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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