The First Monochord I Made!

[@beyondyou4151]

Hi. I’ve completed my Monochord. Took your advice on the Lag bolts I used 5/16. Stout tuners Brother! 1/2” socket is my tuner key. Lol. I was looking at piano pins and chose your recommendation!!! Bought a small bench drill press and I knocked out the drilling. That’s was a time consumer Much learning took place. I used medium carbon steel rod for the ball end holders of the guitar strings. You said aluminum, I could not find it at the big box stores. And....Used your 2 drill method. They are stout as well. Tight! The dimensions are Red Oak Frame 3.75” deep x 16” wide x 32” long. The sound boards are 5mm birch. 👍 26 strings The first 6 strings are standard set of medium guitar strings. I think I might fashion triangular blocks for tuning those. I can play these as an accompaniment to my left hand playing the other 20. 🙏 The remaining 20 strings are wound Ernie Ball .26 strings. I treated the wood with Danish Oil. Looks awesome. 👍 3 holes in the frame. On the side. I’m going to mic it! Just got a load of recording equipment. I’ll send you some photos to your email address. And share a video on KZbin Go check out the videos I made for Rhythm For You Todd McCann. You will learn more about me from the vids! Thanks so much for helping me out. Stringing it up tomorrow. Have a bliss filled evening. More to come. I’m going to build a lap steel slide guitar next. With a rail pic up.

[@MiscellaneousMcC]

Yes I'd love to see some pictures! Always exciting to see another monochord out in the world!

[@katstyrcula2370]

You have inspired me to make my own. Built the box today. Sanding the edges and corners tomorrow. I got the piano wire.

[@MiscellaneousMcC]

Amazing! Post a link so we can see it when it’s done! 😁

[@addieapplewhite1189]

Hi! How did you learn to build this? My dad and I are looking to build one we have a full woodworking shop and my dad builds guitars but I can’t seem to find anything online on how to build a monochord? Thank you!

[@kimkav1144]

Thank you for this inspiring video! I’m interested and make my own. Wondering what the spacing is between each string?

[@MiscellaneousMcC]

I believe this one is about 8mm between strings. The spacing for the strings depends of what strings and how tight they are. They can be placed closer the tighter they are, with larger or looser ones farther away. I recommend stringing on string on a mock-up instrument, just a 2x4 with a nail in one and and a tuning pin in the other. They should be as far apart as the brindles on your finished instrument. They you can string various sizes and tensions of strings to find you favourite and measure the width of the strings oscillation. I like to add at least 2mm to that measurement just to compensate for my own errors haha! Enjoy your build! And if you get it done please post a link to any videos of it! 😊

[@kimkav1144]

Thank you! I will

[@marmalademcfroo]

Fantastic! So helpful. Thank you :)

[@djads08041970]

Thank You!! You have inspired me to make one of these. I love all your monochord videos and the sounds that come from them. Like you i love the richer deeper tones, the deeper the better for me. Your idea to use coach screws is a much better idea than Zipher pins, i can imagine these under the strain keep loosening over time like you said. I don't care about the look as long as it sounds amazing. I'm really undecided on what wire to use, should i use piano wire or guitar strings. I know guitar strings would be more expensive, but do they sound better? And guitar strings may be easier as they have a ball on the end to hold them in. My main question is do i use all the same thickness wire and just tune them individually or do i get a mixture of thicknesses? Hope you can help and again thank you for sharing. 🙏♥

[@MiscellaneousMcC]

Wound strings can produce the same notes as solid strings, but they will sustain much longer, making the notes draw out. If I could afford it I would always go with wound strings. I use all the exact same string, as they are all tuned to exactly the same note. But there are people who will put one or two base note with thicker strings on the monochord to be plucked every once on a while.

[@djads08041970]

Thanks for the reply, its much appreciated. I'll look at the price differences between them, then decide. I'll probably end up doing piano wire, as im on a budget :) What gauge piano wire and what gauge guitar strings would you recommend for a deeper tone monochord? There are so many choices... 🙏❤

[@KnutMenschenfreund]

Thanks for the great video, which diameter do the strings have? I would like to build a monochord ca. 80 cm long with a - d´ - d´- d tambura tuning and wonder which string-wire to buy!

[@manyviceslifeincrisisahuma3054]

thanks for the share, cant afford a monochord so this is really helpful.. HOw thick are the pin blocks?

[@omnisfung5372]

Thank you for your share 🙏🏻 I’m try to find more information to build this This video and your share really help😆 Hope I can finish this Thanks a lot 🙏🏻😆

[@MiscellaneousMcC]

You are most welcome! When you finish your build please share a video of it :D

[@aussieshelpinganimals9605]

I love your monochord videos. I am trying to design a 5 ' one to build and I don't have enough info about the bracing, especially under? the bridge if the bridge is 1/6 of the length away from the end, rather than on the pin board. (You mentioned you had collapsing issues ) Any advice would be much appreciated.

