Posted by Jerry on January 9th, 2008 — Posted in Journal, Music
Some time ago My daughter acquired a banjo mandolin – an eight-string plucked/strummed instrument with the size and tuning of a mandolin – but with a small banjo-like skin for the sounding board. Although the frets were (unusually) in tune, the instrument was in poor shape with the wooden soundbox collapsing at either end resulting in an unplayable high action.
The solution? To dismantle the instrument and relocate the neck and string courses at 90 degrees – where the body sides were still vertical. This entailed drilling some new holes for the neck attachment and relocation of the tail-piece, the addition of a button for a strap and a new set of strings. I also sanded down the frets a bit as they were sitting quite high off the fingerboard.
And here is the result – a playable if rather strange instrument!
Also known as a mandolin-banjo this hybrid instrument was invented around the mid 1890s and was popular in the 1920s in the heyday of mandolin orchestras. It has a big sound for a small instrument which made them popular in dance halls at a time when instruments were beginning to be amplified, and they would have been good for busking for that reason too.
The eight strings are tuned in four courses (same-pitch pairs) using standard mandolin or violin tuning G-D-A-E from lowest to highest.
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on January 8th, 2008 — Posted in Journal, Motorcycling, Music
It was a lovely day for a motorbike ride on Saturday – overcast, cool but not much rain – just a couple of drops – so I took off the topcase – knowing that I would be bringing a backpack, tent and mandolin back from Sydney as I was meeting my daughter there.
The ride was smooth and the bike behaved wonderfully well – a full tank at the Caltex Weston Creek then down Hindmarsh Drive and out past the airport. The clouds seemed to have kept the crowds away and road was quiet – in direct contrast to the bike. I filled up at Marulan and then onto the tollway into Sydney. As I was about to leave the last tunnel the engine faltered – I reached down for the fuel tap to switch over to reserve, but it died in the tunnel – a bare glimmer on the neutral light and no electric power. Bugger! I was in sight of the toll gate and pushed the bike off to the side and got the guy in the toll post to call for a tow.
Actually it was just a ute with flashing lights that turned up about 30 minutes later and two guys helped me push the bike out of the tunnel and up the hill to exit. With the battery rested, I found I had a brighter neutral light so I got the guys to help do a push start and the antique bike fired up again. So without an alternator I managed to limp the bike to within half a kilometre of the hostel and pushed it the rest of the way. By now the sun was out and it was hot. I actually had to ask someone to move out of the way as the young woman was waiting for a bus and wouldn’t move despite clearly seeing me push a heavy bike up the hill towards her. I guess I was definitely in Sydney!
After reaching the hostel and meeting up with my daughter Eve, I managed to get a lift from the desk guy and bought a battery from a bike shop and a charger from K-Mart and on returning to the hostel set up the old and the new battery and charged them in turn.
So then to the fun bit! We were in easy walking distance of Macquarie Street where Scottish celtic band Shooglenifty was to play – the place was crowded as Eve and I did a reccy for a good position.
The opening of the Sydney Festival began with a series of open air weddings which was a bit quirky, then they announced that they were putting away the chairs and clearing the barriers, so Eve and I bolted for an opening and with deft use of elbows – developed over the January Sales – we ended up front and centre in front of the stage.
The warm-up band was a celtic trio plus didgeridoo who performed… accurately. They didn’t once look at the audience and so the audience largely ignored them and shuffled around.
Then came the Shoogles!
Luke on mandolin, Angus on fiddle, Quee on bass, James on drums Malcolm on guitar and Gary on banjo. This is an awesome band – Luke’s playing is to be heard to be believed – he sure can make that mando sing. This progressive celtic band from Edinburgh is just amazing. Despite the very limited space most people were dancing (at least up and down) – and there were several thousand crammed into Macquarie Street for the show.
We met up with them after the show – Angus uses a Fishman pick-up on his fiddle – and we wished them well for Tasmania and then headed off for some food supplies to cook up back at the hostel – Phew I was exhausted!
