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Monday, November 13th, 2023
So Christian has asked me to build him a guitalele. I am planning to start from StewMac's tenor ukulele kit and modify it for six strings. I believe the modification to the kit that will be needed, is a new neck and a new bridge, new nut and saddle. I am leaving the bridge + saddle alone for now, when it is needed I will cut a bridge from rosewood following Mike Moss's ukulele bridge making demo.
Today I started the project, which mainly means I took the kit out, examined the parts, looked at the instructions, watched the videos at StewMac's site, and started planning out the neck.
Guitalele neck: neck width
The neck and fingerboard included with the kit are strongly tapered, from 45mm at the 14th fret (where the neck meets the body) to 35mm at the nut (a length of 239mm, taper of 10mm). (These are the fingerboard widths; the neck is slightly wider and is meant to be shaped down to flush with the fingerboard.) I'm flying a bit by the seat of my pants reckoning the dimensions for my neck, starting from what I can find on the internet. The fingerboard I have is 49.5mm wide, so that is how wide the body end of it will be. (The kit fingerboard is 46.5mm at the body end.)
The Yamaha guitalele has a nut width of 48mm, and a string spacing (at bridge) of 10.2mm, meaning the width from top to bottom string at the saddle is 51mm. I'm trying to figure out the string width at the nut -- the 35mm nut included with the kit has a string width of 28mm, so let's say the Yamaha string width at the nut is 41mm. So there is a taper of 10mm over a scale length of 17" (431.8mm). The string width at 12th fret is 46mm, neck width is 53mm.
I can't have a neck that wide; so I will need to space the strings slightly tighter, with less spread between the nut and the bridge. I figure my neck can be 48mm wide at the 12th fret, so string width there is 41mm. If I want a 10mm taper from nut to saddle, that would make the nut string width 36mm, neck width at nut 43mm; string width at saddle 46mm. So string spacing at nut is 7.2mm (a little less than 5/16") and at bridge is 9.2mm. If my calculations are right the string spacing at the nut of the Yamaha guitalele is 8.2mm (a little bit over 5/16"). I think these measurements will work but will check in with Christian to make sure. If I want to widen the fingerboard I reckon I could do that, I have some scrap rosewood I could use but it would be difficult to guarantee that it would look pretty. I could also try reducing the taper, but it is difficult to know what the effect would be on the playability.
Neck length
Neck length is taken care of. The fingerboard is made for a 17" scale; head to 14th fret is 240mm. (The kit fingerboard is 16 7/8" scale.) I will leave enough room for a peghead about half again as long as the kit's peghead.
posted morning of November 13th, 2023: Respond
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Sunday, November 27th, 2022
One of the first poems I ever translated was "Der Novembertag," by Rainer Maria Rilke. The closing line of the poem has the wind in the chimney sounding out "eines Totenkarmens Schlussoktaven." I mistranslated this as "a death-karma's closing octaves" which has always struck me as a beautiful and enigmatic image...
This morning it occurred to me to mention this in my recently-created Mastodon account; and Mastodon came through! A couple of people suggested the archaic German Totencarmen, meaning "funerary song," obviously the correct interpretation.
Der Novembertag
Kalter Herbst vermag den Tag zu knebeln,
seine tausend Jubelstimmen schweigen;
hoch vom Domturm wimmern gar so eigen
Sterbeglocken in Novembernebeln.
Auf den nassen Daechern liegt verschlafen
weisses Dunstlicht; und mit kalten Händen
greift der Sturm in des Kamines Wänden
eines Totenkarmens Schlußoktaven.
The November Day
Cold autumn can muzzle the day,
silence its thousand jubilating voices;
from the steeple whimper, so peculiar,
death bells in November's mist.
On the wet rooftops lies sleeping
a white fog; and with cold hands
the storm inside the chimney's walls strikes
a lamentation's closing octaves.
posted morning of November 27th, 2022: Respond
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Monday, September 19th, 2022
For several months now I've had in mind how I could go about making a better tin-can cello. I'll not bother to enumerate the shortcomings of my current cello. The instrument I have in mind is also built with a bucket and intended to mimic the look and sound of a violoncello. But it is a completely different beast.
I believe I could weld two buckets together, cutting metal away and clamping in such a fashion as to mimic the shape of the upper and lower bouts of a violoncello's body, and to cut away and shape a c bout. Could hammer a slight arch/radius into the belly of the instrument (note, would be better to arch the upper and lower bouts separately prior to joining them together.) Could weld a bass bar in.
Once the body is joined together and cut to rib height, I can carve a back of maple or poplar and attach it with fish glue? epoxy? There will be neck and tail blocks and a true soundpost.
I should draw a picture of what I'm talking about, or a diagram; but so far have come up with nothing at all convincing. I am making large assumptions about how much welding and metalwork I will be capable of. If this all worked, I would get a steel resonating chamber under tension, amplifying the vibrations of the wooden back. If my imagination is serving me faithfully, it would make a fantastic sound.
posted afternoon of September 19th, 2022: 2 responses
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Wednesday, April 27th, 2022
Cut-ups of the world, unite! .
posted afternoon of April 27th, 2022: Respond
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Thursday, November 11th, 2021
Praise G-d, creator without flaws
Praise G-d, all creatures, without pause.
Praise G-d, don't hold back the applause:
Praise Father, Son, and Santa Claus
(or, "Creator, Christ and Santa Claus")
posted morning of November 11th, 2021: Respond
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Monday, November 8th, 2021
To be or not to be, that is the question, sir:
whether tis nobler to suffer, or not,
the slings and the arrows of outrageous fortune --
to play the hand dealt, or just give up the pot?
posted morning of November 8th, 2021: Respond
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Tuesday, July 27th, 2021
Got a new wallpaper for my desktop background: "Prime factorization: the first 1200 integers", by Juliet Fiss.
posted afternoon of July 27th, 2021: 1 response
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Saturday, June 19th, 2021
Imagination and Reality:
Two diaphanous N-membranes
floating in a soup of Time.
posted afternoon of June 19th, 2021: Respond
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Thursday, June third, 2021
posted evening of June third, 2021: Respond
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Sunday, May 30th, 2021
With Dylan turning 80 there was a lot of talk about him on the social media sites this week. In one thread we were talking about cover versions and someone pointed out that there are certain songs it's difficult to cover without slipping into an affected "Bob Dylan" voice; his examples were "Stuck Inside of Mobile" and "Idiot Wind". (I pointed out "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" fits into this category as well...) Elswhere Morris Windsor posted this astonishing cover of Stuck Inside of Mobile by The Soft Boys, playing at Slim's in San Francisco in October 2002 (the Nextdoorland tour) -- when/if I try playing the song I am going to find it difficult to avoid slipping into an affected "Robyn Hitchcock" voice.
posted morning of May 30th, 2021: Respond
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