What I did was lighly glue together 2 planks of 3 inch Cherry, to form a 6 inch block. Once turned, I split them apart with a chisel, and carved out the inside with my dremil tool, a router bit and a feeler gauge.
Cool. Never played a bowed instrument before. Have wanted to build a CBF (Cigar Box Fiddle), but never have gotten around to it. I like the "Gittern"; diatonically fretted, but 8 frets seems too few. Were the two instruments built out of the two halves of the cherry block of wood you turned on the lathe? I wonder how hard it is to carve the insides. Seems like an awful lot of work.
The short one to the left is a Rebec, an early ancestor to the violin. It's bow can be seen at the bottom of the picture on the table in the center. The two to it's left are both Piezoelectrics, one fretted, one slide. The 3 to the right are pure acoustics.
The short one is not a Chinese pipa as the pipa is a fretted instrument and actually has a wider pear shaped body (see photo below). It's just some 4-string fretless lute with an interesting body shape. A photo essay of how it was built would be interesting to see. Seems like the four instruments on the left are fretless while the two on the right are fretted. But they look like a nice beginning to a new career in instrument building.
Comments
oh cool, yeah i just couldn't see it that well, and figured it just might have been your own take on the pipa, thanks
What I did was lighly glue together 2 planks of 3 inch Cherry, to form a 6 inch block. Once turned, I split them apart with a chisel, and carved out the inside with my dremil tool, a router bit and a feeler gauge.
Cool. Never played a bowed instrument before. Have wanted to build a CBF (Cigar Box Fiddle), but never have gotten around to it. I like the "Gittern"; diatonically fretted, but 8 frets seems too few. Were the two instruments built out of the two halves of the cherry block of wood you turned on the lathe? I wonder how hard it is to carve the insides. Seems like an awful lot of work.
-Rand.
The Rebec
Mine has 4 strings, tuned as a modern violin would be.
The body was turned on a lathe, carved from a block of Cherry. It's twin was made into a Gittern, a primative Lute from the same historical period.
The short one to the left is a Rebec, an early ancestor to the violin. It's bow can be seen at the bottom of the picture on the table in the center. The two to it's left are both Piezoelectrics, one fretted, one slide. The 3 to the right are pure acoustics.
The short one is not a Chinese pipa as the pipa is a fretted instrument and actually has a wider pear shaped body (see photo below). It's just some 4-string fretless lute with an interesting body shape. A photo essay of how it was built would be interesting to see. Seems like the four instruments on the left are fretless while the two on the right are fretted. But they look like a nice beginning to a new career in instrument building.
Pipa photo:
is that short one a pipa?
Yea, I have a few Stick Dulcimers around...