Bigdaddysmojo's Channel. Radiusing a cigar box guitar neck. Homemade Box Guitar Project - Part 2 - The Build Begins. Build a Cigar Box Guitar How to make cigarbox guitars Plans. DIY Cigar Box Guitar: Part 2 - The First Cut! PART 3 BY SHAMUS. Essays about guitar and music. Guitar players love to talk about strings. While I can't really imagine that my strings are an interesting topic, it's one of the more common questions that I am asked. On my classical guitar, a Ramirez, I use D'Addario Pro-Arte Hard Tension strings. I change the basses 4 or 5 times for every time that I change the trebles. The trebles simply last much longer. I have an unusual string setup for my archtop guitar, a Gibson L5. A traditional set of .13 gauge strings uses fairly thick bass strings. I also play a great deal of classical guitar, so I wanted the two sets of strings to feel similar.
I settled on using heavier gauge trebles, with an unwound 3rd, and lighter gauge bass strings. E= .13 B= .16 G= .18 (unwound) D= .26 A= .36 E= .46 These strings give me 3 strings on top that all sing melodies well, and 3 strings on the bottom that are easily controlled. The bass strings are round wound. There is little about guitar playing that is more personal than string setup. PART 2 BY SHAMUS. Slide Guitar Unwound G String. PART 1 BY SHAMUS. DIY Cigar Box Guitar: Part 1 - Introduction and Box Selection.