[@MiscellaneousMcC]

Hello! Thanks for your comment! I have tried a few different things to mitigate the bridge collapsing in under the strings tension. The easiest method is to place sound posts under the bridge, like you see in the violin family. You would likely want to place 2 or 3 depending on how wide the instrument is. How well it works will depend on how many strings and how much tension you are putting on them. Another method is to use an brass or aluminum bridge. Both metals are very good at transferring tone and vibration and can easily be shaped to accommodate your needs. If your instrument has a flat top you can use a piece of angled aluminum from the hardware store. Curved tops can use either aluminum or brass rod, which is easily curved to fit the instrument. The angle will provide the most support, and can be seated on the instrument with two very thin strips of felt. The last method worth noting is building a more solid bridge. A strip of wood 1/2" by 1" across the instrument will resist bending better than a fine strip of wood. It should only be used for light gauge strings however, as heavier gauge strings will still put too much pressure on it, causing it to warp. Technically having the bridges out away from the pin blocks will make it sound better, but unlike most stringed instruments monochords have immense tensions as they get wider and longer, similar to a piano. It is definitely possible to do so, but can be impractical if you are planing on using it on people, especially if you are looking to have the full weight of a person on the while playing. I guess overall advice would be to try and keep your string tension as low as you can, that more than anything will have an impact on the bridge warping. Oh, and I should mention that you can do some scalloping on the underside of the top panel of the instrument to reinforce it. However as I found out (the hard way lol), if the strings tension gets too high the scalloping can break or pop off, completely ruining the instrument. Without them, even if the bridge starts to collapse in, you can just loosen the strings and it will return to normal, more or less. Haha! Cheers!

[@aussieshelpinganimals9605]

Thanks for all this invaluable info.@@MiscellaneousMcC

[@Helliconia54]

how different from a hammered dulcimer or zither?

[@MiscellaneousMcC]

Here is a video I did on that topic 😊 kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4TZY2OIg8akrbc

[@remi3165]

hi! just one question. what kind of strings did you use ?! thank you

[@MiscellaneousMcC]

The strings on this monochord are from a bass guitar. 😊

[@bassmjm]

Hey friend, I know this was 4 years ago, but hopefully you're still around. A question: how close are the strings to each other, and how close do you think you could possibly get them?

[@MiscellaneousMcC]

@@bassmjm Good day! The strings on this instrument are 1 centimetre apart. How close you can get them depends on how tight the strings are. Usually I make a test setup with a scrap piece of wood and the strings I want to use. The test would have a piece of wood the same length of the instrument and two strings with basic attachments. Tighten a string to the desired tension and aggressively pluck it. When it’s vibrating you can measure how wide it occilates. Add a millimetre or two to that measurement and that’s how close they can be. Add a second string that distance from the first and test to see if they touch. If you tighten the string it will occilate narrower, and can be put closer together, but the tone with be higher. If you increase the thickness of the string it will lower the tone at the same tension. It’s a lot of trial and error. I hope this helps! Have fun!

[@bassmjm]

@@MiscellaneousMcC Understood, and that's very helpful, thank you! I was assuming it was a balance between tension, string gauge, and vibrating length. Just curious what you landed with here. What was the spacing for your larger, bed-type monochord?

[@MiscellaneousMcC]

@@bassmjm I believe it was 1.4cm for the bed monochord. The strings were 7 feet long.

[@bassmjm]

@@MiscellaneousMcC wonderful, thanks very much! Your videos have been very helpful! Hope you've been well.

[@zoshachang5565]

Can I pick your brain more about this? I want to try and build one. How far apart are your strings from each other? How did you stager the hex screws?

[@MiscellaneousMcC]

Hello Zosha The strings are 11mm apart. The screws are also 11mm apart horizontally to keep the spacing of the strings at 11mm. They are spaced vertically enough so that each can be tightened without being too close to each other. This will vary for whichever kind of screw you choose to use. Just be sure to measure the screw with the screw/bold with the socket on it, otherwise if they are too close together vertically you wont be able to tighten any of them. The thing to remember is that you can space them out vertically as much as you like, so long s your string is long enough. For example, you could have 11mm horizontal spacing and 25mm vertical spacing to no ill affect. Let me know if that makes sense. Cheers!

[@zoshachang5565]

Miscellaneous McC that’s great advice, thank you so much. Also I’m slightly confused on using hex screws. if you need to tighten the string and tune it further at some point it will screw all the way into the wood and only goes so far. How does that work? You just cut the string super short? How did you make the bridge?

[@sahsarjan]

can i get extra long string of 62 inch long?

[@MiscellaneousMcC]

You can use piano wire, which will come in a spools. My large 7 foot long bed monochords strings all came from one large spool.

[@sahsarjan]

Thanks

[@beyondyou4151]

What wood type and thickness did you use for the sound board and the bottom?

[@MiscellaneousMcC]

The top and bottom panels are 1/8” veneered plywood from Home Depot.

[@beyondyou4151]

@@MiscellaneousMcC Birch?

[@MiscellaneousMcC]

@@beyondyou4151 This one was birch with oak veneer, but if you can get birch aircraft plywood that’s considerably better.

[@beyondyou4151]

@@MiscellaneousMcC I’m a music therapist / rhythmist I’m a carpenter as well. I like the bass string design I’m attempting to make a cymbulum using large tomato cans and 24 gauge 316L stainless steel wire. Using old guitar locking tuners. I like your hex head lag screw for tuning on your first build. I Play a few instruments. Percussionist at heart. Have 45 drums. Djembes, Congs, Ashiko, Doloak, Kendang, shaman frame drums and a boat load of percussion instruments! I have 2 handpans and made a custom blue man group drum. www.rhythm4you.org Thanks again for your help

[@MiscellaneousMcC]

@@beyondyou4151 A handpan drum is on my bucket-list for sure. The hex head bolts are my favourite method thus far, but if I could afford several dozen guitar tuners for each build I would love to go that route haha.