I wasn't really sure where to post this. It's not quite a guitar, so music seemed like a good choice. Hopefully, CBG (cigar box guitar) posts will be welcome here.
So this happened on Black Friday. Amazon sent me a link to a cigar box guitar kit I was checking out a while back. It was a Black Friday Amazon deal and at the price they gave me, I just couldn't say no!
$89 with free shipping. YES PLEASE. How could I say no?
When I ordered it I figured if it sucked I would send it right back. Seriously, I am not disappointed. With the exception of a couple tiny flaws, this turned out to be a really nice playing and decent sounding instrument.
So this is a CBG kit which comes already partially assembled. This is the second kit I've posted about, I'll do a comparison of this kit and the Stew Mac in a future post. For now, I'll just say, this is a much nicer sounding and playing instrument, than what I built with the Stew Mac kit. That's probably more based on my building skills though and not anything to do with the Stew Mac kit itself.
This kit however, isn't as involved as the Stew Mac kit. The other kit was borderline Luthier skills which I do not have. I'm comfortable saying that just about anybody should be able to get a good build with this kit. It's partially assembled and all the difficult stuff, technical stuff has been done for you already.
With the Topnaca kit, you pretty much bolt on the neck, plug in the piezo pickup, string it up and start playing. It really was that easy.
So the neck fits in pretty tight. I was really impressed by the tightness of the build actually. There's not a lot of wiggle room, nor should there be with a guitar neck. I ended up loosening the neck and then pulling it as I tightened to get the just right angle. It was literally a hair off and I didn't want to force it. No issue at all.
Well that's a crappy picture :( The piezo pickup comes pre-installed, you just have to plug it in. Not pictured, but it was one of the nicer piezo pickups I've seen. About the size of two nickels stacked together.
I actually looked at this kit when I bought my Stew Mac kit last year, and decided on the Stew Mac because of the nicer humbucker style pickup. Honestly, I wish I would have chosen this one now. More on that in a minute.
Once you plug in the pickup you have to close and lock the box.
When I went to string it I noticed the machine head nuts were really loose. I tightened those and strung it up.
The kit comes with everything you need right down to the hex wrench. Strings, proper instructions, the only tool I needed was the crescent wrench for the machine head nuts.
Once it was all put together there wasn't much to adjusting things. The strings were really low and found a forum board where someone suggested cutting an old credit card to use as a shim to lift the bridge a bit. Worked like a charm.
Honestly the guitar has such a nice sound, I'm afraid to change anything at all. I mean, it is a cigar box and sort of a kit. I'll end up making changes down the road. Still, I loved the way this thing sounded right out of the box. I will try and post a clip of me playing soon.
Dislikes
Besides the low strings, the metal bar where you slip in the strings (sorry, don't know the technical name) That's off center by just a little bit. Sure enough, another issue that I found in some forum posts.
I play wrapping my thumb around the top string for some chords. The string alignment is jut off enough to be a little bothersome. I may move it over a hair if I can't get used to it.
I was also surprised to discover there were no shoulder strap buttons or pegs to connect a shoulder strap. Surprised about that really. Easy enough fix. I'll order some from Stew Mac next time I place an order.
Final Thoughts
Outside of a couple very minor issues I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS CBG. It's just a really nice playing and sounding cigar box guitar. Especially for $89! I think these kits normally sell for around $120 and still seems like a steal after putting this together.
I'd be a little embarrassed to claim I built this. It was prefabricated. I'm guessing the company made it into a makeshift kit, just to make it easier to ship out. I mean come on, bolt on the neck, plug in the pickup, and string it up. After that, it's down to individual setup preferences. Seriously, besides the low string height which sucks if you play slide, and easily remedied with the credit card hack, this is one hell of a CBG, I'd have no problem referring someone to this kit either new or a seasoned player/builder. This is my 3rd CBG now and I'm really happy to have this in the collection. For the time being it will be my go to CBG for daily playing.
If you're a seasoned builder, you could probably turn this into something really special.
One of the other reasons for this purchase, was I'm having some intonation issues and ground issue I can't fix with my Stew Mac kit. Now that I have another playable CBG, I can dissect the Stew Mac kit, make my neck adjustments, and fix the ground issue.
I'll post some video soon of me playing, and do a verbal review of the kit soon and maybe compare it to the other kits I bought.