Next up...
The Easter Lily Build...with any luck I might even get it finished for Next Easter.
A fully carved arch top, 3 stringer double course, Padmazookie. Ya das right...a Padmazookie
with the "f" holes being carved lily flowers opening up like side ports on the top. Fully carved head stock, back, ribs heal and tailpiece. Thats right ... an arch top zookie with wishbone construction .... and carved flowers trumpets for "f" holes.
Me really cant see doing a Carved Easter Lily build in anything but white woods. Then gold gilding the carvings.
The sketches show both a traditional guitar peg head and a Violin style peg box. I would like to go with the voluted scroll but turn it in to lily blossoms. We will see when we gets there.
Now this ain't gonna be no simple pen knife whittling job. So here be some sketch work.
Guess what dudes.
Jesse Burge of Burge Guitar Shop down there in Mississippi just done gone and gifted Duh Padma enough holly to do the entire build with. Yay
thank you Jesse!
So before me go and mess up all that nice white wood, me took it into me
head to do a small prototype build first.
Here be the pics of were its at...
Cedar wishbone neck and ribs, spruce linings, with a carved cedar back,
the ribs are 3/16 inches thick...das so me can do some real funkie
relief carving in them some were down the road. The back plate is
carved on both sides. Looks like its gonna be about 24 maybe 24 1/4 inch
string length or there a bouts. If you are not familiar with wishbone construction,
just look at any of me other builds found in "The Padma Builds" sub forum over
at http://www.luthierforum.com or run a search for any of me builds on this hear OLF forum
or over at http://www.luthiecom.org too.
In the first pic you can see the wishbone neck and back are from the same stick of
cedar that me scored from the lumber yard. Kinda nice grain eh.
You can see how the "f" holes are starting to form from the lilly flowers.
It ain't all that easy getting a nice curve happening to the top with all them flower petals in the way. Gonna be a real challenge carving out the back to maintain a consistently graduating slope from the center of the plate through to the perimeter while conforming to the profile of the flowers at the same time...Of course I could just dish out the back of the
plate but then that would be leaving too much mass of wood in the flower petals which really would mess up the plates sonics.
Now for any of you who are not familiar with me madness, don't go be askin Duh Padma
about thicknesses or measurements...me don't got any, me don't use a tape measure and very seldom consult me own drawings, let alone pay attention to them. Me build by the feel between me fingers,the grind in me gut, and the song in me heart. Besides, me calipers fell behind the work bench and I have no intentions of diggein them out for an experimental instrument. Don't know how to read them fangeld things anyways.
The top is a chunk of Curly Bear Lutz spruce, a gift from Mario daCosta. Thank you Mario. Only the face of the top has been half carved so far. The "f" holes have been drilled through on an angle which shows best in the last pic with the 6 chisels fanned and sticking out of the holes and as such, may give some indication as to how the air and hence
the sound gonna be moving out from the instrument.
In the above pic you can see 3 pencil lines in the center of the top...
the violin style bridge gonna come some wears between them bottom two lines.
Over the next little while I will be refining the carving of the flowers with the disguised "f" holes
and of course the curve of the top. I will post again when I get to that
stage. However, carving any detail in spruce is always an anus horriblus experience that takes time so don't be holding your breath for the next set of pics. Besides me still working on the NO NOthing Build and Finishing of the Octave Mando just to mention a few.
Any questions?
blessings
Padma
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