The Scroll Shop (Ed of H's Shop Thread)

[David Houck]

That old banjo looks good!

[DaveD]

As my piano teacher at Berklee succinctly said once in near-perfect Bob Newhartian dead-pan as I expressed my frustration with a Bach piece:

"Dave, Bach is a motherf*%#er".

[edwardofhuncote]

Had a little repair project come in a couple weeks ago and hadn't really had time to mess with it until now. I built this (from a kit) as an Engagement/Christmas gift several years ago for some friends of mine. It developed a crack in the spruce top this Winter, so I swelled it with some humidity and glued it back up. A couple little cleats inside and it's good as new.

So what in the world is a double-neck birdhouse for? Well... it's a courtin' dulcimer. Say, you got two musical soulmates who want to spend some quality time together, but you know... in the next room. So you give 'em a courtin' dulcimer. As long as you hear music, its all good, but if'n the music stops... somebody better fetch the ice bucket.

This couple actually got married though, and I played at the wedding.

Pictures for fun. Hold the dirty jokes.

And here's what a courtin' dulcimer sounds like-

[sonicus]

As an experiment as a lad of 15 years of age , I attached a piezo pickup to a dulcimer . I proceeded to connect the pickup to a tube powered Newcomb  PA Amplifier that I had acquired at a local electronics surplus shop .The speaker was a single 12" speaker from a film projector if my memory serves me correctly .  I remember playing the dulcimer with feedback and getting a reprimand from my parents    My Grandmother on the other hand supported my effort , and praised me ! 

[hankster]

That courtin’ dulcimer is totally cool!

[cozmik_cowboy]

The courtin' dulcimer plays the same role as a Ouija Board; in-the-parlor-with-Gramma knee rubbing; oh, the excitement! (Next step - the bundling board.......)

Peter

[edwardofhuncote]

I got my passion for shade-tree loothierie (and playing music) from my Dad, a long time ago. He turns 75 tomorrow. I am very much hoping we can build some more banjos together before the clock runs out. Parts for #28, #29, and #30 are waiting for that time.


Here was a thread from the last collaboration we did. This one didn't get a serial number because it was a rebuild of an old Gibson brand. Fun project though. Last I heard, it's being played regularly. https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=16175.0

[David Houck]

May you both enjoy the day!

[cozmik_cowboy]

Please be so kind as to extend birthday wishes to Dad on my behalf.

And get to buildin' them that banjers!

Peter

[edwardofhuncote]

[clicks lights on]


Welp... everything is about where I left it in here. There is a nice layer of dust and cobwebs in the windowsills. But the COVID-crazy season is drawing down at work, I now have three full-time Operator trainees. So I'm going home at a reasonable hour and even having a few more weekends off. All this means... I can start using these rusty marbles rattling around in my head for repairing musical instruments again instead of spending day and night solving the problems of running three Water Treatment Plants.

Don't get me wrong, I love this new mentorship role teaching my kids... and I got three good ones too. I'm just young enough to remember what Operator training was like, but old enough that none of them were born when I started this gig. Releif has come. It's been a tough couple years, but I'm hoping to finish out my time doing this.

The Scroll Shop is back open, at least on a limited basis.

I'm already working on a couple things. The most advanced project right now; Honeytone #22-28. The first new construction in over ten years. The neck, me and Dad had laminated up years ago. It's a cherry beam, with walnut and maple pinstripes. I just glued up new headstock faces on the front and back the other night, rosewood on the front with a maple underside (creates a thin white pinstripe) and a cherry veneer on the reverse, simply to hide the "ears" glue joint. Inlay was done years ago but I may redo it. It was cut from recycled ivory piano keys if you're curious. What ever I do, the headstock inlay will match up, and have our trademark honeybee inlaid into the scroll.

This'll be an open-back 5-string, modeled on turn-of-the-(last)-century styling, but brought forward in a few ways. Spoken-for already.

Pictorial updates are coming.

[edwardofhuncote]

Waiting for approval from the Ol' Man for the headstock inlay on #28. He thinks it needs something else on the right-hand side. I'm lobbying against. It's such an asymmetrical shape anyway. The real reason though; negative space. And on top of that, in nature, our eyes want to see things that make sense. Like stuff collecting in a concave surface. It wouldn't be likely to deposit on a convex slope like that edge. Nothing I draw there looks right.

Warming up the Dremel... steadying the nerves.

*What I should mention... there will be a faux truss rod cover that will serve as a nameplate just above the nut. It will be the same white ivory piano key medium, and cut to a shape that complements the inverse of the first fret inlay. More use of mirrors and negative space.

[cozmik_cowboy]

I tend to agree with you, Greg.  But I think your choices are elegant understatement or total bling.

If Dad insists, I'd go with the general design of the ones by the D tuners (I think D; not a banjer picker), curved on the hypotenuse to match the line of the headstock, and big enough to come close to the G.

But like I said - only if he insists; it looks great as is!

Peter

[edwardofhuncote]

I tend to agree with you, Greg.  But I think your choices are elegant understatement or total bling.

If Dad insists, I'd go with the general design of the ones by the D tuners (I think D; not a banjer picker), curved on the hypotenuse to match the line of the headstock, and big enough to come close to the G.

But like I said - only if he insists; it looks great as is!

Peter

We're both okay with this modification... but I got called in to work. 

*and yessir, they're typically tuned to Ds. In this one's case though, the low string will most often be tuned to C. The oldtimers call it "sawmill C" tuning. gCGCD. As opposed to gDGBD standard.

[cozmik_cowboy]

Yeah, that works.

Peter

[pauldo]

Looks REALLY good!