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ITS ALIVE! MUHAHAhahahahaha!
The Kinnor!
| I finished the bridge and nut - hmm, if thats what they call it on a lyre - and strung it up last night. It is a bit on the quiet side, but I am hoping that it will project more once I put a back on it. I was looking at that sound board and thinking to myself, "Hmm, that just doesn't look like cedar." Then I remembered that its not. It is actually spruce which I found at Home Depot one day and thought would make a nice sound board for something. So the final product is made of oak with a spruce sound board. | 
From the side
| The strings are nylon coated wire fishing line. The good news is that the package states that they will be non-corrosive in salt water. I used 30, 45, and 60 pound line, but the lowest strings really need something a little beefier. I may have to buy some wound strings for the bottom two or three notes. If you pick those strings too aggressively, they waver a bit sharp before settling down to their proper notes. The have a particularly weak voice too. | 
The bridge
| The bridge is rosewood. I feel better about using a smaller spacing at the tail piece now. The closer spacing, along with the angle of the bridge allowed me to use the exact same 1/2 inch spacing on the bridge notches as I did at the tuner end. That kind of unplanned symmetry should always be considered a good omen. Its difficult to see in the photo, but I sanded in a couple of arcs on the bottom to give it three feet. | 
The Nut
| I was originally planning to have the nut be free floating, maybe with a spot of glue. After further consideration I decided to inset it so that it wouldn't wander off at some inopportune moment. It is oak, with a rosewood top. Its a bit massive, but I needed the height to clear the sound board and have the strings roughly parallel to the top, and I wanted the angled bit to give a bit of support to the strings as they ride over it. | | </td></tr>
Over all I think this was a great success. I ended up with a cool new instrument to play with AND a new router table. I also have enough zither pins to pursue the harp project thats been rumbling around in my head. Since I usually use common items instead of specifically musical ones in my building, it pains me to have to say that zither pins are a great thing. I suspect these will be finding their way into other future builds. Still, they are pretty primitive, and at 25 cents a piece, their are inexpensive enough to appeal to my cheap side.
Here is my kinnor's video debut. The tune, as far as I know, is my own spontaneous composition. This video is a stunning example of why I do not usually speak when doing videos. I don't consider myself nearly as goofy looking and sounding as I appear in the video.
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I am getting really impatient to string this puppy up and see what comes out.
Recessed tail pins
| I was looking for some round headed brass brads to use as tail pins to hold the end of the strings. Then I found these cute little nails in a package of picture hanging hooks. I made two decisions today regarding this end of the kinnor. First I decided to part ways with the instruments I have seen photos of and set the tail pins slightly closer together than the tuning pins up on top. The main reason is that by having them closer together at the bottom, my bridge can be a little shorter and rest on the thinned area of the sound board rather than having the ends sitting on the thicker edge. Hopefully that gives me a little more volume and tone. Secondary to the accoustic concerns, I am thinking that having the strings taper inwards will play off the tapering of the body of the instrument.
The second decision was to recess the pins a bit into the top of the kinnor. This puts the bottom edge of the pins below the top surface so that they are less likely to snag on clothing and skin. It also helps add a little more downward pressure on the bridge. | 
Just waiting on the nut/bridge
| This may be the lastest I have ever been able to wait before slapping some stain on the wood. Usually I jump the gun and end up putting finish on something that needs to be glued later. I have installed the zither pins at the top and those nice, non-clothes snagging tail pins. All it needs now is the nut and the bridge. | 
Glueing up the bridge
| Speaking of which... Here is the nut in raw scrap form. Thats a bit of oak cutoff and some rosewood scrap. In fact, it is the same scrap of rosewood that the girlie used to draw out her number '1' the other day. As I sit here waiting for the glue to dry, I am tempted to use it as the bridge and maybe use something else for the nut. hmm... | 
Its an open back!
| Since this is going to be used as part of my role as an ancient Jerusalem instrument builder, I think I will be leaving the back off of it until after VBS is over. I wonder if that means I have to play it clawhammer style |
So, bridge, nut, and strings. Its going to be hard to let this go tonight and get to bed before 2am.. I think I have just the thing for the nut.... |
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Wednesday was my birthday. At work my co-workers took me to McDonalds and let me order any single value menu item I wanted. Later, everyone was called into the break room and there was cake. I know what you are thinking, it can't get much better. You would be wrong. After the cake they gave me the first season of "Dark Angel" on DVD.
When I got home there was a package in the mailbox. Bet you can't guess what it was.
The Zither Pins Are Here!
| ZITHER PINS! 100 shiny pins of zitheriness. I had been a little worried that they might not make it in time for my project, but here they were, and on my birthday to boot. | 
Router Table
| The other day while the kids were in the shop with me I commented how I really needed a router table. Its one of the things that I think about buying when I am at Home Depot, but when I am there, I am over whelmed by all the things they have that I would like to have, so I end up not getting one at all.
Well the next morning my eldest told the missus that I could really use a router table and through the magic of birthday wishes (and a bit of keen shopping by the missus) one was awaiting me when I got home from church. | 
A dry run
| Thursday found me back in the garage. I cut and shaped the cross pieces. Most of the day was spent arguing amonst myself about whether I should do traditional mortis and tenon joints or cheat and use the more modern biscuit joiner. It was close, but in the end, I opted for the method that was least likely to result in my having to go buy new wood and start all over. The biscuits are so easy and cute.
As you can see in the picture, I was all ready to glue it up when I realized that I didn't have any glue anywhere in the garage or the house.
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From the back
| Lucky for me, Walmart was just itching to celebrate the 4th by selling me some wood glue.
First I glued the sides and cross bits and then it was time to contemplate the belly of the beast. For that there was a cedar board, crosscut in half and then glued side by side to make a piece wide enough. After the glue set on both the sound board and the body. I traced the outline of the inside of the belly, as well as around the outside edges of the kinnor. I thinned down the sound board from the inside. Hopefully this will make the final instrument a bit louder. Once that was finished, I glued body and belly together. | 
The router table has been christened.
| Woot!
That's starting to look like something. I used the birthday router table and a flush bit to trim everything up. |
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I spent a second evening with the kinnor project and found out that Santa isn't the only one with an elf problem.
