CBG Necks

[fatmunkey]

Hey peeps, while I wait for my dingtone to cure I've been cleaning up the shed and found an old cigar box that was going to become a guitar. Now, everywhere I read online people talk about the neck needing to be hardwood, like an oak or poplar, and around 4ft (1200ish mm) long. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to find a hardwood 1x2 that would suit the purpose?

[stan]

get onto Lawry here, he is the cigar box guitar king

[wokkaboy]

Hi Fatmunkey,
I've made a dozen or more CBG's and used jarrah from the big green shed, think I bought a 1200 x 40 x 30 piece and that is strong enough for a 4 string CBG, make the neck a bit thicker if you intend using heavier gauge strings ie usual E A D G strings from a 6 string guitar. There was enough width to cut a fall in the headstock.
Attached are some of the necks/CBG's I've built and some are 80mm wide pieces of jarrah for a wider headstock and 6 string CBG's.
I have many more pictures if you require them.
These were built almost 3 years ago. Cut the box to fit the neck flush with the cigar box top and you just need to route part of the neck to fit the pickup

[pablopepper]

Big green shed sells Tasmanian oak, I've used that for cgb necks and it's great.

[wokkaboy]

good point Pabs, yeah tasmanian oak will be ok for a CBG neck and should be easier to cut and shape than jarrah

[kells80aus]

I've done a few with Tassy oak, works fine. just pencil line in some frets and away you go.
Or maybe you could get DB to pre-cut a fretboard, so all you need to do is trim and fret it.

PK