This is a rushed series of posts about trying to make an instrument as fast as possible. Spoiler alert, you can't make an instrument in one week. At least, not a good one. There's lots of things involved in the process from voicing the sound boaed, bending wood, gluing times. All that doubles the work. You could have one built within 15 days. That's easy. Well, not exactly. Feasible is more like it. However, the fact is that the finishing will always slow you down. You can't rush sealant, varnish or else. Those chemicals have their drying time. And the ones you see on the container are a dry to the touch thing. The whole layer takes way more time to be ready.
With this said, come with me on this journey of Venezuelan Cuatro #9, aka, Herr Vier. This one is the pending commission for my friend living in Berlin. Now that I have the material to make it, I'm rushing it done. Why? She's coming next week and will only stay for 2 weeks. That gives me 2 weeks to get or done. Am I up to the task?
We shall see.
Sound Board and Back
The former is the soul of the instrument. All the sound comes from it. Sides and back are the equalizer, i.e., they give change the qualities of the sound in an instrument. This is without getting too technical about a topic that deserves its own post. They also enclose the space behind the sound board allowing the air inside the body the of instrument vibrate and produce sound.
This is one of my basic models. That means there's not a lot of ornamental work. A relief to say the least, since those take also plente of time to make. Also almost the whole instrument will be comprised of Cedrala (a species of Cedar) just like traditional Venezuelan Cuatros.
The process begins by joining the pieces for both sound board and back. We add a simple ornament on the back. After they are glued, we procedd to clean any glue excess and draw the shape of the instrument plus the reinforcements. Then, we cut the sound hole in the sound board.
Once these are drawn, we can glue the reinforcements in place. We start by strengthening the joinery. This is specially important for the back since there are more pieces implied on the design. For the sound board we start with the struts since these are the most important things that go inside.
When these pieces are glued, we trim them to shape. These has more than an aesthetic function. The shaping of the struts helps us voice the sound board. I'm trying to build a balance. You might notice I'm using 3 struts this time. I'm still trying to find the best configuration to my liking for instruments. It is also nice to experiment and get different results with such things. That means that in the future there will be an idea of which kind of setup brings forth certain sounds.
With the important reinforcements already in shape, it's time to glue the rest of them. These ones are just for strengthening the pieces. The placement of the bars on the sound board limits the vibrating area of the piece and starts giving us a semblance of what will be the timbre of the instrument.
Neck
The piece where the fretboard rests. This one gives us all the comfort (or not) when playing this kind of instrument. There must be a balance on width of the neck and the comfortability. Since each pair of hands is different, adjusting it is key to give the musician an instrument that doesn't fight while trying to play. But also we cannot make it too thin or the strings will bend it forward.
We start by drawing a center line and then we move on the make the head stock cut.
After this step, we make a heel out of blocks of wood. This is in the other end of the neck, just where the sides will be slotted. We need to draw some guide lines for this cut. Then we can move ahead and cut (always measure twice). While we do this, we can draw the shape of the heel. Also, after this is glued in place we can go ahead and start shaping it. I used a handheld jigsaw to make this an easier task.
Shaping the heel is a slow process since wee need to make sure we keep a certain degree of symmetry. Moving slowly with a chisel helps a great deal. Also, o have made a template to make sure I'm making. This curve right.
Going forward, we have to finish the head stock. Since the foundation is done, we need to add some blocks and a decorative piece of wood on top. Of course, gluing all this is a tricky process since the pieces with glue tend to move.
#One Step Ahead
Since we are getting everything ready to assemble, we take some time to work on the fretboard. I found some interesting information about how to make my own template following some guidelines. This is the second instrument I'm making following these.
The fretboard is the piece of wood that goes on top of the neck where the frets rest (hence the name). We need to make the slots for the metal pieces and then give it a conic shape.
Sides
The last piece to prepare are the sides. These need some scraping and sanding to be in the right thickness. After they are ready, we can go ahead and bend them. We can make sure of this with two methods. First, we can use a vernier caliper and measure their thickness. The second method, is holding them in you hands and trying to move then up and down bending them a little. This makes a wobbly sound that tells us the sides are flexible enough.
Now that the important pieces are ready, we can start with the assembly process. It begins with gluing the sound board to the neck.
Solera
We move onto the solera mould. Here we take the chance to sign the instrument and add any other detail.
Internal Heel
This little block is here to help us get the sides, sound board and back together. It has the same height of the external heel since this instrument will have a flat back.
Bending the sides
Once the internal heel is in place, we can move on and bend the sides. First, we soak them in water to hydrate the wood fibers and make them flexible. Then, we apply heat to give them the shape. My homemade bender has done some work until now. It might need changing soon enoug, but it is still standing.
Gluing the sides
This is one step that takes plenty of time since there's a lot of measuring implied. First, the sides need to come together on the bottom. Then, they have to get into the slots to have the right shape. It means doing some adjustments to the curves and cutting a bit here and there.
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Preparing to close
After all these pieces are in place, we are almost ready to close up this instrument. First, we need to sand the top to make it as flat as possible. There's a tool for that. It is a big sanding discs. I might make one in the future. However, the most important detail is preparing the back. This will be the lid that shuts the instrument close. We are also using one of the new labels. They look really cool if you ask me!
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It is possinle to get to this stage in one week. I started on Tuesday and right now I'm already working on some of the fine deatils of the instrument. I'm using some of my new tools and they make a lot of the job easier. Be tuned, the next steps will come somewhere around next week. Hopefully, I'll be on t finishing stages. And don't worry Venezuelan Cuatro #8 is also coming to its close. However, this project is on a hurry.