I posted a query about using a tambourine for guitar body a while back. Seems it had been done before, but I couldn't resist.
I used the head stock I had left over from an old violin. I spliced it into a 1" red oak dowel from HD. After splicing and smoothing, I applied a faux finish over the entire neck to blend the maple head stock into the oak neck.
It's a slider, so I just notched the dowel on the up-facing surface to indicate fret locations and brass tacks to indicate the usual dots.
I wanted to used the original violin tuning pegs, but after giving that I try I had a new respect for violinist and a firm belief that I could never keep this thing in tune with simple tapered pegs. Soooooooo..... I pirated some enclosed tuners from a git I wasn't using, built up the side of the head stock to accommodate and gave it a try.
I choose to string with the Gitty med-hi-hi strings (.020w, .012, .009) tuned to G3-D4-G4. Tuned an octave above the normal range, this puppy is treble-rich. I finally decided to tune down to get some of that sloppy-string sound. Down to DAD and it sounds really nice with the two piezos wired in parallel. I did install a tone control with a .047 uF cap. It works well to control the high notes.
Overall, I'm very pleased with the tambourine slider. It has a very bluegrass type sound and you can hear the tambourine head "thump" thanks to the piezos.
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That is one nice piece of work. I especially like the head stock. How did you attach it to the rest of the neck?
Hi Blues Frog. Thanks.
The head stock is part of an old violin neck, so it had a half-round length where the fret board would be attached. I cut the neck off so that I had about two inches of the half round section remaining attached to the headstock. I then cut a matching half round section out of the end of the dowel. Essentially, I ended up with a basic scarf joint. I used 30 minute epoxy to join then since I wanted strength and never intended to have these pieces apart again. After the epoxy set, I sanded everything to match, filled the joint with filler and sanded until the two pieces matched well.
Since the dowel was oak and the headstock was maple, the two woods didn't match each other and the mated pieces stood out like a sore thumb. To fix that, I used a technique I learned while restoring antique clocks. It's called Faking (for obvious reasons).
First I painted on a coat of bright yellow opaque exterior stain. That allowed the two woods to match (just didn't look very woody). Next, I took some Gunstock colored Minwax stain and applied it with a stiff brush using an almost dry brush and a stipple stroke to sort of jab the surface. Slowly, the stain starts to build up and the piece begins to look like wood again. The underlying bright yellow really helps to make the stain appear to have depth (like real wood).
Once all this stuff dried, I brushed on several coats of Shellac and let it dry. After that I used a cotton rag with cotton balls inside to rub and polish the shellac. A little alcohol on the cotton ball will cause the shellac to soften and be smoothed. When it starts to get a little sticky, I rub a tiny amount of olive oil on the rag to make it move smoothly. This really make the surface take on a French polish look. I love working with shellac since there is practically no dry time.
I will have to keep that technique in mind for future necks.
Keep up the excellent work.
That is a keeper right there, It might have been done before but you have readdressed the thing with a winner,
Thanks Bama Hound.
It does sound sweet with those high strings and the skin head thumping.
You were talking having a new respect for violinist keeping the instrument in tune, I think your choice of black tuners and the tuner knob shape got you artistically around the problem. If you don't mind, would you go into the problem of tapered tuning pegs. I have had a violin kit I have had for 2 years, but I can't quit building CBG's, LPG's, 3 & 4 strings long enough to build the violin, which I am thinking about making electric. My sister had 3 '58 Corvette wheel covers she gave me to make guitars. It ain't lookin' good on the fiddle anytime soon.
Now my question:What was the problem with the tapered pegs? Was your problem the amount of friction required to hold peg tight? After all, a violin is bowed and rarely plucked (Pizzicato) and a tambarjo j(?), will never be bowed. When and if you have time, could you enlighten me?
Hey, Bama Hound.
Don't get me wrong. On a violin, the tapered tuners work fine. Mainly because there are little knurled screws down around the base (bridge) that are used for the final "fine tuning" . The tapered pegs alone have a basic 1 to 1 turn ratio unlike geared tuners. Getting just the right twist is a bit difficult. There is a peg solution that you drop onto the pegs and that helps with the friction, so for violin use, there are not issues.
Precision machined screws and gears have only been around since the industrial revolution, prior to that they were cut by hand by an artist and were expensive and often not very good.
Lute-like instruments are much older, Egyptian Archeologists found a turtle-shell diddley bow that dates to 3500 BCE. Pegs were the best of the art till our modern machine "Gear and Worm Screw" tuners.
With a Peg you have to push in and twist at the same time, and the peg tends to jump a couple degrees at a time instead of turn smoothly like a machine tuner, so it is difficult to hit it precisely. That's why the jackscrew-and-lever fine tuners were added during the industrial revolution time period, when small and precise enough could be achieved.
Pegs (done properly) will hold a tuning quite well. A hardwood headstock will grab the peg, and a even harder hardwood peg bites into the headstock. the key is the taper of the peg and the taper of the peg-hole be a perfect match. Bowing the strings actually produces more sound and vibration than plucking a string, and I never had a violin go out of tune from just playing, it always happened when someone bumped the headstock.
Darn I sometimes ramble on...........oh well
Thanks for the history lesson JL. It's always good to learn some of the background on how our instruments evolved.
I agree that the tapered pegs will hold well. I had no problem with getting the peg to hold once set. The real challenge was that tiny amount of turn needed to get a string to final tune. It was a real hit or miss thing. My fingers just aren't calibrated that finely.
That was interesting. Feel free to ramble as needed.
looks nice.
using the violin head make that extra special.
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