Final pattern for the sides.
| The first task of the day was to finish making the template for the sides of my kinnor. I roughed it out on the band saw and then sanded it down to the line on the belt sander and a sanding drum on my drill press. I drilled holes to mark the corners of the mortises and finished it off with a hole for hanging and a label for easy identification later. | 
The first side
| I will be using oak for the skeleton of this instrument. Why oak? Because it was there. This was a board that I had purchased several years ago for a lamp project that just never took off. I traced the template onto the board and then rough cut it on the band saw. Then I attached the template to the piece with double sided tape and moved to the router to clean it up. Lessons learned? I need a router table. Since I don't have one, I set my router on the workbench, bit end up. I clamped one handle in my vice and then used a bar clamp to secure the other handle to the bench top. After convincing myself that everything was secure I went to work. The good news is that it was in fact well secured and another power tool was denied the sweet delicacy of my tender flesh. However, the router base makes for a very small and inadequate table. It gave me some trouble on the skinny end where it was difficult to keep the work piece square whilst also keeping my fingers out of harms way. | 
Hmmm.
| I have tried for a while to get my kids interested in music and playing instruments. Occasionally one of them will seem to take an interest, but then it quickly fades. But let me go out to the garage and try to spend some quality time with the tools and I can't get rid of them! Everyone wanted to get into the act. Just as I had my sander set up and switched it on, one of them would walk up waving a piece of wood they had excavated from the cutoff bins while attempting to shout over the sound of the sander to ask me if I was planning on using it for anything. I would switch off the sander so I could hear them and fight back the urge to say "Well, I saved it, didn't I? SOMEDAY I might REALLY need that odd shaped gnawed up piece of plywood..." I have issues when it comes to tossing out cutoffs. So instead I decided to work on letting go and for the most part allowed them to keep the treasure which they had pilfered from my hoard. After inquiring as to the nature of their plans for the chunk of wood, I offered my suggestions and encouraged them to sketch out their plan on the wood before starting to hack on it. Then I would turn the sander back on and count to 5, waiting for the next shouts of "Father, FATHER DO YOU NEED THIS...." | 
The Girlie
| Oh man! Just look at that lovely bit of laminated project board! That would have been just perfect for that bagpipe... *sigh* Yep, I have issues. The girlie decided that she wanted a big wooden number "1" and you can see her cut lines there in the photo. I had encouraged her to go with simple, straight lines and in true Yopp form, she found a scrap of rose wood long enough to function as a straight edge. I helped start the cuts and she did the rest using the big handsaw - not that little keyhole saw pictured on the bench there. | 
The between child
| YIKES! That piece is even bigger and nicer than the one the girlie had! My middle child, inspired by the efforts of his older brother, is working on a wooden sword. You can see that his design was a little on the thin side and I suggested he widen it out a bit. His sister had already laid claim on the big saw, so he has my coping saw, the least aggressive and most difficult saw in the shop. I moved him out to the picnic table and provided him a clamp to help hold the board. In the end, I think the cross pieces of his hand guard were still too thin and ended up breaking off. Now its a machete. | 
The eldest
| Here is my eldest putting the finishing touches on a sword that he cut from 3/4 plywood using my coping saw. I was actually impressed because that saw always gives me fits. I can never keep it perpendicular to the board on all axis at the same time. The side I can see follows the cut lines just fine, but the blade wanders all over the place on the back. He did a pretty good job. After he got it in roughly the shape of a sword, I had him draw in the blade and use the belt sander to finish forming it. Once he was happy with it, I rounded off the edges to make it more hand and sibling friendly. | 
Shop Tour: The drill press
| While we are here, I will give you the shop tour. Here's my Delta drill press. The cabinet on the wall behind it has screws, nails drill bits, and other miscellaneous goodies. The cabinet in the foreground is home to my router, palm sander, books, plans, user's manuals and assorted brik-a-brak. | 
Shop Tour: The work bench
| My bench. 2' X 8', a double thickness of 3/4 plywood laminated together with a hard board work surface. It is hinged and the legs can swing up flat against the wall to let the top fold down, however, it is rarely cleared off enough for me to use this feature. Home to the messy Wall o'Stuff, the vice, and the belt/disk sander. My wee compressor and my shopvac are huddled underneath. | 
Shop Tour: The band saw and table saw
| And finally my band saw and sorry table saw. The table saw was my first big tool purchase and I chickened out of buying a really good one. ALWAYS BUY THE BEST TOOLS YOU CAN AFFORD! Between the saws is my collection of scrap wood. I don't consider my self a pack rat, but I find it nearly impossible to throw away even the smallest, most useless bits of wood. That pile in front of the wood isn't trash! Its wine boxes for future banjos, parts of the as yet unfinished Weber Kettle Bass, and other vitally important parts. | 
One more before bed
| Before calling it a night, and after everyone had gone to bed, I made the other side of the kinnor. It is definitely starting to look lyre-like. Soon I will have to cut the mortises for the cross bits. I don't really like mortising, it puts the 'work' in woodworking. I probably need to practice it more. Hmm.. Maybe I could just used the biscuit joiner... hmmmmm. |
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| » A Gentile's Kinnor |
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"Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have cattle. His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe." (Genesis 4:20-21 RSV)
"Praise The Lord with the lyre, make melody to Him with the harp of ten strings!" (Psalm 33:2 RSV)
The kinnor on an ancient coin
| I first heard about the kinnor through the YouTube page of klezfiddle1. At the time I thought it was a cool and unusual instrument and I have enjoyed watching klezfiddle1 as he has learned to play it. As always happens, I figured that was all that would come of it.
I was recently volunteered to participate in my church's VBS program. Initially it was just as a helper in one of the classes, but then someone said to themselves, "Hey, Yopp builds those goofy instruments, lets have him play the part of an instrument builder in an ancient Jerusalem market." Now I suspect they would be happy with me displaying my banjos, and pvc flutes, and other odds and ends, but I figured if I was going to do it, I should do it up right. I would build something that was actually appropriate to the time period and location. I have to stop letting my brain do all the thinking.
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Full Scale Drawing
| So I sent klez a message asking for measurements off his kinnor. Armed with his measurements, a photo of a modern instrument, and some graph paper, I sketched out my kinnor. I scanned my drawing and imported the image into the free, 2-D learning edition of TurboCad. Then using that as a guide, I used the line and spline tools to redraw it so that I could play with the curves. Printed on six letter-size sheets of paper. | 
Starting the template
| After taping up my full scale plan I have cut out the side piece and glued it to a thin scrap of MDF which I liberated from the packing material for a printer at the office. Next up will be cutting it out and shaping it down to its final dimensions. The rest of the parts are pretty straight forward, so this is the only pattern I will make. |
This project was also the perfect excuse for me to order 100 zither pins. Better to have extra and not need 'em than need 'em and not have 'em - at least thats what I tell the missus.
