pickin' stick

[Ben-Had]

Weeeeellll, I was thinking I'd make these for my grandkids, but I showed my wife, and she said "that sound is annoying".
She is a piano teacher. I guess I won't be building them afterall!!

Kevin

I guess you have to have a little bluegrass or country in you to appreciate them:)

[darren]

We'll we've been strung up for a while and the saddle and nut (Madagascan Rosewood) are glued. One mistake I noticed is that on the low G the string wasn't seated fully on the little nail and it had enough leverage to bend it up towards the soundboard, but that will be easily replaced. It is a lot of fun to play - there are some basic chord structures but you can bar and basically solo on any fret on any string and it sounds 'in tune'.





Yeah it does have a little twang in it, like a quiet mandolin, I guess. It definitely has that roots/backwoods vibe going on. :)

[darren]

and here is the happy customer (yes, there are already gummy worm finger prints on it. Gotta love it... )

[johnnparchem]

Looks like it turned out great. I really like it. I have a very young niece in a musical family that would be a perfect recipient of one.

Thanks for the idea!

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Very cool. "We be jammin" soon! A happy boy! Good work Darren.

Kevin

[Ben-Had]

Well, thanks Darren for the idea. I finished these up last week and sold one this weekend at the local music festival. I did a little experimenting because I was going mostly from pictures and a YouTube video. I placed the sound hole in different spots (actually think it will be best somewhere between the two). I went back a made a ebony tailpiece from a cutoff of a bridge I made, it seems sturdier than the escutcheon pins I first used. I made the bridge out of ebony and the nut out of a bone saddle cutoff I had. I tried the tuners on both sides and like them so they are on the bottom to balance it better. Most all the wood was scrap except for the mahogany body. I used Englemann Spruce for the top, EIR for the back. My grand daughter is getting the one on the blue towel for Christmas. This was a fun project and didn't take long to make them at all, I have stuff for 4 more. Hmmmm, what to do with them?

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Look great. I don't know how you guys find the time to spit these things out. I'm still working on a guitar I started almost a year ago. Arg!

Kevin