The inspiration for this build and the one that started it all comes from my first motorcycle which was a 1953 Haley Davidson “K ” Model and the license plate that was on the bike and has since been nailed to my garage wall for the past 20+ years. While sitting having a couple of bevies and trying to think of an idea for my first CBG, I spotted my license plate and it hit me I could use the plate. So I pulled the nails out and started the build. Here we go !!!
NECK
The neck for this build is Red Oak 36″ in length with hand sanded round profile on the grip surface with a rounded curve at the tuning peg end. This build has a thru-body neck design so the neck at the bridge end of neck also has a rounded edge, both rounded ends help to give the neck a more pleasing look and finish.
The finished length of neck is 33″ long with a total of 25″ exposed and 8″ in body. The scale of this CBG is 25″ from the Nut to Bridge. Tuning peg end has a silver colored eyelet screw for strap, string or hanging point. I used chrome closed self-locking tuning pegs purchased on Amazon. With the neck being thru the body I drilled 3, 3/16″ holes for the strings to pass thru. I also used 6, 3/16″ x 1/8″ rivets as string guides.
Neck is finished with a Varathane Gloss Antique Walnut stain, then Varathane Triple Coat Gloss spray to give the neck a smooth glossy look and feel.
FRET BOARD
I used a piece of Red Oak 18 3/4″ long for the fret board which is fret less, the 18 fret lines are marked out in pencil. I also finished the fret board in Varathane Gloss Antique walnut stain and again finished with Varathane Triple Coat Gloss spray.
The fret board is attached to the neck using No. 8- 3/4″ Robertson silver colored wood screws as fret markers. They indicate the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th (double screw), 15th, 17th and 19th fret markers.
BODY/BOX
Since, the license plate is 8″ x 5″ I had to construct the box. I used some scrap spruce wood I had lying around the garage, the corner edges were hand sanded to a round shape.
The bottom of the box is a piece of oak laminate again I had the garage. The thru body neck design requires both ends of box to have center slots cut out. Neck is affixed to box using 2 No. 8- 3/4″ Robertson wood screws that have been counter sunk. License plate is also affixed to box by 6 No. 8- 3/4″ Robertson wood screws.
The bike was Harley orange so I painted the box with High Gloss Orange paint.
I used bulk Bronze Phosphor strings that I purchased from CB Gitty, .026, .034 and .044 the guitar is tuned to Open G which is G D G. These strings give the guitar a warm, mellow sound.
This CBG is acoustic/electric, it has a 1-1/8th round Piezo pickup which is located under the bridge. I made a groove in the neck approximately 1/4″deep and 1-1/2 wide to accommodate the pickup.
I used 2 pieces of 3/8ths threaded rod which I cut down to 1 – 1/2″ for both the nut and bridge. The threads in the rod helps to hold the strings in place.
The tailpiece on the 53 K is actually the neck that runs thru the body. Since the neck runs thru the body it makes a perfect tailpiece, the neck protrudes 1 – 1/2″ where I drilled 3 holes for the strings, as mentioned above in the NECK paragraph I used ordinary aluminum rivets for string guides on the top and bottom of string holes. You can pull out the center of the rivet with pliers.
PARTING THOUGHTS
Well I hope you found this build interesting. I had a blast with this build as it stirred up some fond memories of my first bike, I had a lot of fun on that old thing!! Also, spent a lot of time wrenching on it as it always had something to tweak. I also found a great use the license plate for something other than a wall hanger.
It has also has given me some other license plate ideas, my 90 yr old mother is a massive Toronto Blue Jay fan, so I ordered a plate from Wal-Mart and built her a wall hanger, and if she wants she can play it !!! So now that I let the cat out of the bag, my next build is the Blue Jay plate. So please check back as I will post the details soon.
If you have any comments, questions build ideas you would like to see please send them along and I will do my best to answer. Will be posting more of the CB guitars I have built and will be doing a start to finish video in the near future.
Until next time take care and stay safe.
Happy building!
Butch
ARCB Guitars
arcbguitars.ca