On paper it looks like it is going to be a pretty easy build. Those are the ones that always seem to sneak up on you. Oh, and it needs to be finished in less than two weeks. um.. Piece of cake.
Klezfiddle1, aka Michael Levy, is in the process of recording a CD of ancient Jewish lyre music. Check out his Youtube channel for details and buy a couple when it is released. I have watched him go from tentatively plucking single notes melodies to playing accomplished arrangements using both hands to provide melody and accompaniment on an instrument than many people claim is only suited to provide simple accompaniment to vocals.
Jul. 1st, 2008 @ 09:45 am
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| » The Bicycle Cello Banjo Becomes Reality |
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After the last cello update, the Arkansas summer settled in. The early summer was mild and unusually wet. I should have known better but it lulled me into thinking maybe this season would be tolerable. Silly me. Weeks of 100+ highs, high humidity, and a solid month without rain. Not a conducive environment for banjo building in the garage. Over the last couple of weeks things have started to let up and I found myself thinking cello thoughts again.
The plan to use part of the bike frame as a dowel rod fell through. All the tubing on the bike was too thick for my Yopptanium rim. With that settled I opted to fore go the dowel and fall back to my one-piece neck/stick configuration. I like the rock solid feel it gives me, and of course the convenient handle it provides. I look at a lot of the work that other banjo builders do. Many of these guys are making beautiful, professional instruments with glossy finishes and shiny parts that are actually meant to be part of a banjo. One thing I have always thought was really nice is the skunk stripe down the neck. The effect is achieved by laminating different kinds of wood together and then cutting the neck blank from the resulting hunk of wood. Traditionally they use woods like maple with a strip of walnut sandwiched in between. I used all my maple in the construction of the block rim, and my only source of walnut is the uncut logs I have had outside for the last three years. I just know that someday a traveling wood miller is going to pull up in my driveway with his band saw wood mill and cut those logs into wonderful boards for me. Until that day arrives, my option is to fire up the chainsaw and risk my hands and feet in hopes of getting a usable chunk of wood. Not a good bet with an ante that is too rich for my taste.
| So it was off to the garage to see what my pack-rat nature had stored up for winter. Lots of pine, lots of plywood. There were some strips of cedar, probably from when they built my log house, but they had too much sap wood to be attractive. Then I found a few oak boards that I had purchased years ago to build a lamp with. Who needs another lamp? So I had pine and oak. What I really wanted was a nice dark brown wood. I remembered the thin rosewood veneer I bought to use on my finger boards. Perfect! I resawed the oak to make two thinner boards, sandwiched a piece of the rose wood betwist those, and then pine on the outside of that. It looked pretty good, and the oak would add some extra strength to the final neck. | 
| Cutting the holes in the rim was probably the scariest part of this whole build. Its one of the places where precision matters, both in the size and shape of the holes, and in their placement. Make em too big and the neck is going to play and wobble. Line 'em up wrong and the whole thing can end up unplayable. There is considerable discussion about proper neck/heel angles which I pretty much ignore. I run my necks parallel with the head. The math and wood working skill required to cut a 0 degree angle is just so much easier to me. The fear over this part of the project ended up being unfounded. I successfully cut two rectangular holes of the proper size and location and only cracked the rim twice. Just along a glue joint, nothing too bad. I reglued them, and tossed in a biscuit for insurance. | 
| The fingerboard was next. I got some 1/4 inch rosewood for the cello. I had planned on having the rosewood extend out over the head, like Marcy's does. But I have never been one to spend a lot of time designing and drawing plans. I prefer to wing it. One of the drawbacks to this approach is that you don't always remember all the details. The neck blank was supposed to end up just a little proud of the head so the fingerboard could extend out over it. The neck ended up just a little shy. The fingerboard extends over the rim, but not over the tone ring. Between the oak in the neck and the extra thick fingerboard, warping should not be a problem. | 
| Rather than use the Yopp Tuner and worry about having enough play to tension up nylon strings, I decided to use another bit of inspiration from Vintagewells (Lorna from BHO). She was working on a cookie tin banjo using an old six string neck that had a slotted peg-head. For me this was another of those tense moments where one wrong move could ruin a neck that was practically finished. Once again the worry was unnecessary. I didn't split the peg head - at least not until I was drilling the holes in the side for the tuning machines. One of these days I will learn to drill my holes and do final shaping in the proper order. Another ill effect of an ADHD person building on the fly instead of planning out the job before hand. | 
| A rosewood nut finished that end of the banjo. A while back i had made a moon-style bridge from a 6" PVC pipe connector. It ended up being way too dead sounding for my 'normal' banjos, so I had tossed it in the parts bucket. I sanded off the notches I had cut for my 5-string and set it up for the cello. It works great. I went super simple/primitive for the tail piece. I drilled four small holes, just big enough for the strings, through the oak in the spike - the stickyouty part of the stick going through the pot. As it was Sunday afternoon when I finished this, all the outlets from which I could purchase strings were closed. I hauled out my supply of fishing line. Tie a knot in one end of the string, feed it through the hole in the spike, run it up to the peg head and Bob's your uncle. She sounded pretty sweet with mono-filament except that the low string was extremely loose. The next day I secured a set of Martin classical guitar strings - silver plated, with ball ends. the ball ends worked swimmingly with my primitive tail piece. The strings were almost too short for the scale of the cello banjo, but I managed to get them on. With the fishing line it sounded kind of sweet and tubby, like a big tack-head minstrel or a gourd. With the classical strings she's got some bite to her bass. I am very pleased. |
I had planned on making the cello banjo a 5-string, but somewhere along the way - unbeknownst to me - I drew it out and cut the neck as a 4-stringer. Just another detail in a long list that got lost in the Ritalin fog. None the less, I am VERY happy with how this all turned out. Now lets see if I can manage to embed the video...
Whats next? Who knows? I have a number of things swirling around in my head. Another Yoppjo, possibly with frets, a PVC fiddle, the water-proof banjo, the weber kettle upright bass... Oh.. and possible a solid body 5-string in honor of one of my BHO idols, TheBoog...
Hmmm...
Sep. 18th, 2007 @ 02:23 pm
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| » Return to the Cello |
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After a break, I have returned to the Cello banjo project. Boy, has the price of rosewood gone up. The cost for this order was twice what my last one cost. And to make matters worse, it looks more like zebra wood from all the light colored streaks. On the bright side, I have considered using zebra wood in the past, so its all good.
