Here is a project I have been working on. Since I got my new Stick, I have wanted to try to turn my old one into something that might play without an amp.

Years ago someone gave me an old entry level cello that was collecting dust in their attic. The thought came to me to try to combine the cello body with my old ironwood stick. Through many experiments, this is what I have so far.

Basically, I just cut the finger board off of the cello and boldted the stick on, careful to keep where the stick bridge should be near the sound post of the cello. Then I had to design and make my own bridge and tailpiece. Very tedious, yet thought provoking.

The instrument is loud enough to hear un amplified, but not loud enough to be heard over, say, and acoustic guitar. But...with "the Block" pick up added on, it sounds every bit as good as it used to while amplified.

On a side note, you may notice the gk-3 pick up on there. This is not one from SE that has been modified to fit the string spacing of a Stick. I just put the pickup at a slant approximate to "the Block" pick up, just underneath it. Everything seems to work absolutely fine, except I needed to turn up the sensitivity of the synth pickup.

Though the experiment to get a "cello-fied" Stick that could be played at the volume of an acoustic guitar has so far been a failure, it sounds great amplified and feels awesome playing it as if it was a cello.

If anyone wants to see it, I plan to bring it to the upcoming NE stick seminar and maybe play it if the students are allowed to play at the concert. It is hard to decide which to play, since my new Stick is also great to play.

I hope this is not disturbing to too many people.

Mike

If you bring it, they will come.
Well, at least I will. I'd be very interested to see the beast in person!
(and his modified cello-Stick, of course...)

Thanks for the encouragement. I am half expecting that this whole thing will horrify some people(hence, "the Franken-Stick").
I also wanted to add that this has been kind of a recycling project. The cello was really almost unplayable and my old Stick was just hanging there looking sad and neglected, waiting for the day when my new one needs servicing. Also, the GK-3 pickup I installed actually came with the GR20 I got, but I use the one made specially for the Stick on my new Stick. So the guitar-style synth pickup was just sort of an extra, laying around. The fact that it works at all amazes me. But it works great.(just doesn't look as nice) One advantage is that there are some synth presets that have loops or percussion triggered by the 6th string on a guitar, which my set up on the 5 melody strings of the Stick can not activate.

I will try to add some close-ups of the bridge and tailpiece that I made in the next day or so.

Awesome! Bravo! Well done!

Reminiscent of the mystic baliset.

yes, just one carry-on.
i'll just toss it in the overhead compartment.

=o)

Hey Mike, this might be for "Madmen Only" but at least your not alone .

I made the version below from an abandoned acoustic guitar but inside is imbedded a small Roland amplifier .

I showed it (and played for) Emmett and he laughed, and of course said "Baliset".

But he warmed to the idea and had some suggestions, one of which was to use a Cello body so that a larger amp could be installed .

The real benefit i think, for a rig like this is the 'sitting/playing position. i played this Stick
for about a year and experienced a 'fast learning acceleration' because having the Stick
out in space and sitting behind it as opposed to standing behind it (also
different than using a lap stand) because your body is independent and you can
move around it differently than if it is attached . I compared it to a
'vertical piano'.

I found a super cheap Cello to try the next phase but have not taken the saw
to it yet .

I called mine a "Dragon Stick" because the body is collaged with Chinese
dragon motif's .

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That certainly looks more attractive than mine. The guitar body almost looks as if it is made of stone or marble.

I took the Franken-Stick to my band "Liquid Nixon"s rehearsal tonight and it was a hit. Everyone was tired or had a bad day and the new instrument brought some inspiration to what could have been a bummer of a practice.

After the rehearsal, the guitarist, who is also a photography buff, took some photos of it including close-ups of the bridge and tailpiece. As soon as he gets them to me, I will post them.

Well, whoever gets disturbed with this does not belong in here man, and nice job bridging an instrument that evolved from the violoncello over 350 years ago with a contemporary instrument as the Stick.

Perhaps you may consider amplifying the pickups and bringing the sound inside the body of the cello with a 5 or 10W micro amplifier (like these little battery powered Marshalls you find on every music store)... a sort of resonator instrument, to fully leverage the body of the cello. I suggest this as the banging of your fingers on the fretboard is also amplified by the instrument and may affect the overall output, so you may want to give the strings sound some help, this may work. Just a thought.

Peace

This works surprisingly well. When i built mine I was intending it to mimic an acoustic Stick
and even though it's not very loud it was fine for practice or small performance and seemed like it could easily be micd although i never tried it