Here are some of the options available in a tagelharp (tail-harp,
the family the Jouhikko belongs to)
The more modern box style
A more rustic style with 2 strings (boat bottom, possibly the origin of
the use of the term 'keel' to mean the body of the instrument)
2 Strings as a square box (low drone and 1 melody strings)
3 strings (jouhikko, tuned with the open chanter string a 4th above the
center drone, and the melody string tuned a 5th above the center drone)
4 strings (hiiu-kannel, no standard tuning, but often CDDg or CDDc)
These next 2 are the most 'modern' standard style instruments, a 2
string and a 3 string with colored finishes.
The 2 string in blue
and the 3 string in red
I have just put these here in case others wanted to input their
ideas. We pretty much nailed down the main options in our call.
OK, with the basics covered in the phone conversation, here is the
basic digital mockup of the 3 string boat-bellied instrument.
It has a reasonable sound cavity and places to ornament. Right
now it is in lime with a spruce soundboard with rosewood pegs and
tailbar.
This is just a photoshop mockup, we can do a lot here.
Here I have added some designs - probably kolrosed with blue colorant,
taken from the association logo, an old Pagan waterbird, and hybrid
Christian/Pagan Shaman drum symbology. Just ideas from our
discussion. Please let me know what you think.
Here is one with the central cross from a drum ornamenting the
traditional pierced cross soundhole. A low-relief slip carved
fylfot carved into the area below the window replaces the logo on the
head, and an additional pair of d-shaped ports, calculated to the
volume of the sound chanber, has been added to increase the Heimholz
resonance (more tonal projection and power). The added relief in
the window is simply for aesthetics
OK, taking your revisions and merging some of them. Perhaps
leaving the soundboard as the surrogate for the ornamented drum skin
and letting the keel remain relatively plain with perhaps only a
decorative carved bead to break the flat area. The piercings of
the soundboard are iimportant - the area of open holes for power and
projection and the placement to maintain stiffness and keep the top
supported at the bridge, so I am going to work around them. The
cross piercing is perhaps the most common ornament on Jouhikko,
Kantele, nyckelharp and other regional instruments, and I don't think I
could do a piercing more appropriate. I also changed the birds to
be more reflective of the artistic technique illustrated by the other
motifs on the drum. I am not sure that the logo fits anywhere
anymore. The soundboard top has also been rounded, this removes a
bit of soundbox volume but I don't think it will make a significant
difference.
But I still think we might be missing the boat a bit by not considering
significant color. Here's just a possibility...
OK, I stylized the logo to match the early technique and placed it over
the upper soundholes, blackened all kolrosing, moved the sun to the
peghead and removed the relief from the inside of the window.
Here it is in blue
And in red
And in green
and in yellow
Any of these can be done with the sun and bead carved on the keel, like
this
BINGO!!! We have a winner. Now from this point on it is just sit
back and enjoy the ride - pictures posted as your instrument develops.
OK First construction picture. Just to give an idea of scale and
3d development. Please excuse the desktop in the background - I
must be a genius if the netaness of my desk means anything. The
body is cut from a 4 inch thick plank of lime, it is over 22 inches
long and more than 5 inches wide at this point. The yoke and head
have been thinned to an inch, the tailpost area has been thinned to 3/4
inch. Some preliminary shaping is done on the body, but it is far
from polished (a draw knife removes a lot of wood fast, but it isn't a
finishing tool by a long shot, at least in my hands). The top is
profiled to curvature (it has a slight curve in it, this helps to
stiffen the soundboard and helps it resist sagging under the string
pressure). And don't pay attention to the guy in the photo, I
have never seen him before in my life...really, that's my story and I'm
sticking to it.
Next step for the body is to finalize the boat-bottom shape and take it
to near final finish. At that time I begin to use a variety of
hollowing tools to remove all the extra wood from inside the soundbox
(this is definitely NOT a green method of instrument building, although
I do use a lot of the chips as heating fuel - nothing is wasted but
modern rib and plate building starts out with a lot less
material). The outside has to be almost perfect so that I can
measure the thickness of the body in different places accurately.
The final tool I use in the inside of the cavity is called a spoon
plane, it is a small plane/scraper that puts a very nice finish on the
soundbox interior. I should be well along the way toward having a
hollowed out keel by Saturday night, if everything pans out as
predicted.
After that, the soundboard will be cut and profiled to thickness.
There is a special shape the soundboard has, thinner at the edges and
thickest right where the bridge sits. As the vibrations
travel in the soundboard they become weaker as they are absorbed by the
wood mass, so the thinner sections toward the edge allow the same
amount of movement across the soundboard. This does tend to make
the soundboard weaker structurally, but that is what the curve is there
for. Once the soundboard is cut and profiled, it will be
decorated with the ornament and oil finished like the keel. A
protected area on both the top of the keel and the underside of the
soundboard will be maintained so that the board can be glued on after
the top of the keel is finished. The brass pins are there for
ornament, but will act as clamps as the glue is drying. After the
keel and soundboard are mated up, the instrument will be considered
finished. All that other additional pieces are considered
accessories in the instrument world, the pins, the strings, the bridge,
the bar, the bushings, all thought of as accessories. These will
all be added after the oil finish has a chance to harden a bit.
And that is basically the order of operations for building one of these
instruments. I try to get the explaination out of the way early and
focus then on just little details when I post photos. So look for
more by Saturday night - if everything goes very very well I could have
a lot of photos to show.
Here it is needing only the final scraping and paring on the inside of
the bowl before I cut the decorative bead and sun and dye it
blue. It will hopefully be ready to be joined to the soundboard
sometime tomorrow.
Carved and ready for blue!!!
OK, so sometimes even with all the right tools and techniques something
goes terribly wrong. As I was raising the grain on the keel, a
small section on the lower rear curve began to expand outward due to
the moisture I was adding. THis is not an uncommon situation, and
there are centuries-old methods for fixing the results, but once I had
the insides strengthened with layers of paper and glue I started to
work with the outside deformation and unfortunately the wood in this
area would not cooperate. So I had to start with another piece of
wood and build again. Fortunately this one only took time and
gave no difficulties. So here is the final keel stained in blue
without any oil, waiting to be mated to the soundboard. And the
damaged keel. Funny, doesn't look all that bad from this angle
(or really from any other at that) but I don't deliver substandard
instruments. I will keep this one, finish it differently in a way
that allows me to repair the damage and add aesthetic accent, and keep
it as a 2 string in my own 'petting zoo' that I take to schools and
events to help teach. This new piece has more character in the
grain, has a little hard spalting (the black lines you see inside the
bowl, they are also on the outside in that area, rather striking) and I
opened up the hand window to try to make it possible to play Estonian
as well as Finnish style. The soundboard is now in progress and
hopefully late tonight I will be joining the parts.
And here with the blank pierced soundboard
And with the kolrosed soundboard.
The oil will bring out the kolrosing a bit, and I will accent the
cutwork on the keel with a black or very very dark navy wash - not
stark, but enough to set it off nicely.
Here it is with the soundboard mated and tacked and the first 2 coats
of oil on the top. Next step is to mount the bushings and then
the instrument will be complete except for stain, the accessories
(bridge, tailbar, tuning pegs, and bow) are all that have to be
made. If things don't go wrong, I will be stringing the
instrument up in 2 or 3 days. Wish I could get my camera to make
up it's mind on exposure.
Compared directly to our mockup, I think it is coming along nicely
And here it is complete. There are still a few days of work,
adjusting the number of strands of hair in the strings, adjusting the
bridge weight and height (maybe making a few new bridges to fine tune
the instrument) and building the case / shipping box, but this is
pretty much it.