I spent part of my break considering my options for tensioning the head. After seeing Haiku's monster banjo thread, I was considering making holes in the head at the hoop, tying fishing line around the hoop through the holes, and then mounting cheap guitar tuners inside the pot to apply tension. That idea still appeals to me, but Vintagewells (Lorna) posted something that really resonated with my cheap, recycling spirit. She stated that she had used bicycle spokes as tension hooks. Bicycle spokes - absolutely brilliant.
So it was off to the yard to snatch one of the kids' bikes! Before anyone thinks horrible things about me, the bike I grabbed was one of their old retired bikes that had been abandoned on the ground under the trees with two flat tires. Honest. As I was loosening the nuts that hold the front tire on, the kids gathered around and asked "What cha doing, father?" I grinned my evilest grin and replied "I am building a banjo!" After a few moments you could see it sink in as the ramifications of what I said and the item I was harvesting parts from connected in their minds. This was the same man that had just the week before dug through their toy boxes breaking open toys that he thought might contain a piezo disk. Now that same man was disassembling a bicycle to build a banjo. Little did they know that their cause for concern would later become greater.
Well, it takes a while to remove all the spokes from a bicycle wheel. A lot of thoughts drifted through my head about how one might be able to used a bike wheel with spokes and hub attached in a banjo. I was also impressed with how few spokes it actually takes to keep the hub suspended in the middle of the rim. The kids were eager to get on father's good side and helped reunite the liberated spokes with their spoke nuts. Once I had all the spokes and hub parts tucked in baggies I looked at what was left.
Bike rim tone ring
| After a considerable amount of scrubbing with steel wool, the wheel rim was a shiny chrome ring. Now what is it that that reminds me of? Hmm... something shiny and round... | 
Bike rim tone ring
| Something that sometimes has no holes, and sometimes does have holes, like this one. Something one might find in a fine musical instrument. Maybe in something like a banjo... Ah HA! Someone cleverly used a tone ring as a bicycle wheel rim! | 
Bicycle rim tone ring
| I pointed this out to the kids as I grabbed my 14" head and laid it over the ring. It was a little small. Of course, we have lots of bikes. Wee little ones, 10", 12", 16"... "You know, kids, if I were to find out that one of your bikes had a rim that was just the right size for one of my drum heads..." Ah, that look of terror in your children's eyes is just something that money can't buy. |
I had not planned on using a tone ring in this banjo, but now I had to reconsider, if for no other reason than the fact that I was already going to use the spokes, and using the rim as well just seemed right.
Bicycle spoke hooks
| I clamped the head and the tension hoop - In this case, the hoop from another 14" drumhead - to the rim and tone ring, guess-timated the position of my bracket - in this case, a copper connector lug from the electrical department of Home Depot - and bent the spokes in to hooks. Once I had the first one shaped and trimmed I used it as a template for bending the rest. It surprised me how quick and easy this went and I suspect it could have just as easily been a pain. I just got lucky and my banjo-karma was good. I installed the first one and everything worked exactly like it was supposed to. | 
Tension hooks and brackets
| I had planned on using 12 brackets, but would have stopped at six. As luck would have it, I miss counted and drilled a hole in the wrong spot. That would have left an unsightly hole in the rim and after further inspection, I decided that 12 would probably be a good idea anyway. |
The head is now done. I think I will dub this the Yopp Bicycle Cello. Spoke tension hooks, wheel rim tone ring, and an archtop to boot! I am liking where this thing is going.
This morning I was talking with my boss - show and tell, cause I brought the head to work - and I mentioned that I was looking for ways to use the remaining wheel pieces on the banjo. He responded with something that will be giving my kids nightmares. "I am sure you could find a way to use the bike frame for the neck or something." I snickered politely for a moment and then stopped suddenly when two words rang out in my mind. Dowel Rod.
I can't wait to see the kids' faces tonight when I break out the saws-all.
Jun. 27th, 2007 @ 11:18 am
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| » Enter the Cello |
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It all started harmlessly enough. BHO luminary Cathy Fink kindly posted some videos of a couple of banjo tunes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_bBRhaN6v8
The videos feature Marcy Marxer playing a cello banjo. It was my first time to hear a cello banjo. The only one I had seen pictures of was on built my Mike Gregory. I said to myself, "Hey! That's cool," as if that was all that would come of it.
Then it started. The itch. Thoughts about how I would make a big head like that. Would fishing line work, or would I have to move up to weed wacker? Would a longer Yopptuner let me overcome my problems with nylon strings?
Next thing you know, my co-worker shows up with a new load of used drum heads from his brother. There are at least four 14" heads in the batch. I go home and get the mail. There is a woodworking catalog - WOO HOO! - And what do I find there? A router bit that cuts these spiffy notches for making 6, 8, or 12 sided boxes.
Someone out there wants me to make a cello banjo. I simply have to. No choice. So its off to the lab.
Pot Atoms
| Yopptanium atoms (Y). Yopptanium exhibits positive and negative charges at the poles, making Y atoms very interested in coupling with other Y atoms. | 
Atomic pairing
| These atoms then pair up to form small Yopptanium molecules (Y2). The molecules still retain their positive and negative poles, so they are still eager to bond with other Yopptanium atoms | 
Yopptanium chains
| As the bonding continues, Y chains are formed. To aid in proper orientation, advanced cryogenics is called into play. The A/C is set at 78f to insure that the chains are aligned properly | 
Yopptanium rings
| Once the properly aligned chains reach the critical molecular weight of 12, all of the available poles are paired, forming a stable ring. The rings are neutral in charge at this point and do not attract each other. It is clear that without some external catalyst, these Y-rings will not spontaneously form a Y-tube. | 
Stacking the Y-rings
| Once stable Y-rings have been formed they can be stacked, accomplished in this case by using gravitational forces, to form a Yoppy-tube. While carbon tubes are being explored in the nanotech world as a means to filter and reduce pollutants, it is expected that Yoppy-tubes will lead to an increase in noise pollution. | 
The catalyst: Gluidiumclampinine
| In order to coax the Y-rings to form Y-tubes, we have added gluidiumclampinine. Gluidiumclampinate might have worked but since we had it on hand, we went with the -clampinine. | 
Smoothing at the atomic level
| Gluidium, in addition to being an effective bonding agent, tends to leave the Yopptanium electron clouds lumpy and unattractive. as we all know, Truth is beauty and beauty is truth. Here the Y-tube has had it outer electron clouds smoothed. | 
... and from the side...
| As clearly shown here, the Yopptanium tube hovers in space on its own gravity canceling field. | 
| The head fits very snugly. Should be just about right once final sanding is done.
