Hi Booli, Thought you might like to see my first attempt at making an instrument. This is a baritone resonator ukulele. The 18.75" scale was a result of purchasing a ready made fingerboard via ebay. A groove runs the length of the saddle to hold a undersaddle piezo strip. I learned a lot on this project and the only power tool used was a hand held drill.
grandpag123.com
Sorry I missed this when you posted it. Looks great and gives me some ideas too. Thanks for sharing!
Check with this guy if you haven't already:
http://mattsenguitars.co.nz/guitars/
Thanks for the info, however when I saw the following on his web site:
"Prices range from $US4000-$7000."
I was quite discouraged as I do not have that kind of budget, nor interest in spending more than maybe $200 total on this project.
Maybe I'm being unrealistic about price, but this is a small curiosity as of now, and not something I can spend lots of money on right now, so a home-made CBG-type solution is likely going to be my best option.
Also, I am wanting to have an instrument in linear CGDAE (C2-G2-D3-A3-E4) 5ths tuning with NYLON-type strings, so this means a nut width that is greater than 1.5" for me for 5 strings, so I'm still trying to figure that out, and once I can see which strings will work at various scale lengths, I will know what size instrument to be thinking about.
I may just combine both projects. I already have a few necks, tuners, bridges, saddles and various materials for making a nut. A dog-bowl resonator seems the simplest way to go and CB Gitty has a
5-string tailpiece that will do nicely for ~$15.
Gitty also sells
a nice large un-assembled 9"x12" wood box for $10 that would be great for a body....