17 STRING FRETLESS, SOLID-BODY CELLO

I came a crossed this outrageous piece of ebony fingerboard stock many years ago and decided then it couldn't be allowed to be fret slotted for a regular guitar and mar the unique fire pattern painted right down the middle of it.

That was the very beginning of the fretless idea but it didn't come to reality until I designed the 29 String and began the work.

Since I had enough material in this piece of swamp ash to not only do the 29 String but had enough left to do the fretless; which also allowed me to use it as a test build for the larger 29 String.

I finished it just in time to figure it out and use it on a new music project soon to be announced.

As most of these type instruments have the free floating 11 strings tuned in the bass scale, I chose instead to tune them tonally like the fretless guitar itself. Makes for some interesting tone colors in contrast.

17 STRING FRETLESS

SOLID BODY CELLO

Ok! This may be a little off the wall, even for me, but I couldn't help it. Cello is one of my favorite instruments to listen to and never thought much about building one until I inherited my grand-dad's old 3 string upright bass.

But once I started fooling around with that old bass and drug a bow over it the idea began to bug me.

So, I borrowed a real cello from a friend and too all the important specs off of it and began to lay one out with design features from my other projects.

It turned out to be a fascinating endeavor to say the least, but next time I'll use much lighter material besides maple, wenge, and purple heart.