Personal CBG #1 - The Rubber-Bridge Experiment

 

Most folks who know me also know I like to modify and work on guitars as much as I like to play them. In 2023 I had some experimental finishes I was trying to do fail miserably, and basically the amount of work I would have had to put into stripping the bodies back down and starting over just felt like a level of surrender I wasn't willing to concede to. Instead, I decided to pull out a jigsaw, turn the bodies into center blocks and get some nice quality wooden cigar boxes that would be big enough to make a standout Cigar Box Guitar. This was my first CBG, and it (like its tune-o-matic equipped twin) remains in my studio to this day being put to work recording and inspiring new song ideas.

Going into cigar box guitar building, I wanted something that was built for a guitar player, by a guitar player. Something that I could easily whip out a slide and play, or play it like a normal guitar. So using the middle strip of the body of a ruined electric guitar as a mounting point for an actual 6 string guitar neck, letting it span the entire length of the box, I managed to create something I can easily perform or record with. 

I bought two of these Arturo Fuente cigar boxes because of their size, which allows just enough room for the bridge and tailpiece to be mounted on top, and allows me enough room to pack in all of the electronic components. The tailpiece is like what you'll find on the Gibson or Epiphone double neck guitars, and the pickup is just a cheap import Mini-humbucker-sized "toaster" pickup. I have a couple of inch wide Piezo discs mounted between the lid and the center block, a volume control for them and a volume control for the magnetic pickup, both running to a TRS output, allowing standard electric guitar tones as well as really lo-fi strangely phased semi-acoustic sounds, which kind of sound like a little guitar being played in a big metal bucket. Just trashy enough, in other words. In either case, the pickups are prone to handling noise and more microphonic feedback than I'm normally comfortable with, but again, this was a guitar built specifically for clanky, thumpy, low fidelity tones. Toss in a pair of strap buttons and 500k pots from the parts bin, some stainless steel soffit vent hole covers for some sound holes that are more decorative than anything, and a handmade shim to raise the neck in the pocket made from a little piece of Poplar and some popsicle sticks, and we're off. 

What also makes this particular one stand out is the rubber bridge that I made. The rubber trapezoidal block is some sort of bumper or foot that was probably intended for some piece of electrical or computer equipment but never got used, I found a bag of a half a dozen of them or so. I found the mending plates which were roughly the same size as a tune-o-matic style guitar bridge, ground out the ends of the screw slots to accommodate bridge posts, and then drilled holes in each end of the rubber where the posts would normally come through. On this particular guitar, I decided I wanted the bridge to pretty much rest directly on the guitar, and I almost achieved that, but had to put a washer under each side to raise it up enough to make sure the strings could clear all the frets. I decided there was no need to make this a height adjustable bridge, once it's set, it doesn't have to be messed with, so I decided to screw it down, and it gets solid contact with the top. Due to the rubber saddles, I had to run a ground wire under the tail piece to make sure the electronics were properly grounded to the strings. Why did I use a rubber bridge, you ask? Good question. 

I had recently read an article that basically named off a bunch of guitar players from various bands and whatnot who have hopped on the bandwagon of using some sort of rubber bridge or rubber mute under their strings at the bridge in order to achieve that, let's face it, kind of shitty, undefined tone with little or no sustain. I believe there was mention of Taylor Swift and her old Stella acoustic having been modified in that way, as well as Jeff Tweedy from Wilco, but they also rattled off a bunch of weird Indie artists and even more I've never heard of who also supposedly have adopted using rubber bridges, so I kind of wanted to see what the big deal was about. I figured it's either going to result in a unique sounding instrument that responds differently to my playing and can serve as a unique recording or performing tool, or it's going to suck and I'm going to end up taking it off and putting a proper bridge back on and pretend like it never happened. So what's the verdict, after having strung this Frankenstein's monster up for a spin? Truthfully, I'm still trying to figure out what the mass appeal is, and I guess since I don't listen to most of the music that was referenced in the article that I mentioned, I don't really understand the context. I mean, I've listened to my share of Wilco, and I've heard some of Taylor Swift's folkier songs, so I get that much, but I don't understand where that particular feel or sound is such a notable ingredient in Indie music or whatever. But then again, I also don't understand some of the stupid sounding vocal stylings and all that either, so that just might be me being out of touch in that regard, and I'm okay with that. I'm not in love with the way it sounds or feels, because there is a slightly different feeling to it, but I decided I'd leave it like this for a while and see if it grows on me or if I can come up with a way to incorporate it into something. I'm glad I did, because I HAVE, in fact, been able to use the sound in a couple songs. So it's growing on me.

As I said earlier, I have another almost identical neck and body, along with another one of these cigar boxes that I intend to essentially make another one fairly identical to this one, except the other one has a standard metal tune-o-matic bridge. I figured it can serve as kind of a means to differentiate the tones that you can get from pretty much identical guitars with different bridges on them, and who knows, next time I find myself sitting in with some indie act or Americana/roots-rock outfit, I can play these bizarre, quirky little instruments and look the part.