build my own musical instrument

wood scrap + leftover unholstery nails = hitch pins

Total expenditure to date: Cd $0

Now, what to do about a neck? Do I want frets or not? And how in the world to I attach the neck rigidly to the soundbox so that the energy of the vibrating strings is not half-lost?

Frets make an instrument maybe a little less expressive, but easier to play. If they’re not in the right place, they really mess things up.

In retrospect, I’m kind of sorry I didn’t start with a harp instead. I think that would have been simpler. Maybe I’ll make a harp after I finish my junkulele.

Just for fun, I faked up strings, bridge, and neck from stuff I had lying around, and put it all together by looping the twine and just using tension. Then I played around with pitch by moving my fingers up the meter stick I was using for a neck. It was awesome! It actually sounded pretty good, let alone for something I threw together in 20 minutes. It’s dismantled now, but my soundbox is finished, anyway. I attacked the jaggedness with regular metal files. It’s not pretty, but it’s not dangerous.

Here’s a snapshot of my soundbox and bridge. Cholesterol-free, don’t you know!

Yeah, maybe the tin snips were a mistake. Time to learn to use the dremel. But hey! At least there’s a hole in the soundboard that is where and how large I want it! Now I need to make the hole’s edge less like a nutmeg grater, and figure out what I’m going to use for a neck, bridge, and hitch pins.

Von Helmholz method, as I understand it:

1. Calculate the volume of the soundbox—too easy, when your soundbox is actually a box!

2. Calculate the radius of a sphere with the same volume. That is, take the volume, multiply it by three, divide by four, divide by 3.14159, then take the cube root. That number you get is the radius of your soundbox if it were a sphere with the same volume.

3. Divide that number you got in step two by four.

4. If your soundbox hole is a single circle, you’re done. Step three is your circle’s radius. If you want decorative soundholes, calculate the area of a circle with the radius (square it and multiply by 3.14159) and use graph paper to design full-size soundbox holes with the equivalent area. Shape and placement of soundbox holes don’t seem to be as important as area, so you can be as creative as you want—as long as what you come up with won’t collapse!

So, I’m going to make mine a simple circle, right on the centre of the soundbox front. The soundbox is there to pick up the vibrations of the soundboard and make them louder and, in the case of my toy instrument, weirder.

I’ve washed out an olive oil can. Next I need to estimate how large the hole in my soundbox should be. I think it will have a really weird sound, which is part of the point of making an instrument instead of buying one of the quite reasonable, well-made ones created by professionals.

I’m also learning a little bit about how musical instruments work. That’s fun!