What Is The Nut On A Cigar Box Guitar?
The nut on a cigar box guitar is situated at the top of the fretboard. It is the place where the strings pass over on their way from the machine heads down to the bridge at the bottom of the cigar box guitar.
The positioning of the nut is crucial. The height of the strings from the fretboard ( the action of the cigar box guitar) is determined in part by the height of the nut.
In addition to this, the distance from the nut to the bridge is called the scale length and this effects the positioning of each of the frets.
So, you can see that when you build a cigar box guitar you need to take extreme care when installing the nut.
A badly positioned nut will cause tuning issues ( this is also called intonation problems) and can also cause fret buzz. This is where the strings ( or even just one of the strings) vibrates awkwardly against one or more of the fret wires when the string is plucked or strummed.
What Should I Use For A Nut On My Cigar Box Guitar Build?
There are three main materials used for constructing a nut: metal, bone and plastic. Hard wood can also be used but I haven’t found it to be a s successful.
The sound of the instrument will be slightly altered by the choice of material. As a beginner builder, you will probably not notice much difference between the brightness of the sound of a metal nut and the slightly softer sound of plastic, so ease of installation or cost might be your deciding factor.
I used a metal bolt as the nut on my first build. I chose it for several reasons:
- We already had one in our bits and pieces drawer so I didn’t need to buy anything
- The nut was threaded so this helped with keeping the string parallel as it passed over the nut
- Many cigar box guitar builders seemed to favour metal nuts
On my next build, I chose to use a bought plastic guitar nut ( I made sure I wore a good face mask to avoid inhaling particles when cutting and shaping the nut)
- It was easy to cut to length and I got two nuts out of a standard six string nut
- Cutting the fret slots was fairly easy as I started with a saw and then used some small files
- Plastic nuts ( or bone nuts) are a popular choice for cigar box guitars
Installing A Zero Fret On A Cigar Box Guitar
Instead of installing a nut, some builders install a zero fret. This is often made from jumbo fret wire so it is slightly thicker the other fret wire used for the other frets.
A bonus of using a zero fret is that you can get a really low action on the fretboard, This means that less pressure is required to fret a string with your finger, thus making it easier to play.
In addition, the intonation of the strings is better. If you have a guitar with high action (where the strings are higher on the fretboard) pressing them down will cause the string to stretch and so it will tend to play a bit flat.
If a fretted string is not in tune relative to any open strings, chords will sound out of tune.
You will need to watch out for fret buzz with a low action. Since the time I made the mistake of gluing in the neck on one of my early builds, I have learned that it is much better to screw a neck in. I now try to leave everything as adjustable as possible.
My Problems With A Guitar With Too High An Action
One of my early builds had a high action and nothing I seemed to do would get the action low enough to play in tune with itself. The guitar had severe intonation problems.
I tried lowering the nut and bridge but then I got bad string buzz. Since I had made the mistake of gluing in the neck, there was nothing I could do but turn it into a slide guitar. You see, I could have tried altering the back angle of the neck to help with getting a good action but I couldn’t because I glued it.
It was so frustrating to have built a guitar that was virtually unplayable but I took it as a lesson in what not to do.
If you are struggling to get the action of a cigar box guitar low enough once you have assembled it, you could try playing it as a slide guitar.
This will help because a slide does not need to press down behind a fret wire as your finger would. Instead the slide rests lightly directly over the fret wire. In fact, playing with a slide does not need any fret wire to be installed at all- the cigar box guitar can be what is called fretless.
Scale Length On A Cigar Box Guitar
The distance between the bridge and the nut is called the scale length and is one of the first decisions made when building a cigar box guitar. The box size and length of wood that you have for the neck will determine the maximum scale length.
Some boxes are small and this means that the position of the bridge cannot be a very large distance from the edge of the box where the neck enters it. This leads to a shorter scale instrument which some a cigar box ukulele. This does not mean that the strings need to be synthetic as in a traditional ukulele, nor that it needs to have four strings.
A short scale cigar box guitar ( or ukulele) is a good instrument for a child or someone with smaller hands.
Some boxes are large and can not only be used for longer scale cigar box guitars but also for a cigar box bass.
Variations In Scale Length Of A Cigar Box Guitar
As you can see, when you are building your cigar box guitar, scale length is an important decision. But just how long is a short scale instrument? or a longer scale instrument?
The scale length of a cigar box guitar generally varies between 16 and 25.5 inches. See this article for a table of scale lengths.