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Krista Ehinger
This electric violin was built by myself and Sam Williams for
The violin body was built from a red oak 1"x3". The pegs were made from 5/16" red oak dowels -- these same dowels were also used to attach the strings below the bridge. The fingerboard, the grips on the pegs, shoulder rest, and other attachments were made from scrap wood. The orginal bridge was made from a 3"x1/4" piece of maple, and subsequent bridges were made from similar pieces of different materials.
We chose to use red oak for the body of the violin because it's a particularly dense, hard wood. It can easily withstand the forces placed upon it by the violin strings. Red oak is also relatively cheap and fairly easy to work with.
The simple, narrow design of this violin was both easy to make and fairly lightweight. (It was still slightly heavier than a regular, hollow violin, though.)
We started construction by punching out a rectangular hole in the top of the 1"x3" for the pegbox and cutting in the sides of the board below that to form the violin neck. The back of the violin neck was carved into a curve. The front side of the neck was cut at an angle, but, in retrospect, I feel this was unnecessary -- we wound up having to glue an extra piece of wood onto the neck to make up for the part we cut out.
The exact proportions of the pegbox, neck, and body were determined by measuring a normal acoustic violin.
 The Pegbox
We finished up the pegbox by filing a slope into the bottom edge of the pegbox, so that the bottom of the pegbox sloped up to the nut. We then turned the violin on its side and drilled four holes through the pegbox, for the pegs. These holes were drilled slightly smaller than 5/16" (the diameter of dowel from which we made the pegs). We then enlarged every other hole to a diameter of 5/16". Each peg would be inserted into the larger hole, and its tapered end would stick firmly in the smaller hole.
We drilled the holes in the pegbox so that, going back from the fingerboard, each peg would be slightly higher than the one in front of it. This ensured that the strings from the rear pegs wouldn't catch on the front pegs.
We found that the strings would not lie flat against the nut, so we screwed a small block of wood to the base of the pegbox to hold the strings down.
 The Pegs
Pegs were made from pieces (about 4" long) of a 5/16" dowel. We tapered one end of each peg and then carved the other end into a rectangular shape to form a grip. A very small hole was drilled through the center of each peg in order to attach the strings.
We had intended to leave the pegs like that, but we found that it was impossible to get a good enough grip on the pegs to tune the violin. We wound up making small, squarish caps which could be slipped onto the ends of the pegs -- these made the pegs much easier to turn.
 The Fingerboard
The fingerboard was made from a flat, narrow piece of flatwood. We cut it into an angled shape, then sanded the top surface into a curve. The top 3/8" or so of the fingerboard was left unsanded, and formed a narrow ridge at the top of the fingerboard (called the nut). We cut four small grooves into the nut to hold the strings in place there.
Because we had cut the neck at an angle, the fingerboard stuck up at an angle, but it was too low relative to the pegbox. So we had to thicken the neck of the violin by gluing a thin flat piece of scrap wood onto the neck. We then glued the fingerboard to this piece of scrap wood. In retrospect, it might have been simpler to leave the neck alone, and create the angle of the fingerboard by gluing a wedge underneath it.
 The Bridge
Bridges were cut from various materials 3" wide, about 2" high, and 1/8" - 1/4" thick. We shaped each bridge by sanding the top into a curved ridge and filing four notches for the strings. The size and shape of the bridge was modeled upon an acoustic violin bridge. As on an acoustic violin, the bridge was not glued or otherwise attached to the body -- it was held in place by the force of the strings.
Four holes were drilled into the violin body below the bridge. The holes were angled away from the bridge, and used to secure four dowels (cut from the same dowel that we used to made the pegs). A deep notch sawed into the top of each dowel was used to secure the ends of the strings. (You can see two additional holes in the photos of our violin. These were a mistake -- we initally drilled the holes too close to the bridge and we had to move them back.)
 How to String the Violin
The electric violin was strung like a regular violin. One end of each string was inserted through the hole in each peg, then wound around the peg to secure it. The string passed over the nut, down the fingerboard, and was secured in one of the four notched dowels at the base of the violin. The bridge was slipped into position after all four strings were attached (without the strings, the bridge would not stay upright).
We built the pick-up according to the directions given in the Harmony-central.com digest on piezo-electric pick-ups. We attached the pick-up to the bridge using white glue or double-sided tape.
The pegbox and pegs were by far the most difficult part of the construction, and they never were a complete success -- the pegs tended to slip out of tune. I'll probably purchase a pre-made pegbox if and when I make another electric violin.
The piezo pick-up is delicate -- in particular, it's very easy to break the solder joint connecting the cable to the porcelaine part of the piezo. The weight of the cable alone will snap the solder joint, if the cable hangs unsupported from the bridge. I recommend attaching the cable to the body of the violin (we usually taped the cable to the side of the violin near the bridge). That way, the solder joints do not carry the weight of the cable, and they wont be stressed by its movements.
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