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Sunday, January 28th
A few takes on Winnie-the-Pooh's classic form.
posted morning of January 28th: Respond
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Sunday, January 7th
When I finish the guitalele, I am going to start working on the second Tin-can cello. It will be a good deal more ambitious than the first one, and will address some issues that make the first Tin-can cello softer and less clear in tone than it could be, and more difficult to play and maintain than it could be.
Neck and blocks
The first tin-can cello has a single-piece neck which extends from the "end-pin" to the peg-box. As a consequence, the top of the neck does not have straight grain, and I was not able to carve a traditional peg box. The pegs are difficult to turn. The "blocks" were added as an afterthought and do not serve the purpose of blocks in a traditional violin or cello; the body is lacking in structural stability. Additionally this means there is no contact between the instrument and the player's chest, so a traditional cellist will not be able to switch easily to this instrument.In the second tin-can cello, I will add a traditional neck block and tail block, fixing them to the ribs with fish glue. The cello's neck will be composed of two pieces. A lower neck stands in for the upper bout of a traditional cello; it is fixed to the neck block using a joint similar to a traditional cello neck. The top of the lower neck rests against the player's chest. The upper neck is similar to a traditional cello's neck (with a truncated heel); it is fixed to the lower neck with a simple dovetail-shaped joint. I've got these parts pretty well worked out in my mind's eye but have not had much luck yet with drawing them. I will work on that.
Body and back; soundpost and bass bar
The first tin-can cello has a much deeper body than a traditional cello; and the back is not fixed to the body. As a consequence, the vibrations of the soundboard are not amplified as they could be and they are lost at the bottom of the ribs. There is no bass bar, meaning the soundboard flexes under the weight of the string tension.
I will address this as follows: the washtub body will be cut to a depth of 120mm. I will carve an arched back in the approximate shape of a traditional cello back's lower bout; the longitudinal arch of the back will be continued in the lower neck piece. (I also have an idea for purfling that I think will look very pretty.) A soundpost will be in the same position as on a traditional cello. The back will be fixed to the ribs using fish glue. I will weld a bass bar to the soundboard, to make it rigid. My hope is that the combined effect of these modifications will give the cello a much clearer tone and increased volume. Fingers crossed! We shall see.
posted afternoon of January 7th: Respond
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Monday, November 13th, 2023
So Christian has asked me to build him a guitalele. I am planning to start from StewMac's tenor ukulele kit and modify it for six strings. I believe the modification to the kit that will be needed, is a new neck and a new bridge, new nut and saddle. I am leaving the bridge + saddle alone for now, when it is needed I will cut a bridge from rosewood following Mike Moss's ukulele bridge making demo.
Today I started the project, which mainly means I took the kit out, examined the parts, looked at the instructions, watched the videos at StewMac's site, and started planning out the neck.
Guitalele neck: neck width
The neck and fingerboard included with the kit are strongly tapered, from 45mm at the 14th fret (where the neck meets the body) to 35mm at the nut (a length of 239mm, taper of 10mm). (These are the fingerboard widths; the neck is slightly wider and is meant to be shaped down to flush with the fingerboard.) I'm flying a bit by the seat of my pants reckoning the dimensions for my neck, starting from what I can find on the internet. The fingerboard I have is 49.5mm wide, so that is how wide the body end of it will be. (The kit fingerboard is 46.5mm at the body end.)
The Yamaha guitalele has a nut width of 48mm, and a string spacing (at bridge) of 10.2mm, meaning the width from top to bottom string at the saddle is 51mm. I'm trying to figure out the string width at the nut -- the 35mm nut included with the kit has a string width of 28mm, so let's say the Yamaha string width at the nut is 41mm. So there is a taper of 10mm over a scale length of 17" (431.8mm). The string width at 12th fret is 46mm, neck width is 53mm.
