I want to thank Andy Mackie, I know he's up in heaven but I'm sure he hears us. What a nice man and what a nice series of 6 videos that are very detailed and helpful. I built my first music stick and I know I am just a beginner. It came out nice, not perfect but I learned a great deal and hope to do better now. A few things for others to consider who like me might be not as good as some at woodworking. First I'd say start with a stick 1 1/4 inches wide - you need this for when you file down the frets, maybe start with a 1 inch wide stick after you practice on the first stick you build. Also when you cut out the stick and it looks kind of like a tuning fork, you will spread those sides out to form the sides of the sound box - make a jig so that you can ensure the sides spread evenly or close to evenly, I didn't and the center of my sound box was not really centered on the fret board since one side bent a bit wider than the other side - I goofed. Also when you drill the 3/4" hole in the top of the sound box, it is best to lay the board on the stick in position, check the center line from the stick down and use that center line for where you center your drill bit. I was off a bit because I centered the hole just on the sound box top without checking against where it might be off a little versus the center of the fret board. The result is my strings are not centered over the hole, but it still plays nice. When I sanded the bottom of the sound box, I pretty much had to use a electric palm sander at 80 grit, otherwise I don't think you can sand the end of the bottom of the sound box to blend into the body of the instrument, at least I could not do it by hand sanding. Last tip is I didn't like putting the strings 1/8" from the edge - I think it is better to put them in 5/32" it's just a little but it ensures your string is easier to play. By the way someone mentioned the tuners don't have holes in all three string positions, but it is easy to drill an extra hole in the tuner so that really isn't a problem. However on my next build I will try to drill smaller holes where the strings go down around the tuners, but staggered like the McNally Strumstick - you can look and see what I mean. If you don't have a planer, you can buy 1/8" so called thin-stock at Woodcraft or Klingspor and other places. I did use Sycamore for the sound box and it worked fine. I used Padauk for the stick. Anyway I hope this helps anyone like me who is a novice to have a few tips for beginners. Also anyone can feel free to say, no don't do what Ralph says, that's okay - just explain why so I can learn more too.
Hi! Andy I watched the series a few times. Got some wood made it the way you said and have it completed. I am a carver and did an Irish knot for the sound hole. The guys in my local music store looked at me strange a few times as I popped in for frets and the like. Last week I took it in to get a tuner as I can not play or even tune anything. They loved it and one played as the other drummed on the counter what a blast. So to close this post a big Thank you for the series but an even bigger Thank you for giving me something I can not only make but am now picking out a few tunes. Be well my friend.
The late great Andy , Rest in Peace, is smiling from above. Thank you for your kind comments my friend, and I'm so glad to learn about the Irish knot sound hole. Send a picture sometime? I bet the carving looks great!
for those who want to know, the center hole is 3/4", i've made quite a few of these now. on a 1" stick, 3/4" will leave 1/8" on each side, which is exactly what you want. these things sound great if you use some decent wood. maple and pine work really well together. make sure the tops and backs have no knots and the straighter the grain the better for output... i've tried making some, using scrap cut-offs, with plywood tops and they sound dull and are very quiet compared to the very dry, straight grained, sections of knotty pine tops i used.
Also, I found in my experience that the harder wood on the back, such as maple, complements the softer wood for the front, which is spruce, definitely projects the sound outward and gives it a 'warmer' tone. I've tried using maple for the front before to experiment, and I think I detected the sound quality to be more "tinny", or 'sharp.' The softer spruce for the front definitely warmed up the sound.
Hi Andy. Thank you so much for putting up this series, it's exactly what I was looking for so I could have a project to work on this summer with my grandsons when they come to visit. Btw, I loved the music track behind all the videos be sure to thank the musicians for me. God bless and keep up the great work.
Absolutely brilliant i can not wait to make one although i already have a mc Nally strum stick and play it of sorts now i know how to build one this will be this will give me the most satisfaction thank you for having the time and patience and shearing with us all. just brilliant Chris
got to build me one of those things :) i am hoping to get started on a lap steel 6 string this winter as well as a steel string acoustic guitar, but these instruments just sound so cool, thanks
Doh! Forgot to say I fitted a piezo and plugged it into an amp my wife thought Kiss had come to the house bought it on the weekend damn did not think it would shake the house. Just the start mate.
