Posted by Rand Moore on November 18, 2012 at 9:44am
My second "mountain dulcimer" with a 50cm VSL, a 24" x 6" x 2" sound box and a "neck-almost-thru-the box" with an elevated fretboard. Another close up of headstock, angled view.
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Well, it's good to hear someone else is having success with this method of building. It kind of flies in the face of traditional guitar building lore. I wish the trash recyclers here in China weren't so efficient so I could have a chance to find good quality scrap wood to build with. That which I have found is not so good, so I use it to build forms, jigs and work table tops. Fortunately the wood I buy is not that expensive and already comes in usable sizes. Well, keep on building and experimenting...
I've got one like that. Mine was a cardboard ducimer kit i got at a sale. I took off the cardboard box and used a Maple brace the full length of the new top to pull the slightly bowed fretboard back into shape. I thought it would be a sound killer, but not so. It sounds great and the brace straightened the neck. I used scrap wood from our local sawyer for the sides and top and back. This scrap is edging off old warehouse beams from Duluth's waterfront. Pine and Spruce and Cedar. I have lots of this scrap to build with.
This headstock and neck design is pretty much my standard design these days. The innovating thing about this design is that the instrument is a "neck-almost-thru" design with an elevated mountain dulcimer style fingerboard. So, the soundboard is actually glued to a length of wood for its entire length on both sides of the sound board, yet the resulting instrument sounds real nice.
Comments
HI Dave,
Well, it's good to hear someone else is having success with this method of building. It kind of flies in the face of traditional guitar building lore. I wish the trash recyclers here in China weren't so efficient so I could have a chance to find good quality scrap wood to build with. That which I have found is not so good, so I use it to build forms, jigs and work table tops. Fortunately the wood I buy is not that expensive and already comes in usable sizes. Well, keep on building and experimenting...
-Rand.
Thanks, Guys...
This headstock and neck design is pretty much my standard design these days. The innovating thing about this design is that the instrument is a "neck-almost-thru" design with an elevated mountain dulcimer style fingerboard. So, the soundboard is actually glued to a length of wood for its entire length on both sides of the sound board, yet the resulting instrument sounds real nice.
-Rand.
Wow, that's nice. I love your headstock. Nice woodworking.