I can't have a neck that wide; so I will need to space the strings slightly tighter, with less spread between the nut and the bridge. I figure my neck can be 48mm wide at the 12th fret, so string width there is 41mm. If I want a 10mm taper from nut to saddle, that would make the nut string width 36mm, neck width at nut 43mm; string width at saddle 46mm. So string spacing at nut is 7.2mm (a little less than 5/16") and at bridge is 9.2mm. If my calculations are right the string spacing at the nut of the Yamaha guitalele is 8.2mm (a little bit over 5/16"). I think these measurements will work but will check in with Christian to make sure. If I want to widen the fingerboard I reckon I could do that, I have some scrap rosewood I could use but it would be difficult to guarantee that it would look pretty. I could also try reducing the taper, but it is difficult to know what the effect would be on the playability.
Neck length
Neck length is taken care of. The fingerboard is made for a 17" scale; head to 14th fret is 240mm. (The kit fingerboard is 16 7/8" scale.) I will leave enough room for a peghead about half again as long as the kit's peghead.
posted morning of November 13th, 2023: Respond
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Sunday, November 27th, 2022
One of the first poems I ever translated was "Der Novembertag," by Rainer Maria Rilke. The closing line of the poem has the wind in the chimney sounding out "eines Totenkarmens Schlussoktaven." I mistranslated this as "a death-karma's closing octaves" which has always struck me as a beautiful and enigmatic image...
This morning it occurred to me to mention this in my recently-created Mastodon account; and Mastodon came through! A couple of people suggested the archaic German Totencarmen, meaning "funerary song," obviously the correct interpretation.
Der Novembertag
Kalter Herbst vermag den Tag zu knebeln,
seine tausend Jubelstimmen schweigen;
hoch vom Domturm wimmern gar so eigen
Sterbeglocken in Novembernebeln.
Auf den nassen Daechern liegt verschlafen
weisses Dunstlicht; und mit kalten Händen
greift der Sturm in des Kamines Wänden
eines Totenkarmens Schlußoktaven.
The November Day
Cold autumn can muzzle the day,
silence its thousand jubilating voices;
from the steeple whimper, so peculiar,
death bells in November's mist.
On the wet rooftops lies sleeping
a white fog; and with cold hands
the storm inside the chimney's walls strikes
a lamentation's closing octaves.
posted morning of November 27th, 2022: Respond
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Monday, September 19th, 2022
For several months now I've had in mind how I could go about making a better tin-can cello. I'll not bother to enumerate the shortcomings of my current cello. The instrument I have in mind is also built with a bucket and intended to mimic the look and sound of a violoncello. But it is a completely different beast.
I believe I could weld two buckets together, cutting metal away and clamping in such a fashion as to mimic the shape of the upper and lower bouts of a violoncello's body, and to cut away and shape a c bout. Could hammer a slight arch/radius into the belly of the instrument (note, would be better to arch the upper and lower bouts separately prior to joining them together.) Could weld a bass bar in.
Once the body is joined together and cut to rib height, I can carve a back of maple or poplar and attach it with fish glue? epoxy? There will be neck and tail blocks and a true soundpost.
I should draw a picture of what I'm talking about, or a diagram; but so far have come up with nothing at all convincing. I am making large assumptions about how much welding and metalwork I will be capable of. If this all worked, I would get a steel resonating chamber under tension, amplifying the vibrations of the wooden back. If my imagination is serving me faithfully, it would make a fantastic sound.
posted afternoon of September 19th, 2022: 2 responses
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Thursday, November 11th, 2021
Praise G-d, creator without flaws
Praise G-d, all creatures, without pause.
