Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Order99 on August 29, 2015 at 11:49am

 Gourds are just awesome aren't they?  One of my best ukuleles was a gourd and i'm still trying to find some in my area that haven't been turned into birdhouses yet... :D

Permalink Reply by Bobby Fields on August 29, 2015 at 1:40pm

That sure is pretty.I think any mistakes you might have made can't be seen here.Thank you for showing it to me.

Played15

Permalink Reply by Greg Thompson on August 30, 2015 at 3:27am

Thanks! Yeah, gourds are great. I was lucky enough to be given a few, already dried out, by a local market. As for the mistakes, they are relatively small and don't show from a distance. My next one will have the advantage of experience. At least that is my plan... I'm thinking of double courses of all three strings. Do you think it will be OK? I've seen doubles of high and middle with the low as a single. Any comments or experience with it?

Permalink Reply by Order99 on August 30, 2015 at 12:05pm

 AS long as you stick with the 'Stick-thru' style, I don't foresee much of a problem. I've done plenty of double-course, even a full Mandolin on a tennis racquet (to be fair however a racquet has plenty of sturdy laminations built in!).

If you're worried about strength, I would simply recommend a vertically-laminated stick under your fretboard for extra resistance to deformation, and (possibly) a slim reinforcing rib under your soundboard for any extra Bridge pressure-and at that, you might be overbuilding...

Permalink Reply by Greg Thompson on August 31, 2015 at 11:57am

Thanks for the reply and suggestions. I hadn't thought of reinforcing the sound board. I think I'm going to use dulcimer things again, which are pretty light. After doing some research, I like the idea of a Bouzouki inspired instrument.

Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on September 7, 2015 at 9:23am

A friend of mine made one back in the 90's. His was a double neck, 1 was tuned to G and the other tuned to D so he didn't have to change tuning or instruments between songs.

I made one shortly afterward(my first attempt at making an instrument) which wasn't great looking. Couple of years ago I made a 6 string baritone 28" scale dulcimer/dulcitar neck and put it on a Squier Affinity Strat. There's a pic in my photos.

Hope you enjoy yours as much as I enjoy mine.