The next morning, with the batteries charged, I put the old one back on the bike and the new one in the pannier, and we loaded up with Eve’s stuff form Woodford festival – where she had been performing in the Fire Event and fired up the bike to head home.
It was overcast as we left Sydney, but it quickly cleared and became very warm with the wet weather gear on, but I wasn’t going to stop unless we had to as we were just on battery power. But with a fuel stop at Marulan and then milkshakes and iced coffee at the Paragon Cafe in Goulburn, we had a flawless ride back to Canberra
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Posted by Jerry on December 30th, 2007 — Posted in DIY, Journal, Music, Woodwork
You’d better grab a cuppa for this one! This is a tale of a bridge, a nut and two tail-pieces…
My eight-string hardanger fiddle was made for me over 20 years ago and in those days there was little or no information about bridge construction or shape or about how the sympathetic strings ran between the tuning pegs and the tail-piece. So despite its wonderful sound I was left with a puzzle.
The way the instrument was set up the sympathetic strings ran from the tuning pegs through four tiny holes, then beneath the fingerboard and through another four tiny holes in the bridge from where they were looped directly to the button at the base of the belly.
The problem was that I had no idea how to change those strings if they ever broke – and after 20 something years the rust alone was giving cause for concern.
I also wanted a means to attach fine adjusters to the sympathetic strings – and that’s how it all began.
At the music shop I bought a one-sixteenth size tail-piece with built-in fine tuners – I thought maybe I could do a double layer thing with two tail-pieces each with four fine tuners. Good theory. But how to change those strings?
I also had a problem with the nut (the ridge at the end of the fingerboard nearest the tuning pegs) – after 20 years of wear I had buzzing strings as the grooves in the nut had worn down almost to the fingerboard. I sought the advice of a friendly luthier who suggested I either make a new nut or add a small wedge beneath the nut. He assured me it was an easy job – one I could do myself – or he could charge a small fortune for a new one.
I decided to have a go. I still had the third problem of the bridge and the tightly wedged strings. So. Three issues to resolve and they all had to be tackled at one time.
I took on the bridge first – a quick search on the Hardanger Fiddle Association of America and found some size and shape notes with drawings of hardanger bridges – one in the pattern of Sverre Sandvik, and one in the pattern of Olav Viken – two makers of hardanger fiddles:
I chose the former (sandvik version) and headed off to the shed to find some wood – and there I found an off-cut of some Tasmanian Oak which looked about the right density. I scaled the drawings and printed them. Then cut out and glued the sandvik one to the timber and used a fretsaw to cut the main outline. Then drilled holes at each end of the ‘D’ opening in the centre and cut out the shape, finishing with some fine files and a sander.
Some levering with a chisel removed the nut with surprising ease – it came away cleanly. With the hobby bandsaw I carefully cut a ‘U’ shape to the height of the string holes and then glued a thin shaving of jarrah (Western Australian mahogany-like timber) and re-glued it in place at the end of the fingerboard after a little re-shaping on the slow-speed sander. With the nut and the bridge, my hardingfele was now like a traditional hardanger fiddle.
I won’t go into the several hours it took to replace the soundpost after I dislodged it, but at last the fiddle was ready for re-stringing.
By looping the smaller tail-piece loop around the larger tail-piece I was able to get the smaller one to sit ahead of the main tail-piece, and began by attaching the sympathetic strings to the smaller one. Then added the top strings and the hardingfele could sing again.
Yes the tone is different – a little brasher – with the new bridge and nut, but the buzzing is gone and I have fine tuners on all strings. I have had to insert a small piece of felt between the two tail-pieces to stop a small vibration there, but I’m happy to have solved the main structural issues.
