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🦋 Viola da wok

Yesterday I ordered a wok. I'm starting my next metal soundboard instrument, a da gamba tenor violin with carbon steel soundboard¹. A rough sketch of the design:



parts:

• wok (14" diameter)
• neck + dowel (I'm thinking I will use cherry)
• dowel stop (a small piece of wood that will ride on the bottom of the dowel, as a spacer for the tailpiece)
• back -- arched maple. Thinking I will use some very pretty wormy maple that I've had in my shop for years and years. It is flatsawn but I think it would resonate. Back will be attached with a kerfed lining which I'll need to make. Soundholes will be on the sides of the back.
• tailpiece -- likely will use a 1/4 size cello tailpiece. May need a cork spacer to raise the angle of the tailpiece.
• bridge -- maybe a viola da gamba bridge? or a fractional cello bridge? or a viola bridge?
• strings (steel) -- the tones I am thinking of are G2, D3, A3, E4 (and possibly B4). Maybe use 1/4 cello strings? The scale length will be something like 20". Or another possibility, tune in fourths E2, A2, D3, G3, B3.
• fingerboard
• pegs

posted morning of Thursday, December 19th, 2019
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¹Make that "a brass soundboard". The steel wok I bought has no resonance. I've ordered a brass wok on the theory that it is a musical metal...

posted morning of December 26th, 2019 by Jeremy Osner

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