, I have run a board the same diameter and thickness of the neck down the bottom of the box and I secure the neck to this board via 3 wood screws to avoid having the neck come into the area used by the 3 tuners.
I still have to cut and glue on the sound board which will be 2mm thick plywood veneer (the cigar box top was too thick) and I need to fret the fretboard, both of which I'll do tomorrow. I have been taking some photos, so I will upload some to let you see how I did it. The photos should illustrate much of what I said via text above.
In re-reading this thread, I guess my approach is similar to the "gaping hole at the back of the box" approach used by Fergus Morris and for which you were trying to figure a work-around... the one you refer to as "hacking the box up". Well, I think a gaping hole "hack" is the most practical way, but sure if you have the skill and patience your method could be done.
-Rand
The other thing about my headless design compared to the way I usually build instruments (with either a slotted headstock or a scarf joint and two side pieces (wings)) is that it is easier to build. This is especially true because while in China all I have available are hand-tools. I have put my Cigar Box Banjo project on hold because I'm having problems cleanly cutting the two "wings" for the scarf joined flat headstock (I keep screwing them up when trying to saw straight and square lines) and because I need to practice cutting a simple 4-lobed banjo head using a coping saw. Will get back to it soon. I'm thinking of using softer wood for the wings and only cut in the softer wood for the 4-lobed banjo headstock.
I'll have to check the balance of the instrument once I have finished constructing it.
-Rand.
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