Hey all,

I'm writing to share my three string fiddle made from a vodka box. I based my designs roughly off of those posted in the CB Fiddle group and from the rebec design in the plans section of the site. The box I used turned out to be very good acoustically. It's made of solid straight grain soft wood of some kind. I used a set of tuners from a broken classical guitar rescued from a dumpster. The neck is a piece of mahogany rescued from a dumpster behind a furniture shop (where I get all my wood). The tail piece is cut from an olive oil can rescued from the trash behind a french restaurant in town (they throw a lot of them away). The bridge is carved from a thin piece of oak. The nut from a piece of maple. I closed the back up with a thin piece of oak. I finished the whole thing with raw linseed oil. I found this to be a great option for a simple and attractive no fuss finish. It also allows the wood to darken naturally which I like.

For this project I challenged myself to resist the urge to buy parts. I could have used more appropriate tuners, but I didn't. I could have bought a tailpiece but I used some scrap metal instead. It forced me to rethink my approach I think for the better. I'm really pleased with the final result.

I carved the finger board myself from a piece of mahogany. It wasn't too hard, though I can say it sounds fine when bowing when plucking however there are certain notes that buzz a little. I used a sound post but I did not install a bass bar. Maybe I'll try a bass bar next time for reference. Over all I think it sounds pretty great - like a fiddle.

The bow is literally a bow as in the medieval style. It is made with fishing line. It works well for me but I've never had the luxury of a quality bow so I wouldn't know the difference.

If there's interest I could record a video of it in action for people.