In preparation for building one of Andy Mackie's stick dulcimers, again, I came back to refresh my memory. In doing so I was able to watch several videos about who and what Andy was/is. Very inspiring. I would recommend seeking out his story. Here's one to get you started... th-cam.com/video/seYzRpdpJnE/w-d-xo.html Also, A rainy, sleeting, December evening, found me drawing up the tail piece gluing jig, (seen in video 2). I put together a short video. Give it a look if you think it would help you. Within the video and in the video description, I included links to all of the hardware that I used, as well as a couple of tips learned the last time I built one. I think the jig is important to keep the sound box straight with the neck, though I'm not certain why he has the half circle cutouts on his jig, or if they are even necessary. I will probably leave them off of my jig. Here's the link to my Tail piece gluing jig video. th-cam.com/video/SFY3rrndolE/w-d-xo.html It's meant to be a "stop and read" kinda video. The music in the video is from a video I found with Andy playing the harmonica, and singing. It's a fun build and sounds surprisingly good. Not to mention you get to be a part of Andy Mackie's legacy. He is my newest hero. :)
I was blessed to be Andy Mackie's friend, he was such an inspiring person to me. We taught an instrument building class together in the woodshop for middle school aged students. He would show up in the morning, covered in sawdust from getting the materials prepared from the night before, and was often feeling cold, since the shop in his barn had no heat. When the first bell of the morning sounded, and the children arrived, the color would return to his face, and he'd be just overjoyed to be in the presence of the youngsters! He would whistle a gentle tune while working, sometimes humming a song! To answer your question about the half circle on those jigs, well, those were to accommodate the clamps we used, to clamp the stick to the jig. Thank you for the kind comment with the links included
Just watched the whole tutorial, been looking at making a string musical instrument. And in going to copy your idea. One question, would this work as a 4 string version?
Absolutely! If the neck is slightly wider, it can accommodate another (4th ) string. Additionally, if the stick is just slightly longer, you'd add that 4th hole for the tuner. Finally, you can keep the 4th string's tuning the same as the third, (keeping the 2 strings tuned to the same note.) Alternatively, you've got additional options for alternate tunings and experimentation. Best of luck!
I made a companion video where I drew out the gluing jig (Video 2) as well as listed the parts that I used when I built Andy Mackie's stick dulcimer. I attempted to clarify some of the questions I had, when I built my first one. th-cam.com/video/SFY3rrndolE/w-d-xo.html It's a fun project and sounds remarkably good. :) Oh yeah. I also listed the parts I used, in a comment above. I hope this helps.
Not to be mean but the strumstick bob the inventor made was more fancy looking but apart from looks its sound we need and i think yours has just that, So great video thanks for showing us the ropes!
I love the background song Evan. "Joy of my Heart."
It's also my favorite Andy Mackie song as well!
I want to thank Andy Mackie, I know he's up in heaven but I'm sure he hears us. What a nice man and what a nice series of 6 videos that are very detailed and helpful. I built my first music stick and I know I am just a beginner. It came out nice, not perfect but I learned a great deal and hope to do better now. A few things for others to consider who like me might be not as good as some at woodworking. First I'd say start with a stick 1 1/4 inches wide - you need this for when you file down the frets, maybe start with a 1 inch wide stick after you practice on the first stick you build. Also when you cut out the stick and it looks kind of like a tuning fork, you will spread those sides out to form the sides of the sound box - make a jig so that you can ensure the sides spread evenly or close to evenly, I didn't and the center of my sound box was not really centered on the fret board since one side bent a bit wider than the other side - I goofed. Also when you drill the 3/4" hole in the top of the sound box, it is best to lay the board on the stick in position, check the center line from the stick down and use that center line for where you center your drill bit. I was off a bit because I centered the hole just on the sound box top without checking against where it might be off a little versus the center of the fret board. The result is my strings are not centered over the hole, but it still plays nice. When I sanded the bottom of the sound box, I pretty much had to use a electric palm sander at 80 grit, otherwise I don't think you can sand the end of the bottom of the sound box to blend into the body of the instrument, at least I could not do it by hand sanding. Last tip is I didn't like putting the strings 1/8" from the edge - I think it is better to put them in 5/32" it's just a little but it ensures your string is easier to play. By the way someone mentioned the tuners don't have holes in all three string positions, but it is easy to drill an extra hole in the tuner so that really isn't a problem. However on my next build I will try to drill smaller holes where the strings go down around the tuners, but staggered like the McNally Strumstick - you can look and see what I mean. If you don't have a planer, you can buy 1/8" so called thin-stock at Woodcraft or Klingspor and other places. I did use Sycamore for the sound box and it worked fine. I used Padauk for the stick. Anyway I hope this helps anyone like me who is a novice to have a few tips for beginners. Also anyone can feel free to say, no don't do what Ralph says, that's okay - just explain why so I can learn more too.
Thank you for your kind and informative comments, containing your practical advice from your experiences!
Hi! Andy I watched the series a few times. Got some wood made it the way you said and have it completed. I am a carver and did an Irish knot for the sound hole. The guys in my local music store looked at me strange a few times as I popped in for frets and the like. Last week I took it in to get a tuner as I can not play or even tune anything. They loved it and one played as the other drummed on the counter what a blast. So to close this post a big Thank you for the series but an even bigger Thank you for giving me something I can not only make but am now picking out a few tunes. Be well my friend.
