Dlog

So this one is perhaps the wierdest, a hybrid of chimeric ilk. (Heh, Heh.) It started with a film reel canister, (an old Eastman Kodak tin.) Just like all the others, it has a “neck-thru” structure. The tail-piece is a 3-holed hinge. I made the head stock out of some 1/4 inch plywood, and it is going to be glued on and bolted on. The hardware there is a challenge right now. I am trying to get the profile low so that it does not interfere with the strings as they travel from the nutt to the tuning pegs. And I hope to preserve some of the design elements there, using an old washer I found on the ground, etc.

Where this one gets really wierd is that I am trying to set this one up like a mandolin in that the strings are doubled up. But, where a mandolin has 4 sets of two strings, this instrument will have only 3 sets of two strings. (The number three we have seen on my other instruments has several origins. 1. Lately it has been hardware-driven. I am deliberately using found and recycled objects, and hinges, which very often have 2 holes on one plate and 3 on the other, make great tail-pieces - strong and flexible, decorative or funky. And 2. Three is a magic number. It is just enough to offer variety in tunings. And composing with “3″ makes for nice triangles. A bit esoteric maybe. Ask me about it over a drink sometime…) ANYWAY, this makes for a challenge in that the nutt and the bridge will have to be very finely and patiently crafted.

The sound, as you might guess?, is tinny. And I may have to make the leap into fretted fingerboards to get this one to play well enough.