I chose some soft pine to start because I was going to have to carve it. This was before my new jig saw (which I got to make the appropriate cuts for my kitchen island countertop). I'd show you pictures of the process but I didn't actually take any. I drew out my shape on paper before transferring it to the wood. I took about a million years carving with tools that were in the house when we moved in. The six-pack of carvy things has a $2 yard sale sticker... Finally, I moved on to the next step. I carved out the inside where the sound hole would lead. It's rather square but I need to invest in a spoon carving tool if I want it any other way. Next, I checked to make sure the thing would make sound by wrapping a string around it tightly and plucking. I didn't want to get too far and find out it didn't work. All was well so I glued the back on then drilled holes for my tuning pegs, being careful with each successively larger bit to go less deep for the right taper to match the chopstick tuning pegs. I did a crap load of sanding before searching for a fret calculator, attaching my bridge and but, calculating and attaching frets. Toothpicks in shallow saw grooves did the trick. I added nails in the end to attach strings. Fishing line is all they are. The chopsticks got cut and sanded. Attaching the strings was a bit of a beast because I had to remember a couple of fishing knots. The darned thing is holding the strings on though it goes out of tune with time.
It now looks like this:
I'm going to add a walnut stain made from soaking walnut shells on water for a few days. That will be edited in below.
What instruments do you play or make?
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