My son has done a video demontrating the tuning, setup and playing of a strumstick.

Squaring up the strumstick blanks

On another WW Forum a while ago there was a post about building a Dulcitar or sometimes called strumstick. I said it would be cool to make a few of these for some fun. Not too much work, but a chance to hone the luthier skills for a change. I read the plans through to get the dimensions and then put them away to build them using my own techniques. This is a common approach to work for me as I have my own techniques I prefer and like to make anything I build my own. This was no exception. So I proceeded to mill up some quarter-sawn maple into blanks that would become strumsticks.

These are simple instruments to build, cutting a 1/8” strip on each side of the blanks to form the body sides is an elegant solution to creating the body.

A little walnut wedge inserted in the end splits the body sides and forms the body of this cool little instrument.

Rasping off the flash on the sides.

I recycled some left over spruce for the top and offcuts from leftover guitar backs to complete the body. The edges are trimmed flush with a rasp.
I resawed a rosewood fingerboard that came from the Martin factory in the 50’s, thickness sanded it to just over an 1/8” and glued it on the body. The plans called for the frets to be let into the maple body directly, like an old strat, but I think this makes it look much more like a guitar.

Cutting fret slots in rosewood bridge

Filing the fret slots to make the fret pop in cleaner.

Fret wire pounded in

I am often asking about fretting, the part I like the least, tedious and detailed, if not done exactly right, the instrument is unplayable. The slots are cut in the fingerboard, the slot is chamfered to eliminate tearout.

The frets are pounded in and trimmed close. The final shapng is done with a file to blend them into the side.

The strumstick has a diatonic scale so every note is a whole note, but more importantly there are less frets to pound in.

Drilling holes in the tuners to fit the slotted headstock.

Time for some hardware, build a bridge and nut, I like to use water buffalo bone for nut material as its black and I like the look. I also inlayed a small piece of ebony into the tail for the stringbreak to protect the body, this part was not on the plan, but the spruce in top would just not be up to the string pressure.

Five or six coats of satin urethane and its tough as nails.

A few shots of the finished product

The completed product, strung up, bridge intonated and ready to play.

The back, the walnut in this one is offcuts from the back wood used in the very first guitar I have ever made.

Of course I had to install my guitar label – FYI this is about 5/8” square.

Personalized for the recipient.

The headstock with an initial inlaid for a lucky young man.

This makes a fun instrument to play, and puts out an amazing amount of sound for such a small body. Having a diatonic scale makes it very easy to play for anyone.

All the other pieces I have made for him have been Cherry so the wood choice was easy. I had built an end table similar to this in the past so quickly threw down some measurements and ripped the legs up. The skirt is tenoned into mortises on the legs and cut on my bench mortiser.

The front top rail is dovetailed into the top of the legs and the bottom front rail is tenoned into the leg. The drawer front is Birdseye Maple and will contrast nicley once the cherry darkens up some more.

I also had a chance to try out a prototype joiner’s float from Liogier in France on the mortises – this underused tool is fine for smoothing the sides of the mortises and cleaning up the tenons for fitting. I am doing a video and atrticle on this for when these tools are eventually released by Liogier – more on that later.

Here’s a picture of the parts stacked up ready for assembly.

And a picture of the completed base with the dovetailed drawer installed, including a hidden compartment at the back.

Now I needed to make a top to fit the finished base, I always do this last in case the base ends up a little different in size.

First step with my Sauer A1 panel plane makes it all flat:

Second is to eliminate any minor humps and bumps with the Marcou S20a smoother.

Finally my little Holtey 11SA smoother makes it like glass.

My finishing schedule is to use a couple coats of Deft Danish Oil to give it that oil finish colour deepness and then topped off with a few coats of Minwax wipe-on satin poly for protection and sheen.

And a few shots of the finished piece: