Yesterday I took an exciting decision: drill soundholes, or not …??

Meanwhile there are even some pardas mounted.

Day 48: After a thorough sanding with grid 80 and 150, I started mounting the “hardware”. The main machine heads (same as SBS-02), a patri, jawari and langoot.

Note the difference with the SBS-02 tail mount: Here an extra pen is equipped for the tarav (sympathetic) strings.

Then a basic strings set is mounted and tuned for a test. The sound was ok, but was still a bit on the lean side. Soundholes would or could improve…? But is this always true? On this instrument I use a lot of walnut. A wood that is not really commonly used in acoustic or semi-acoustic instruments. After some time worrying I took the drill in my hands.

But first I made a short recording with the closed body. After the surgery I took a shot in the same conditions and distance from the recorder, but now with the soundholes.

Play here for the sound WITHOUT soundholes (don’t mention the rain)

Play here for the sound WITH soundholes (the rain has now also stopped)

The recorder registered a gain profit of +7 dB. And also the bass are much better and sit more in balance with the rest of the strings.

Day 49: Making the pardas (frets). Starts with cutting on length, then bending, filing the feet, cutting slots, full deburring and finally polishing.