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Next I have to make some decisions about the neck, the tuners, and the tail piece.
Jun. 27th, 2007 @ 10:50 am
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| » The Weber Kettle BBQ Grill Upright 3/4 Bass |
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 | First, some old business. I mentioned the PVC moon bridge. Here's a picture of the bridge on Yopp V2.0. I don't normally play with two bridges, I just slide the other one in there so I wouldn't lose it. I cut it from a 6" connector, shaped the feet on my band saw, and the filed and scraped it to make it thinner and smooth. Before thinning, it made a very effective mute. I may make one without feet just for that purpose. This bridge will find its home on the gourd.
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And now, the business at hand. Say "Hello" to the Weber Kettle Grill.
 | This grill served me well for many years and provided many a weeks worth of a dining option my family likes to call "Meaty Meat." Meaty meat consists of me firing up the grill on the weekend and cooking up all of the meat products in the larder. A typical meaty meat will include hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, chicken (usually drumsticks or thighs), steak, pork chops and on special occasions, ribs. Occasionally other things find their way onto the fire. I like portabello mushrooms, which I marinate in olive oil and garlic, to put on top of my hamburger. The kids are fans of corn on the cob.
Everything goes into zip bags and into the fridge. At dinner time, I simply poll the family as to what meaty meat they want, zap the elected items in the microwave, and just like that, dinner is served. |  | After much sanding with 60 grit sand paper on my palm sander I managed to remove a decade's worth of baked on grease. I am impressed with the toughness of the paint/powder coat that comes on these things. I expected that after sanding I would have to repaint the metal but was pleasantly surprised to find the surface all black and shiny. Its good to know that if necessary I will be able to take a sander to my upright bass without causing significant harm. |  | I had not planned on doing much more than adding a sound board on top of the grill, but after thinking about it and looking at the construction of 'real' basses, I decided to put in a back board. It will provide a resonating surface and a place for the sound post to securely rest on. At this point, I had already used a large piece of scrap plywood to cut the sound board. After searching the garage in vain for a scrap large enough to cut an 18" back out of I had to resort to cannibalizing my old chicken coop. The chickens had long ago met with an untimely end and I have no plans to replace them anytime soon. On the bright side, It was already painted an attractive 'barn house' red - not that anyone will ever see it. The back board will rest on the metal tabs that supported the fire grate. I am optimistic that no further securing will be necessary. |  | Here is the sound board. Through brilliant forethought and dumb luck, it is perfectly sized to be gently pounded into place until it rests on the supports that previously held the grill. The wood was reclaimed from a pallet. I have not settled on what form the sound holes will take. I could go with easy round holes, more traditional 'f' holes, or maybe a stylish 'Y' design. There will be a bass bar on the underside. Given the materials in this project, I suspect a good argument could be made for the pointlessness of including the bar, but its easy to do, so I will do it. |  | And last, for now, is my roughed out fingerboard. It will be radiused like the real thing and provide a scale of around 40" nut to bridge. It is positioned in the photo close to where it will be in the final product so you can get a feel for proportions. The fingerboard and the neck that will support it will all be constructed from wood salvaged from an old futon frame - the same wood I used for the neck of the gourd banjo. I am currently mulling around the specifics of the neck and how it will be attached to the kettle and also the issue of tuners. The Yopp tuner is not beefy enough to handle the weed whacker line that will likely serve as strings. I am loath to actually purchase bass tuner machines and I am uncertain that the Yopp tuner will scale up and function effectively. I also have to consider the possibility that if it sounds O.K. I may be tempted to put real bass strings on it. which would undoubtedly increase the amount of tension the neck will have to deal with. |
Over all, I am tickled to have this project underway. Like the gourd, it may languish in this started-yet-not-finished state for a while, but now it has a much better chance of being completed.
Oct. 26th, 2006 @ 10:29 am
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| » Gourd Banjo Update |
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Let's see... I have finally gotten around to working on a few projects again. Since I last posted, I have made a couple of pan flutes, a shakuhachi, and a bugle. Made from? Yep, you guessed it. PVC. The bugle is inspired from my eldest taking up trumpet in school band. I wanted to see if it is feasible to build a PVC trumpet. Turns out, it is... if I can work out how to do the valves.
The gourd banjo has been staring at me accusingly. I got to the point that I had tacked the goat skin onto the gourd, and roughed out the neck, and then I stopped. I found myself with a day off last Monday, so I set to work on the last hard part of that project, the Yopp Tuner. I made myself a set of spacer blocks that I can use on the table saw and the drill press to help get the holes/grooves properly spaced. I think it worked well.
On most of the gourd banjo building sites I have visited, they all identify fitting the neck to the gourd as a difficult, tedious task - so of course, I decided I wouldn't worry about it. The fit was pretty good with the gourd before I tacked on the head. After that, the tacks made the gap larger. I told myself this didn't matter. Its a GOURD banjo, not some fancy-shmancy thing. That should have been the end of it. So of course I started rasping and filing and other less mentionable things. The results are not that impressive. Or pretty.
Here is where the project stands: (click on it for a big version)
All that's left is - hmm... why does that sound so familiar.. - some kind of tail piece that will let me hook the strings on the tuner, pull them pretty taut, and then secure them. I have made a compensated 'moon' bridge from ... yep, PVC. It looks pretty good but PVC is not a super conductor for sound vibrations. Its not awful and I may actually like the sound, but I am not ready to declare it a success or failure just yet.
Next up, "The Weber Kettle BBQ Grill Upright 3/4 Bass" (and more pictures)
Oct. 25th, 2006 @ 10:23 pm
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| » I met Lady Luck, and She's a Gibson. |
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On the 4th of July, we traveled across town to visit my wife's mom and step-dad. Yep, a trip to the in-laws. I am hesitant to say too much because I don't want to give the wrong impression. My in-laws are truly exceptional people who have always been very generous with both their time and possessions. They are people that genuinely care about others and often go above an beyond to offer help and assistance when they see a need. Now, on occasion that care and concern has lead to the frequent re-arrangement of my furniture. Like I said, I don't want to give the wrong impression.
I think its really just that we do not have a lot in common, we are very different people. My father-in-law is extroverted and gregarious, I am introverted and tend to be quiet. I lean to the more philosophical and aesthetic, he towards the more practical and pragmatic. If he wanted advice about cars and maintenance, or home renovations, or a good conversation about sports, I would not be a good choice. If I wanted advice about music, or designing a banjo, or the ramifications of Plato's concept of philosophy as a world of forms... That's all I am saying.
