2012 Jefs entry

[The Phrygian Kid]

im taking a bit of a dr Frankenstine approach.  These four donor instruments were all found in my street on hard rubbish day in the last year or two.  Im focused on the two classicals and the piano, but i may chop up the other yet too, we'll see

[Matthew Dollinger]

I'm thinking a hurdy-gurdy just waiting to happen!

[The Phrygian Kid]

Spoiler!!
Grrr

[The Phrygian Kid]

ok so today my spider sense got tingling..

uh oh, only three weeks left.   So i took the most beat up guitar of the three and pulled it apart.

its pretty poorly made, and the glue is crumbling.  I found this guitar in the park on a rainy weekend a year or two ago.

well snap crackle pop and i was a little surpised that the neck is reasonably nice hardwood.  the sides are ply as was the top and the linings are cardboard.  put the sides on the belt sander for a few minutes each.

the neck also has a nice thick plate of rusty steel buried in it, so i'll be reusing that, should handle six steel strings no worries.  dont need it yet, but popped it on the sander just to have a peek inside

the main thing for now was the sides (or one of em), so with that secured i moved onto the toy piano

[The Phrygian Kid]

ok so i picked up this toy piano on hard rubbish day a couple years ago

the plywood it is made from is falling apart.

inside, we can see how it works, the keys flip up small plastic weights which strike steel bars (attached to lid), one for each note, in place of strings.

pulled it all apart and we can see the small hardwood wedge that acts as a fulcrum for the keys

it was glued down nice so i took a craft knife to the ply on bottom and cut out the smallest rectangle I could.  Heres a small video of the keys working, unfortunately my iphone got confused about which way is up and its upside down, but youll get the idea

Glued the keyboard down to a bit of ply.  and thats where we are now

[Randy S. Bretz]

Cool idea Jef,  i`ve seen something simalar to that idea once looking at old designed instruments. Can`t wait to see what the end result comes out to be.

[c# merle]

this is reminiscent of a guy who was on britains got talent (yeah, right), he had a part piano part guitar thing with a kazoo bolted on the headstock. go booed off stage - but that was 'cause he coundn't play the thing well.

im sure this will be brilliantly different

[The Phrygian Kid]

Ok well mother's day got in the way a little yesterday, but i got a bit of a frame started in the piano

Also glued the heel back on the neck, stuck three scraps of veneer in just to show id been there

and jointed some cedar wall panelling for a soundboard

had a littlecrack at veneering the keyboard but it was disasterous..

got to thinking and i think there might end up  a bit of elton john about this one

[The Phrygian Kid]

then today after work i marked out the new taper on the neck, 35 mm at nut and 40mm at join.

cut that in, smoothed out the fancy head

the veneers came out OK

popped the soundboard out, cut it to shape and thinned it out to 3mm.  Braced it with strips of the original ply from bottom of the piano

[The Phrygian Kid]

update..

Tuesday..

dropped some soundholes in and glued the soundbard down in the piano

trimmed the heelblock down

built it back up with some scraps of hardwood

Today..

some tricky joinery..

and got some side rails on

recruited some sexy little mermaids and tossed one of the sides in the boys bath

[c# merle]

this is crazy! crazy cool from doctor jef.

[The Phrygian Kid]

well the side tried to straighten itself out on the bath.  as soon as i tried to bend it it snapped

Doh !!

went for an angry drive....

i had planned to get this one right around for a teardrop kinda shape

i am undecided whether i pull apart the other one for a side or cut up a bit of plywood, think i wanna do a couple of straight line kinda sides

this is what i've got (cos youve prolly worked out, the other side is needed for the little piano)

[The Phrygian Kid]

ok sod it im cutting another side piece from ply, were looking at a explorer kinda shape thing..