mudbug Says:
Friday, January 20, 2012 @4:25:19 AM

Interesting. Very attactive. I like the natural finish. Kinda quirky ( from a trad perspective) design with the 1/2 pointed, broad in the beam, bottom, mated with the cornerless, cut-away top. Deffinitely one-of-a-kind.

fiddleiphile Says:
Friday, January 20, 2012 @4:52:25 AM

Now that's original and Very Cool, as a Les Paul feel about.

fiddleiphile Says:
Friday, January 20, 2012 @4:55:33 AM

That's Has a Les Paul feel a bout it. I like it.

Svento Says:
Friday, January 20, 2012 @5:15:57 AM

Not necessarily Les Paul, I think of some single-cuttaway hollows like Gretsch. The finish will not be all natural in the end, but there will be no red pigments. I'll paint a golden binding around the edge of the top and the bottom and probably dye the top to something close to white. This is because I want even more contrast between the maple top and the walnut sides and bottom. Besides, the white and the gold will make it look a bit like a Gretsch White Falcon. Don know yet what color the pickup will have, but I'm thinking about gold.

Later I'll makes some experiments with a brass bridge too. I like the look of brass and besides it will filter less compared to wood. The walnut body already has a dark sound, so I believe I can squeeze some extra dB out of it by letting some of the highs through.

The very idea with the instrument was to make a fiddle that's capable of competing with a set of drums or an accordeon. It's really big... The hips are like a viola and the ribs are even more than viola sized, especially on the bass side. So I had to get a viola case for it and extra long screws for the chinrest.

I haven't played it yet. When I got it, the soundpost had fallen and it's been at a luthier for a few months for other reasons. The bottom and the top has no overhanging edges, so the fiddles needs some lips for mounting the shoulder rest. I will probably get it home in less than two weeks but it will be a while before stringing it up. I intend to finish the finishing before I put the pieces together.

I've found a guy who will make a pickup from three Fender Rhodes coils, and then I'll need to decide whether to make a hole in the ribs for the tele jack or not. I like the look of electronic parts and I want this instrument to be fully electric as well as acoustic, but the thought of setting the drill into the wood makes me freeze nevertheless... If I do, I'll also reinforce with a piece of plexiglass glued to the ribs, then a metal jackplate screwed in the plexi.

Svento Says:
Friday, January 20, 2012 @5:19:50 AM

The scroll looks different since the photo was shot. The idea was that the scroll should be very simplified and rounded. It still is but it's a bit more scrolled now.

fiddleiphile Says:
Friday, January 20, 2012 @6:13:36 AM

I guess I missed something here. Did you build this or buy it already built? Is this your experimental or someone elses?

Svento Says:
Friday, January 20, 2012 @6:38:57 AM

A few years ago I had e-mail contact with Edward Hagan, The Flying Farmer, and we talked about the uniformity of fiddle shapes. This resulted in him building the instrument on the pictures, though never really completing it. So it's my experimental as well as someone elses. Summer of 2010, he wanted to send it over to me and did that.

Now there's some work still to be done before it's a playable instrument. This is making those lips for the shoulder rest, getting a fivestring tailpiece and long screws for the chinrest, carving the scroll, raising the soundpost and finishing it.

Then above that, I intend to have it electrified.