After lunch, as we began to make preparations to head home, my father-in-law told my wife's mother, "Hey, get that guitar and let him look at it." My thoughts were not hopeful. The idea of my in-laws delving into an area that is on MY side of the divide brought images of Estabon and the like. As those thoughts bubbled up unbidden, the case was laid before me. I nearly gasped out loud. This was a serious guitar case. Solid wood, quality hardware... I had not seen one comparable in years. If the guitar inside was the guitar that came with this case....
And it was. The peg head said "Gibson" in gold. I strummed across the strings just to see if it was in tune - which it was - but was immediately struck by the sound. Full rich bass, clear round treble. I played a couple of chords and was further impressed. I finger-picked a couple of things I know. This thing sounded fantastic.
"Happy Birthday! I hope you get some enjoyment playing it." Still a bit dazed, I think I managed to say something like "Thanks. This is a really nice guitar." Little did I know.
The following weekend found me at my father's house, guitar in tow. I was there to collect my two youngest (children) and wanted to get his opinion on the instrument. He was appropriately impressed. Curiosity began to gnaw, and being a computer guy, it seemed reasonable to hit the internet and track this puppy down. Reasonable until I experienced the excruciating travesty that is my parent's dial-up internet connection. I found a page that allowed me to identify my guitar as a Gibson J-50 flat top and printed out a description of the features and changes that were made throughout the years of its production. Based on that I was able to narrow it down to somewhere between 1955 and 1962. Once I returned home to a more civilized connection, the numbers stamped on the neck block steered me to the exact year, 1959, and even revealed that it was considered a factory second, probably due to some small blemish in the finish. Thanks to the people at the Banjo Hangout for helping to fill in some of those finer details. Several Hangout members indicated that this was a nice model and built during one of Gibson's finest guitar making eras.
Wow. Curiosity bit again last night so I poked around ebay and some other vintage guitar sites and got my final shock. J-50 guitars were being sold for $1,500 to $3,000. The $3,000 one was a 1959 just like mine!
Well, this morning I called my in-laws to offer some much more well informed thanks for the gift they had given me. Turns out they were visiting his son, when the mom-in-law saw the guitar case and mentioned that I was trying to get my kids interested in playing guitar. Their host, who does not actually play guitar, said "Take it! That's one less thing lying around the house!" I feel a little like someone that has discovered a Picasso hidden in a flea market.
So I am going to have to be extra nice, and if you have something bad to say about my in-laws, you best say it somewhere that I won't hear it. I will tell them that the next time they think I am being a bit inattentive or antisocial all they need to do is casually say "How's that guitar playing?" That should perk me right up.
Jul. 13th, 2006 @ 09:50 am
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| » Banjo Friday |
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Last weekend I went to a local bluegrass festival. While I was there I discovered the big difference between me and those professional banjo pickers - besides the banjo, of course. Whenever I handed them my banjo, they would reach in their pocket and produce a fancy pick case which they would open up and retrieve their picks. All this time I had been just dropping them straight into my pocket!
The other day, whilst strolling through the house, I noticed a short piece of PVC on a dresser where it didn't belong. It was part of a failed clarinet experiment. I had used boiling water to soften and flair one end, which was supposed to fit over another piece and... It had not really worked out. I picked it up and stuck it in my pocket intending to relocate it to an appropriate new home - like the trash can. That night I was emptying my pockets in preparation to retire for the evening. I thrust my hand into my pick pocket - that would be the left front one - and stopped. I couldn't feel my picks. I gathered up the contents of that pocket in my hand and withdrew it to take inventory. There was my knife, some change, and a short piece of PVC pipe, but no picks. However, there was something inside the PVC... Yep, it was my picks. They had curled up all safe and snug inside. I knew I had finally arrived. I had a fancy pick case, just like those professionals. I added the Yopp logo this evening, just to make it extra fancy.
 
Ok. The purpose of that story was so I could tell you this one. Oh, what a tangled web we weave....
Fridays are banjo day for me. My boss does not work on Friday. The field staff does not work on Friday. Most of the bigwigs don't work on Friday. So, Fridays are usually a pretty safe day for me to bring the banjo into the office and doodle a little between lines of code. Now that I am all professional-like, I reach into my pocket from which I produce my fancy pick case. I hold the case in my right finger tips and poke my left pinky into the end of the case causing the picks to magically drop into my right palm. This morning while I was executing the pinky poke, the pick case slipped down over my pinky like a ring... Or a bottle-neck slide?
Hmm... now who have I seen recently wailin' away on a banjo using a bottle neck slide? One 2-5 slide on the first string led to another.. then a stumble.. then again followed by a slide barre on the fifth... At that moment I was very thankful for two things. First, that I have learned some rudimentary clawhammer skills; and second, a certain individual who frequently stands at the mouth of the cave with a 'snarler' shouting "HEY! LOOK WHAT ELSE YOU CAN DO WITH THAT THING!!!!"
Look for track 11, 'YoppSlide', on the Banjo Stuff album... http://www.nowhereradio.com/yoppykyabetsu/discography
for a taste.
Jun. 30th, 2006 @ 11:59 pm
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| » The Gourd |
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Well, I have started my gourd banjo. I had two candidate gourds, one large one that would have an eleven inch head on it, and a smaller one that would be around six inches. Sadly, the larger one cracked in half during the decapitation phase. I personally mourned the loss, but my kids quickly gathered the pieces and are now using them for hats, bowls, and a shelter for a beanie baby kitten.
That leaves me with the smaller gourd, and a sinking feeling that these gourds may not be up to the challenge of becoming banjos. Undaunted, I successfully cut the top off of the survivor and sanded it down flat.
I spent more time than would indicate a normal healthy state of mind contemplating whether to order a skin for the head, or engage in a bit of old timey trapping and tanning. The Fox Fire III book contains recommendations for banjo heads that more often than not favor the belly of the common house cat. I have some moral qualms about catnapping the neighbor kid's Fluffy and executing the less than palatable procedures required to liberate a banjo head from its abdomen. Wildlife is reasonably abundant at the Yopp Compound, and I entertained the idea of trapping one of the local raccoons. But recently my father attempted to trap a coon that was molesting his bird feeders. After finding itself inside a pretty stout live cage trap, this creature - dubbed 'Super Coon' by my father and my eldest son - managed to bend and twist the steel bars of the cage and escape. If it came to a fight between me and Super Coon... Well, I decided that I probably don't want to add the expense of a series of intramuscular rabies shots to the cost of building a banjo. Today, on the advice of several experienced gourd banjo builders, I ordered two medium thickness goat skins from Mideast Manufacturing in Florida.
