The Perfect Travel Fiddle

Hi everyone. I've long been looking for a fiddle durable enough to take hiking and into the rough stuff of real travel, while being portable and light as well. Since a carbon fiber instrument is about $5,000 out of my price range, I was looking at cheap kit fiddles, until I found this:

http://www.wiplstix.com/ws/what_is_wiplstix.html

It seems like exactly what I've been looking for- light, durable, and full scale-length- but it's also pricey.

So my question is: can a DIY version be made?

It's a simple instrument. The body and neck are made of one piece of wood. The tuning pegs are simple zither pins. The fingerboard, nut, bridge and tailpiece are premade and the same as a normal violin's. The sound holes are crescent-moon shaped (like a rebec) not the complicated f-holes of a standard instrument. And best of all, the whole thing fits in a durable, watertight case made of cheap PVC pipe.

It seems destined to be copied in the cigar box movement- I'd like to try it but I need some help. I have the proper tools but I have not attempted to carve something like this before. I need advice on wood selection, how to copy the relevant dimensions of a normal fiddle, making the body/neck, making the soundboard, how to carve out a good soundbox, and how to glue the fingerboard/nut on correctly.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated- Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Turkish on October 5, 2011 at 11:19pm

Yes, a DIY version is absolutely possible ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on October 6, 2011 at 1:27am

Turk, did you do a builder's blog about this one?

I've been looking at this one for a long time, and was planning to start on something similar this fall. I have the wood and everything.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.223584237655639.73761.1000...

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Permalink Reply by Fiddling Wolf on October 6, 2011 at 5:19am

Wow, that's an amazing build Turkish! Looks professionally done. I would love to see a blog/etc about it as well.

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Permalink Reply by Don Thompson on October 9, 2011 at 10:22am

Standard measurements: http://www.karlroyviolinbook.com/pdfs/Append682-3.pdf

I assume and recommend you buy the fingerboard and the bridge as these two items determine the playability of the pochette. You may have to carve a new bridge that is lower in height but it's good to have an original to work from to copy the correct radius. I have never built a pochette but have built an few electrics. I'm not a fan of zither tuners but each to their own.

Don