Musical Instruments

by

Shakuhachi flute project

I love making Shakuhachi flutes ever since I heard one at the Asia Pacific Museum in Pasadena. This is my attempt at making one from bamboo. its my second one, my first one being made out of PVC pipe. I wanted to make sure I could build one so the PVC was my test build.

by

Building Bridges – for my Uke

Sooooo, using the bolt as a bridge on my cigar box uke is nice and all and resonates tone out of the box great but I wanted to get back to the basics and experiment a little bit with some bridge making so I made two different bridges. The one on the left is Spruce and I’ve come to think of it as being too soft for use. The one on the right is what I ended up using. Its made from a 1/4 x 12 inch piece of maple wood I grabbed from OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware). Home Depot has the same wood in their hobby style bins. Its also what I make my fret boards out of.

IMG_1829

by

New Ukulele project – Tenor

I decided try a build based off of another Ukulele builders article in BUST Magazine, Shelley Rickey, (http://shelleyrickey.blogspot.com). It started out looking exactly like her plans but as she hinted in her own plans, play around with the design, be creative, so I played around with design quite a bit. This is my second cigar box ukulele build but I’m still going to do a dead set repro of Shelley’s design when I get a chance.

by

Cigar Box Amplifier Project

I havent posted here in awhile. I finally got around to making a cigar box amp out of a cigar box, a handful of parts, powered by a 9v battery. Sounds nice actually but theres a little distortion if turned all the way up. Its a grounding issue though that Ill fix.

by

Weekend Ukulele Project – April 27

In between having some electronic work done in our home I slapped together a Ukulele project from a cigar box and scrap wood I had. I also cut some old mechanical classic guitar tuners in half and used those for the tuners, since I wasnt going to use them for anything, just dont like to throw away stuff. Will fret it, string it up and see how she plays once I can get to the guitar store and pick some up. Actually the three bottom of a classical guitar are the same diameter so I may only need the lower note string. We’ll see. Its concert size, overall length is 24 inches, scale from nut to bridge is 15 inches and it will have 18 frets. I bought an oil splash screen (used when cooking in a skillet) from 99 Cent Store, cut that up and glued pieces to cover the sound holes. There is also a piezo pickup and jack installed which are not clearly seen.

by

Violin Project – Update April 23

I finished my first violin project a couple weeks ago but figured Id update with final pictures. I will work on an acoustic version next. I clip on a piezo pickup and can pipe it through Garage Band on the iPad or iPod which is neat. I dont have a functional amplifier at the moment so these are great alternatives right now, plus my son can practice privately.

by

Violin Project – Update Feb 11

Staining the wood and mocking it up a bit. I still have a couple more things to do and I bought some Minwax polyurethane spray to put a few coats on with light sanding in between. All in all this project is coming along and will hopefully be done in a few weeks.

by

Violin Project – Update Feb 10

So I’ve been working on this off and on in between home DIY projects, here’s the latest photos, shaping, sanding and boring holes to lighten the weight. Thos will be covered with an 1/8 inch veneer on the final end result.

by

Violin parts

Amazon is freaking nuts, these violin parts cost me half as much by going directly to the vendor they would have shipped from anyway by ordering on Amazon. Its Amazon’s shipping costs that drove up the price. I got everything from Woodwind & Brasswind who are here in California in Westlake Village for less than $40 versus $74 from Amazon. I still like shopping on Amazon though, that’s just a brief rant.

 

by

Violin Project – Moving right along

So my first of two violins is moving right along. This one will be electric while the next one will be acoustic. The overall measurement is the same length as a 4/4 violin and as wide at the bottom. I spent a few hours armed with a tape measure, a pencil and a hand saw to start making the body. Here are pics from the first phase of this.