Picture 1 I will rotate it in the morning. My cell hates me sadly. Basically the material is african mahagony for the top. This will be an electric instrument and not an accoustic. Which means the top is covering the electronic box's. There will be openings cut out for pickups. Then wired in with ribbon cables and box headers on solder perf boards.
As for the art. This is line art I did during a Christmas month sermon. Oddly enough it was not narrowed in on a , "Christmas tgeme." Instead it was about God's promise to a man who waited his whole life to see the savior. My icon fursona named Lily takes a lot of spiritually symbolic forms in my art and writing.
I found this piece of art when I began to be troubled by mixed emotions and temptation. While I still feel like a lily lost in a river instead of a stable pond I see an end. In that the promis's God had for me are sowly growing. Friendships are being created and a new life of still waters is coming.
Lily holding close to a cross basically symbolizes how difficult salvation can become. You accep it not because its easy, but instead its the only way you can understand the world around you. Even while I am mocked by Christians and secular I stick with it. I know in my heart I can't bare to live my life without the scriptures.
As for the wax based painting? The abstract background is Crayola crayons burnished over with a colorless prismacolor pencil. The Character in the illustration is primarily prismacolor pencils. With layers of gesso and a layer of ink. Then faded with 2 more layers of gesso. Sanded with 110 grit for tooth. My goal for this project was to build a hammer dulcimer that can reach the entire range. From A0 to C7. However, I had to which to electric with pickups. The cost of the sound board would have made this project way too far outside my budget.
Page 2 At the base its 5 feet. Then will be roughly 3 feet to the top. This will include a control panel for all the pickups and active circuitry. I had to go with piano strings in order to get an "A0," with enough resonance in earlier experiments. Bass guitar "F," at 43 inch resulted "C1," at best.
Basically in picture is the layout of the shape I was after. 55 degrees at the lower angles. This will make bridge placement easier. The oak is only for the strings to pass over. Making a sustain pedal system easier. Oak will split under pressure. Its very wide grain makes to poor for handling holes or pegs. Yet, I find oak adequate for holding weight against its top surface.
The support beams in the middle are made of hard maple and walnut. The peg blocks in the up coming pictures will be the same. As I am writing this I am working on the electronics boxes and carving things down.
Page 3 Before anyone asks... This will be an electric instrument with bass black J pickups and 6-string guitar lipstick tube pickups. The boxes being made into the support beams are meant to provide support perpendicularly while still providing housing for the circuit-perf-boards.
To the bottom right is the bass bridge which will have 4 piano bass strings. Bass guitar strings would not reach 46 much less 4 feet of total measurement to the tuning block. In this picture the oak decks are removed. Showing the tuning pin blocks un-carved. I hope to figure out all the measurements for the bridges on my day off tomorrow.
Only the most minimal of carving has been done. Where it was needed to get to the next step. Also note that I will be doing a clever anchoring trick to make the support beams act as an engineering fulcrum. Where string tension is from front and back of the peg blocks. Meaning tail beads will be attached to the back of the blocks and the tuning pins will be on the front. Plus there will be garage door wire rope to help create counter force. I am not depending entirely on my joinery here. Only the cuts to prevent a collapse perpendicular to the string tension direction. IE force from base to top beam that is naturally created from the trapezoid shape.
Page 4 I have more pictures, but I will post those once I get further along. I want to start editing some photos into multiple per one file/image. For now here is a rough placement of the line art listed below. Via the link. All, but two pieces of the top are glued in. I also managed to start on the placement of the strings. However, the glue-ups of the pin blocks took the rest of today. I was kind of limited on what I could do.
Page 5 I transferred the line art I previously done with a light table. Then coated the back of the iteration with graphite. Basically a #2 pencil and sand paper. After having coated an area I taped it on and carefully worked it over with a pen. For the most part I am only layering Gesso with sanding between coats. I will be working the surface until it seems like it will take color pencil. Hope 110 grit will work. We shall see in the next series of photos.
Page 6 & 7 I sort of fudged up the picture order so here is one heading for two. First off I wanted to mention how I use super glue for making bridge and nut items. I am sort of experimenting as I go, but I did this with nuts and bridges on other instruments I made. A customer in the line behind me at Walmart asked me what it all the super glue was for.
After getting home and sorting things out I realized what he was asking about. He mis-understood the point. You don't put the glue on the string to secure it. The idea is to glue together Popsicle sticks and then soak the stack in the glue. After dry you can cut and or file down a notch. After one more treatment of the super glue its filed very lightly and I finish it off with sanding and carving the nut into a decorative shape. The heavy wight and tension of the string embeds itself into the layers. Which helps prevent buzzing at the nut. However, you do not put super glue to secure it into the wood. Which was what he thought I was saying.
Next is the hardware for the pickups. I have not secured the last two because I had not the time to really drill out the other bass strings. I am calling this area the dark bass. Due to how low they go. Basically the lowest anyone would want to go. Which is A0. Which is what you see in the picture where the string is above two posts of the pickup.
Needless to say I have one dangerous death grip and cut through with linemen pliers. Actually I was only using them to make a more accurate starting point for my hacksaw. Boy that would be one scary grip I would have am I right?
Most importantly make sure you punch dimple's as this helps a lot. I attempted it without, but I ruined three aluminum hardware pieces. I had to cut and shape 3 of them all over. Be sure not to make that mistake like I had. I recommend using TAP oil or 3-in-1 oil as these are the best I used for lubricating my expensive Spider bits.
I also decided on using ribbon cable normally used for synth builds and other diy things. Basically because I am building active controls from scratch. I want an easy way to get things apart for when I begin to prototype that part of the instrument. Especially if I plan on using bread board and a dual power supply before soldering permanent connections. Thought I may leave the ribbon cable as it is due to how this will make assembling things easier. Repairs will be a lot smoother down the line.
The bass pickups are not completely in place much less done being worked with. I still need to make the pre-amp board. I also need to get their mounting hardware secured. I plan on carefully gluing in card and paper. Then spray painting the mounting hardware and the paper cover black to blend in with the pickups. Sounds crazy, but you will see what I mean when I upload the next photos.
Last Page It took a while to get these strings correct. I began using yarn and crochet thread. Black for accentals and white for naturals. While this type of string can't vibrate loudly much less magnetic it works for trouble shooting. More specifically works for fixing problems before I put actual magnetic strings on it. I can tighten yarn to test things. A lot cheater then music string.
A lot more to come. I been keeping track with pictures. I just did not have a lot of time afterwords. Though I may need to work on prioritizing things better. I get so caught up in the math and theory that I am worried that I may need to change it.
Yet, these past weeks I managed to finalize a lot of things on this project. I am confident I will pick up pace on the next Chapter. Via "Bridge over troubled water."
Line Art Source The Sermon and scriptures there of are what I am reflecting upon in this build. Keep in mind when I take line art from my sketch book I try to do many iterations of them on a light table. Then I will transfer them onto wood. This project will be a first for a new method. In that the transfer will be rubbed on and not free handed sketched from a previous line art I done. I had only transferred through a light table onto mixed media paper. So this should be interesting to see how it turns out.
