Short Sound Demo on the Guitar Amp

Edit 2019
These are new recordings made with a Zoom H1N device. It gives a much better idea of how the cello sounds live.


soundcloud.com/liviulvu/ave-maria-on-diy-electric-cello

soundcloud.com/liviulvu/c-scale-in-one-octave-recorded-with-zoom-h1n


Edit 2018
Short demos on the latest sound state. I compared the sound output from the guitar amp and a focusrite usb audio.
The audio card outputs a much smoother sound. Combined with a reverb pedal (not present in this demo) the sound is really nice for a home made cello.

This is the guitar amp demo:

DIY Electric Cello Foldable Upgrade

Solved old problem when transporting the cello. The complete dismount of the leg support was always necessary. Whenever I needed to transport the cello it was very awkward to mount and dismount the piece.

I finally solved that nuisance the last weekend. 

Image description and explanatory description below.

This is the folded view from the front. Now it fits in my phishing bag. I am not a fisher but I could not find a proper bag for this instrument.

This is how it looks like unfolded and ready to play.

After folding the 2 pieces, the end pin slides tight between them. 

The fold is not ideal, because the jack is in the way and the butterfly nut need to be loosened a lot to allow space for movement to the fold position.

Close-up of the cut area. The cut angle is slanted to help put pressure between the 2 pieces. There is a thin layer of foam on one of the pieces to help absorb unwanted vibrations during play.

Started with a few sketches to define the goal and a simple solution as possible for folding the wood.
These are some sketches to gather ideas before cutting anything. Turned out to be very helpful and gave me a really clear solution.

Currently searching for a bag to replace the phishing bag. Closest thing I found that might fit is a speaker stand bag. But still searching. Any suggestions are welcomed.

DIY Electric Cello Updating the Leg Support

Starting the year with updates on the diy cello project.

Changed the old wood used for leg support.
Here are some photos with the picece.

Compared to last setup, the angles are amplified.

Added v cut to the ends of each pad.

Here is a video of the whole chello, in latest form:

DIY Electric Cello Update 2017 from Liviu on Vimeo.

For reference, this is how it looked on the last update:
http://diyfunworks.blogspot.ro/2016/08/updates-diy-electric-cello-rounded-back.html

The new leg support piece is also shorter by one centimeter. May not seem much, but I certainly feel the difference. The more slanted end pads also make practice more confortable.

Speaking of practice, really missed it, since I was working on cutting and varnishing. Better get to it.

Origami Lamp Shade

Had some free time over the weekend and was really missing some origami folding. This lamp shade is the result of experimenting with thin plastic material. The ambient light given by the lamp was somewhere between sexy and horror, depending on what movie you seen lately.

Below you can see photos of some of the building steps for the folding of this lamp shade.

 
This is the plastic sheet after creasing.

The folding was a little tricky. It tends to buckle and deform where you do not want, leaving imperfections in the transparency.

The folded shape is incredibly strong and hard to deform, considering it is made from very thin plastic, under 1mm thickness. This was fun, hope you enjoyed reading about this shape experiment.

Wooden Wall Suport for Electric Cello

Last week I found myself in a situation with no safe spot for my cello on the floor. My solution was to build a wall support for quick access to both instrument and bow. 

Updates DIY Electric Cello - rounded the neck

The previous section shape was very squared. Until now it did not bother me so much, but for a few months after practicing with fingers more spread out, to reach extended positions, it became very painful to practice.

 Not knowing what to do, I asked a friend to let me practice on his acoustic cello, and it felt really comfortable. This was because the real acoustic cello has the neck a lot thinner than my cello. Over 1.5 cm in width and depth made my fingers really hurt when practicing.
Reducing the width is not an option right now as I do not have the tool to work with that hard ebony wood that makes the fingerboard.

What I could do is make the back profile round as it is on a real cello. And so I started to peel off material.

The end result feel so much more comfortable for the correct hand position, and also allows for easy extended positions.

It still is considerably wider and thicker than a real cello neck, but the roundness makes it so much easier to practice.

Updates DIY Electric Cello - rounded back of the neck for 4th position

Feedback from a maestro is very important.
As I keep practicing for upper positions, my cello teacher told me the index finger should be same height or higher than the thumb when the hand is in 4th position.


After searching the internet for references, I was intrigued to find my cello did not allow for a correct position of the hand in this case.

Fortunately I had some small piece of wood from last update and was a perfect size for the job.

 

Here is a before-after comparison. The effort was worth it.

The shaping took about 4 hours of sanding, but I cannot overestimate how much better it feels to play. The 4th position notes are much easier to reach and play, especially on the C string.

Cello Bow Rubber Grip

Recently my leather bow grip fell of. The leather was thin and low quality, and I decided it must be replaced.

As a quick fix I wrapped the area in rubber. This idea came after talking with my cello teacher, and he used rubber grip for many years.

So far so good, the grip is fantastic and the rubber holds well.

What is your preferred bow grip material?

Connected a keyboard to my android phone

Writing on a physical keyboard while using the smartphone is pretty cool. I used a OTG usb adaptor.
I tested a few apps, naigation in the browser and between apps. My android version is KitKat.

In the photo you can see a very good app for coding on android, called "ScriptIt". Very nice experience using it with the physical keyboard.

If you tried any physical keyboards on your smartphone for coding away from work, let me know what was your experience like.

Wood Cover Sketch Book Finished

After 3 days of consecutive varnishing and drying, the wood covers are finally done, and they look fantastic.
All pieces were put together in a beautiful sketchbook product.

The varnish looks very glossy and has a nice textured feel to it.

The lacing extends to be used as a page sign.

The wood patterns also stand out a bit more.

Wood Cover Sketch Book with pyroengraving

This is a short review of how I built this sketch book and how I got the idea.
Last post I demonstrated some typography on a wooden cardboard. For this project I used a better quality soldering iron to burn the letters in plywood.

There was a time, a few years back, when I needed lots of sketch books for drawing.
With little money in my pocket as a student, this was not the time to spend more money on Moleskine. Instead I used to buy blank paper and build my own sketchbooks.

I am a big fan of sketching, so whenever I get a bright idea I always make some notes or sketch some lines.

After discovering that I can use the soldering iron to make burn marks in wood and cardboard, I started to think of all the things I could personalize and decorate with this technique, and this is where I got the idea to build another sketchbook.

Here is the result.

A close-up of the letters.

Burned letters in wood and cardboard

For a long time I was searching for a solution to permanently engrave letters at home. I finally had the time to test this idea to burn letters with the electric soldering iron.

However my current tool has 30w power. This seems to be insufficient for covering large surfaces and working fast.

Updates DIY Electric Cello - end pin adjustment

While I was busy practicing, I had this problem with the end pin being smooth it kept sliding back in.
To solve this I got a idea from my cello teacher, to form some grooves so the screw device would lock in place.

Here is the result. It was manually made and its, not perfect, but it does the job and I already noticed a great improvement in finding my notes.

LED Desk Lamp

Having some flexible metal tubes from 2 old lamps I decided that instead of throwing them away it will be more fun to build something useful with them.

Coincidence makes it that I needed a desk lamp, a directional one to be able to point it any direction.

The second important thing was to be able to fix it to the side of the desk so it will not occupy any space on the work space.

After searching the internet and local warehouses for ideas and materials this is the cheapest most effective solution I could find.