I grabbed my pencil and a sheet of paper and sketched out what I thought a neck should look like, made a few measurements and decided it was time to cut a prototype/form. Mostly, I wanted to see something neck like sticking out of my gourd. The bit sticking out of the end of the gourd is a bit long, but I just wanted to make sure I had plenty to work with. After successfully poking the prototype through the gourd, I glued up some boards from an old futon frame and cut out my neck blank. Heres what I have so far...
In a stark departure from 'traditional' practices, I have decided to use the Yopp Tuner from the YoppV2.00 banjo instead of tapered friction pegs. Next up will be shaping the neck and installing the head.
Jun. 19th, 2006 @ 11:09 am
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| » More Coming Attractions |
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While pilfering my father's storage building I happened upon a mess of gourds. I have selected a couple that look like they might want to be banjos and quietly made off with them. Ok. I did ask before making off with them. So there will be a gourd banjo or two in the offing as well as the aforementioned list of goodies.
Jun. 6th, 2006 @ 11:10 am
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| » Coming attractions.... |
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Since I am not terribly diligent at posting, here are the things that are likely to find their way here in the future.
1. A detailed series on the making of V2.01. Photos of the work in progress and more inane babble documenting my design thoughts and injuries. There will be a few enhancements, but for the most part I will be cleaning up the rough edges of V2.0
2. My old Weber charcoal grill has been standing, quite literally, on its last leg. I put it out of its misery the other day, leaving the lid and the round kettle shaped body. Almost immediately I had visions of the Weber Kettle Upright Bass. At this point it is little more than a gleam in my mind's eye, but I think it will be coming soon.
3. I recently saw pictures of a "dulcijo" and heard some samples. I have long toyed with the idea of making a dulcimer as an easy first step into something resembling actual luthery. The dulcijo is basically a banjo with three strings, tuned and fretted like a mountain dulcimer. I am practically there already.
4. I don't actually play the dulcimer, but I do play guitar, and I would really like to have a classical guitar. So I can:
- buy a cheap piece of junk there by satisfying my cheap nature but sounding cheap too,
- buy an acceptable sounding guitar for hundreds of dollars there by pushing my cheap nature into catalepsy leaving me in a state from which I can't possibly play the thing, or
- embark on the slippery slope of building my own there by keeping it cheap and with a lot of luck ending up with something that sounds decent.
5. The Violin. Maybe someday your great-great-grandchildren can read about my adventures building a violin.
May. 15th, 2006 @ 12:54 pm
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| » Mutations and Survival of the (F)ittest |
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All that yakking about the new V2.0 banjo, and I just left it hanging. Truth be told, I have been enjoying playing it so much I haven't taken time to post photos of it. I tell people that the old V1.x series were what I would call home-made instruments, somewhat crude and simple. V2.0 on the other hand I feel has graduated to 'hand crafted'. In addition to the technological advances - the tuner and the no-sew head and the tensioning system - I paid a little more attention to the aesthetics of the finished product - Hand carved back, rosewood finger board, brass bolts for the pot. Its a pretty good looking instrument, it plays and sounds just fine to me, and it still only set me back about $20.
The pot is made up of three layers.I generally try to use whatever is in my garage for materials, so originally the bottom, hand carved piece was pine, the middle layer was a very attractive piece of plywood scrap, and the top was another piece of pine. Once I got all the pieces cut and finished, I could not wait to try putting it together with a head to test my design. Within a minute of trying to press the top ring over the head and around the tension ring, I heard a sickening snap. The top ring had proved unequal to the task.
Frustrated, yet determined to see my creation live, I found another piece of pine hurriedly set myself to making a new top ring. I use a wheel/disk cutter in my drill press to cut the hole in the center. Unlike normal drill bits, the disk cutter has an arm attached to the bit. On the end of the arm is a sharp cutting blade that takes care of the business of making the hole. It whirls around the bit in an orbit of about three inches out. Yopp's Helpful Shop Tip #1: DO NOT LAY YOUR HAND ON TOP OF THE WORK PIECE WHEN LOWERING A DISK CUTTING BIT INTO IT! The drill press and the cutter are surprisingly insensitive to the delicate nature of the human epidermis. After applying the appropriate first-aide, I completed fabrication of this second disk and took the precaution of using my router to round over the back side of the hole, so as to reduce the amount of pressure required to push it down over the tension ring. This improved design faired much better. I managed to get it in place and start four of the connecting bolts to help pull down the ring and tighten the head before hearing that sickening snap again.
Clearly pine would not do. I reluctantly decided that I would have to use plywood. While surveying the options at the Depot, I found my eyes darting over to the oak. Such nice, REAL wood, and it would undoubtedly be strong enough, but at over $6 a foot - hopefully by now you have gotten the fact that I am cheap. As fate would have it, the Depot did not have any of the convenient 2' X 2' plywood sheets. Stealing another look at the oak, I noticed a small cut-off in the stack. It was a little larger than what I needed, but not by much. I resigned myself to the idea of spending the extra cash and picked it up. I got to the register with a few odds and ends of hardware, a can of tung oil, and my little oak board. The cashier rang up everything else and then looked at the pitiful piece of wood in my hand. "Is that your's?" she asked. I am happy to say that I didn't hesitate for a moment, but replied "Not yet! It's all your's until I pay for it." She looked at it, turned it over a couple of times - probably looking for a bar code - and then rang it up as "culled lumber." Fifty-one cents. "It's oak, you know?" I offered. She nodded and gave me my total.
I used clamps to hold it on the drill press. Some things make an impression on you. In this case it was a two inch mangled gash on my left hand which was still tender enough to insure that I would not be repeating that mistake. The oak worked beautifully. After staining everything, if you look at it from a distance you barely notice the three completely different types of wood products.
Ok. That's enough feckless meandering. Here's the final result.
  
And this is what it sounds like:
Yopparai Kyabetsu Singles on NoWhere Radio
May. 15th, 2006 @ 12:01 pm
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| » Rambling |
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I was ADD before being ADD was cool.
My boys have inherited it in spades. I have a whole new world of respect for my parents and how they managed to make it through my education without strangling me. I keep thinking that if I reflect back on my experiences in school I will find some insight that will make it easier for my boys to adapt and cope. I keep thinking that, but so far I haven't found it.