The late great Andy , Rest in Peace, is smiling from above. Thank you for your kind comments my friend, and I'm so glad to learn about the Irish knot sound hole. Send a picture sometime? I bet the carving looks great!
for those who want to know, the center hole is 3/4", i've made quite a few of these now. on a 1" stick, 3/4" will leave 1/8" on each side, which is exactly what you want. these things sound great if you use some decent wood. maple and pine work really well together. make sure the tops and backs have no knots and the straighter the grain the better for output... i've tried making some, using scrap cut-offs, with plywood tops and they sound dull and are very quiet compared to the very dry, straight grained, sections of knotty pine tops i used.
Also, I found in my experience that the harder wood on the back, such as maple, complements the softer wood for the front, which is spruce, definitely projects the sound outward and gives it a 'warmer' tone. I've tried using maple for the front before to experiment, and I think I detected the sound quality to be more "tinny", or 'sharp.' The softer spruce for the front definitely warmed up the sound.
Hi Andy. Thank you so much for putting up this series, it's exactly what I was looking for so I could have a project to work on this summer with my grandsons when they come to visit. Btw, I loved the music track behind all the videos be sure to thank the musicians for me. God bless and keep up the great work.
Absolutely brilliant i can not wait to make one although i already have a mc Nally strum stick and play it of sorts now i know how to build one this will be this will give me the most satisfaction thank you for having the time and patience and shearing with us all. just brilliant
Chris
got to build me one of those things :) i am hoping to get started on a lap steel 6 string this winter as well as a steel string acoustic guitar, but these instruments just sound so cool, thanks
The lap steel 6 string sounds so cool! It would be neat to hear those played using a slide too.
Doh! Forgot to say I fitted a piezo and plugged it into an amp my wife thought Kiss had come to the house bought it on the weekend damn did not think it would shake the house. Just the start mate.
In preparation for building one of Andy Mackie's stick dulcimers, again, I came back to refresh my memory. In doing so I was able to watch several videos about who and what Andy was/is. Very inspiring. I would recommend seeking out his story.
Here's one to get you started... th-cam.com/video/seYzRpdpJnE/w-d-xo.html
Also, A rainy, sleeting, December evening, found me drawing up the tail piece gluing jig, (seen in video 2). I put together a short video. Give it a look if you think it would help you. Within the video and in the video description, I included links to all of the hardware that I used, as well as a couple of tips learned the last time I built one. I think the jig is important to keep the sound box straight with the neck, though I'm not certain why he has the half circle cutouts on his jig, or if they are even necessary. I will probably leave them off of my jig.
Here's the link to my Tail piece gluing jig video. th-cam.com/video/SFY3rrndolE/w-d-xo.html It's meant to be a "stop and read" kinda video. The music in the video is from a video I found with Andy playing the harmonica, and singing.
It's a fun build and sounds surprisingly good. Not to mention you get to be a part of Andy Mackie's legacy. He is my newest hero. :)
I was blessed to be Andy Mackie's friend, he was such an inspiring person to me. We taught an instrument building class together in the woodshop for middle school aged students. He would show up in the morning, covered in sawdust from getting the materials prepared from the night before, and was often feeling cold, since the shop in his barn had no heat. When the first bell of the morning sounded, and the children arrived, the color would return to his face, and he'd be just overjoyed to be in the presence of the youngsters! He would whistle a gentle tune while working, sometimes humming a song! To answer your question about the half circle on those jigs, well, those were to accommodate the clamps we used, to clamp the stick to the jig. Thank you for the kind comment with the links included
Just watched the whole tutorial, been looking at making a string musical instrument. And in going to copy your idea. One question, would this work as a 4 string version?
Absolutely! If the neck is slightly wider, it can accommodate another (4th ) string. Additionally, if the stick is just slightly longer, you'd add that 4th hole for the tuner. Finally, you can keep the 4th string's tuning the same as the third, (keeping the 2 strings tuned to the same note.) Alternatively, you've got additional options for alternate tunings and experimentation. Best of luck!
What a nice man, wish I could have met him.
I made a companion video where I drew out the gluing jig (Video 2) as well as listed the parts that I used when I built Andy Mackie's stick dulcimer. I attempted to clarify some of the questions I had, when I built my first one. th-cam.com/video/SFY3rrndolE/w-d-xo.html
It's a fun project and sounds remarkably good. :) Oh yeah. I also listed the parts I used, in a comment above. I hope this helps.
Try changin the "e" to a "d"
You'll be in banjo open G then, its real fun to play
Not to be mean but the strumstick bob the inventor made was more fancy looking but apart from looks its sound we need and i think yours has just that, So great video thanks for showing us the ropes!
what is the tuning?
what size of bit for the center hole???
nice.
itunes?
itunes.
You do realize that Strum Stick is a copywriten name.