One thing remains – I think I need to make a single tail-piece with eight tuners – so the rig is a little shorter and this will enable me to position the bridge closer to the soundpost which is about a centimetre back from the ‘E’-string side of the bridge. And I have a piece of jarrah that looks just right for it!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on December 28th, 2007 — Posted in Journal, Music
As the Lindo five string ‘hammerhead’ acoustic/electric violin emerged from its wrapping I knew this was going to be a special Christmas 🙂
The first thing that struck me was the excellent finish on the instrument. That, and the sensible placement of parts – the amplifier lead jack is well placed for the lead to go over the left shoulder, although the headphone socket is underneath – but not obtrusive when playing.
So what is it like to play?
I was relieved that my wolf shoulder rest fitted perfectly without a tendency to fall off, making the instrument nice and secure feeling. It is well balanced with the heavier electrics close to the chest – it is very comfortable to play.
The big difference is that with five strings running down a standard fingerboard, the placement is close together – something I addressed quickly, if partially, by moving the strings across the bridge a little. The bridge curvature is good allowing good note separation, although I need to get used to slightly different bow positions to avoid playing the wrong string.
The low C rings well despite its relatively low tension and even acoustically it is not much quieter than a fully acoustic instrument. The hollow body gives good resonance and is a long way from the ‘cigar box’ sound of some electric instruments.
My first impression is that with a little getting used to this will be a very versatile instrument, allowing good crossover into the deeper part of the sound spectrum. And for a small band this will enable great mid-range fill-ins on songs and some versatility on tune variations. I do have a viola but it’s good to be able to play the low viola stuff without having to adjust my finger position from the violin. As a result I will be able to be more versatile on stage without having to change instruments.
I love playing slow airs on this fiddle making good use of the low strings.
The electrics
The electrics are good with the low strings sounding clean and crisp through a Behringer mixer/pre-amp and Roland cube amp, although I did boost the bass a little and clipped some off the treble. Through the supplied headphones the C string fills out beautifully. Either way there was little hum from the electrics. The integrated pick-ups means that there is nothing clamped on. And the volume and tone knobs are in easy reach.
What’s in the box
- The violin
- beautiful well-padded case with shoulder strap
- Brazil-wood bow
- set of spare strings
- rosin
- headphones
- lead to plug into amplifier
Sum up
This is a well-made acoustic-electric instrument with a good sound – if a little thin in the purely acoustic mode. If you don’t mind getting used to the strings being closer together then this is an excellent value for money package with good quality accessories included in the price.
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on December 27th, 2007 — Posted in DIY, Journal, Woodwork
If you’re anything like the kind of hobby woodworker that I am, you will now be finding it hard to get to various benches and tools because of all the bits of lumber of various lengths left over from various projects, like dining tables or stilt legs.
It is time to get o r g a n i s e d !! Actually I was inspired by Sharon’s fabric stash reduction challenge – although I wasn’t going to weigh my stash!
I did, however remove every scrap of timber from my shed and thought about how best to organise it so I could get to all the bits of timber I need for different projects on my new years list of things to build.
The rough-sawn timber is ribbon-gum – the remnants of the old gum tree that burnt in the Canberra Bushfire of January 2003; the pale timber is radiata pine, and the red timber is jarrah – a Western Australian hardwood, sometimes called Australian mahogany. I also have a few camphor turning blanks, and some cherry wood and crab apple branches – also for turning.
I decided to improve my wood rack by adding a couple of additional supports, and that entailed modifying the two half-pallets I was using as a base. In the process I also reduced my stash by two bits of lumber – neat huh? 🙂
The two additional supports are dowelled into the shelf supports and screwed to them for additional stability. The supports are made from timber recycled from old brick pallets.
And I have decided that I will machine up all my lumber before returning it to my shed so it’s ready for use when I need it – and no excuses like “I need to dress this timber – heck I’ll just buy some from the hardware store…”
But this year, along with Sharon my aim will be to use up a good portion of my wood stash, rather than expand it.
And I turned around my jointer and thicknesser so that the work flow is better, and I have better access to my work benches. So a good day’s work all round 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
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