Its like Buffy. In one episode, Buffy kills a demon and in the process gets demon goo on her. It soaks in and after a bit of research, Giles announces that Buffy is likely to acquire some aspect of the demon. Turns out that in addition to being scaly and ugly and smelly and having a tail, this demon is also telepathic. Coolie. Sounds great. Until Buffy finds out she cannot turn it off. She hears everything, from everybody's thoughts, all the time. Welcome to ADD.
Personally I think there is a lot of genius that is hidden and missed behind attention deficit. Schools function on organization, lesson plans and sequential goals. We of the ADD do not. We function in a world of chaos, spontaneous insight and leaps of logic that defy a sequential measurement of progress. It sounds really great. But we cannot turn it off. With a lot of effort you can force yourself to stay more or less on track, but most people, probably when they are very young, quit trying at a subconscious level and that muscle atrophies.
When I was a kid, we did not really have a pharmaceutical option. Daily trips to the principal's office, calls to the parents, and assorted punishments and groundings at home were the standard treatment. In the end, as I am finding out now as a parent, it was not overly effective because while the ADD person may want to do better and may be very genuine in their resolve to be focused and organized, he/she has very little control. Something distracts them and the conscious brain's circuits and triggers that are supposed to reel them back in are completely cut out of the loop. To the parent it looks like a willful decision to not try. In spite of all the punishment given and promised, the kid still opts to not pay attention, not complete work, not keep up with their responsibilities. I loath the helpless victim defense in just about any situation. Its too easy. Its a cop-out. But the fact is that for the ADD person, its not a decision: It never makes it to that point. A distraction presents itself and the code that is supposed to kick in and let you evaluate or decide or weigh the consequences of following that distraction is completely bypassed. Later someone says "Why did you do that? You knew you would be punished if you did." and try as you may, you cannot find any answer. There was no reasoning involved because the reasoning part of the brain never fired. There was an eraser on the desk. That is all.
Feb. 23rd, 2006 @ 12:20 pm
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| » The Future is Now: Part E(volution) |
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Banjo making trailed off after the black walnut cinnamon affair. I play on my original most of the time and have become familiar with how the knots in the neck correspond to where the frets would be, fearlessly climbing up the neck to play Blackberry Blossom or Dear old Dixie. Over the years, the head has stretched a bit and I have screwed my tensioners all the way down. It is this problem that has driven me to revisit the world of banjo engineering.
To fix my banjo, I would either have to replace the tension ring with a taller one or replace the head. The former would most likely raise the strings too much, spoiling the precision action I now have. The latter would require me to break out the dental floss and Epsom's salt again. Either way, the problem would come back to haunt me, or my children when they finally settle the ugly lawsuits that will mostly likely ensue when it comes time to settle my estate and the will comes out of probate... Its just not the kind of legacy you want to leave for your offspring.
So the solution becomes obvious: Build a better banjo. The primary requirement for the new banjo is a "no-sew" head and some mechanism for adjusting the tension as the head ages. Modern banjos do this with lots of metal. I have nothing against these fancy contraptions, but really bad things would happen if I started trying to fabricate steel and aluminum parts on my delicate woodworking tools.
Since I will stay with a 10" pot, I broke out a board and my compass and started my design phase doodling. This led to a large, 12 petaled flower design that dictated twelve bolts that will hold the pot together - one between the tips of each pair of adjacent petals - and 6 set screws that will lift the tension ring to allow for adjusting the head. I still had some issues to work out, so I grabbed the exacto set and set myself to carving out the petals. One of my favorite things about wood projects is that just about every one eventually gives me an excuse to buy some new tool. This job clearly called for a set of riffler rasps. How else was I to shape the delicate concave petal shapes?
While visiting the Rockler site to find the rasps, I was captured by the siren's song of exotic wood veneer. I really liked the walnut fingerboard, but I lack the technology to mill really flat surfaces. I know what you are thinking. If the project is begging for a new tool why not go for something really nice. In the end, I decided that it would be hard to justify a $1,000 8" joiner for a sub $20 banjo project. Never fear. There on the Rockler site was an awe inspiring array of wood veneers. Spalted maple, birdseye, tiger, wenge, ipe, bubinga, zebra wood... I finally settled on something close to traditional: Columbian Rosewood. Twelve dollars bought me a piece big enough to make 4 fingerboards and a nut for each.
Years ago, I saw an ad for a silent practice banjo. Instead of a banjo pot/head et.al. it had a thin disk of plywood. To use it, you plugged a stethoscope like thing into a dowel on the disk. What really caught my attention though was the tuning pegs. Instead of being at the end of the neck, they were mounted on the disk. I really liked that. So as I carved and shaped, I dreamed dreams of a tailpiece tuner. On a live banjo, I could not figure a way to mount pegs on the pot where they would not be in the way. I paged though the hundreds of guitars offered by Musician's Friend online and discovered the Stienberger System. Stienberger makes them for their line of electric guitars and basses. Following the trail back to Steinberger, I found enough photographic material to decipher how they worked, and even found one I could buy... for $700. To satisfy my cheap nature, my version of the tailpiece tuner had to cost less than a cheap set of guitar tuners, and be relatively easy to fabricate in my garage using materials available at the depot. What I ended up with is a tuner made from a small scrap of oak and drywall anchors and 10 #6 hex head cap screws and assorted washers and nuts. All for 6 bucks.
Feb. 21st, 2006 @ 09:45 am
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| » D:evolution |
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The best time to wean someone from frets is before they ever know what frets are. The last banjo of this line I built for my friend and old college room-mate. My brother - of thanksgiving fame - had recently cut down a black walnut tree that was shading his bean patch and I hauled several hundred pounds of walnut logs to my house with visions of having it all milled into wood for furniture projects. I still have the logs. But I did manage to whip one of the smaller limbs into submission and cut what I thought at the time were reasonably flat strips. So my friend would be getting a walnut finger board, nut, and bridge.
Frequently when I start to layout a new banjo I will use the compass to draw out the circles, and then I end up doodling with the compass while I procrastinate.. um, plan out the rest of the instrument in my head. On this occasion, I looked down at my doodle and thought "Isn't that nice!" I had recently read a couple of articles on chip carving so I decided it was time to take procrasti.. Planning to a whole new level.
I ended up with a very nice, hand carved back, and a walnut finger board and accouterments. The final special touch on my friend's banjo would be cinnamon dental floss for the head.
  
Feb. 20th, 2006 @ 10:37 am
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yoppykyabetsu's journal