Praise G-d, don't hold back the applause:
Praise Father, Son, and Santa Claus
(or, "Creator, Christ and Santa Claus")
posted morning of November 11th, 2021: Respond
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Monday, November 8th, 2021
To be or not to be, that is the question, sir:
whether tis nobler to suffer, or not,
the slings and the arrows of outrageous fortune --
to play the hand dealt, or just give up the pot?
posted morning of November 8th, 2021: Respond
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Saturday, June 19th, 2021
Imagination and Reality:
Two diaphanous N-membranes
floating in a soup of Time.
posted afternoon of June 19th, 2021: Respond
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Wednesday, March 10th, 2021
A chapter of my and Ellen's life has closed; another will be opening in a few weeks. A little time to rest and prepare ourselves. Some reflections on where I've been and where I'm going.
I have been working as a computer programmer since May of 1994. I've been employed continuously over the past 27 years, with the exception of a month or so at the end of 2001, when Xyris Software downsized and let me go (with a generous severance package, no complaints). This past week I resigned from my current job (at Audible) and am not intending to work in software again. (Fingers crossed that it works out that way.)
This summer we will be leaving our home of 19 years in South Orange, and will make our way to Red Wing, MN, where I'll be studying violin repair and restoration at Minnesota State College Southeast's luthery program. At the end of the 1-year program I will seek employment with a violin shop or an orchestra, with the long-term goal of entering an apprenticeship with a luthier and starting my own business. Depending on how old and how skilled I am at that point, the business may be a violin repair shop, or may be an instrument-making pastime. The best-laid schemes of mice & men gang aft agley,/ an' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,/ for promis'd joy; and I'm open to things working out differently from the path I currently have in mind.
I've been dissatisfied with my career in programming for a long time, like 20 years give or take. I've been searching for a different path, and luthery seems like the right way. I've also been depressed, and in denial about being depressed, for a similar period; I've also been smoking weed pretty heavily, for a similar period. It's an open question which way the vector(s) of causation point(s), between drugs and depression and dissatisfaction with my career. (Maybe the arrow is tridirectional!) Over the past year I've been addressing all this with therapy and medication, and with not smoking grass, and with making plans. I'm feeling pretty good, compared to how I've been feeling for the past several years. I'm looking forward to the next chapter.
posted afternoon of March 10th, 2021: 4 responses
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Tuesday, December first, 2020
Bastó un paso para que dejáramos atrás el siniestro, letal mandato del Trueno, atrás quedó el llamado Edén. (p. 47 I§6) [A single step was sufficient for us to leave behind Thunder's sinister, lethal commandment; the place called Eden lay behind us. I am here translating mandato as commandment for the biblical voice of it; other terms that might work are mandate and precinct. I am rendering el llamado Edén as the place called Eden; so-called Eden might be right.]
At the end of Book I of Eve's writings I have some questions. Primarily I am wondering about what commandment Eve and Adam have disobeyed. In Genesis 2:16-17, YHWH explicitly mandates that Adam and Eve may eat fruits of all the trees except his special one. But in this book, Thunder does not talk to Eve and Adam, at least not in clear sentences.After Eve and Adam eat the fruit, their senses are awakened and they begin to exist in Time. They are aware of their nakedness and have access to language (explicitly connected to being-in-time). When Eve tries to take leaves from the tree to cover her nakedness, the tree angrily refuses to allow her to take them (I§3), because she has disobeyed*. But what did she disobey? I reread the opening sections but find no commandment... Also: why does the tree give Eve its seed (I§6)?
I'm interested in the connection between language and being-in-time, and in what is the nature of this tree, as distinct from the rest of Eden. I will be looking to find out more about Eden in the coming books, though Eve and Adam have left Eden I expect Eve's memory of the expulsion will play an important role.
Eve says "Eden expelled us" (and not "Thunder expelled us from Eden") but then immediately says "It stank of dead animals, all we could do was leave." (p. 46) -- It is Eve and Adam that make the choice to leave. Covering their nakedness and leaving are the first two choices they make once they have begun to exist in Time.
 * A neighboring tree, which is presumably the Tree of Life, also refuses her. She is able to take leaves and branches from a third tree, a fig tree.
posted morning of December first, 2020: Respond
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