I strung it up late yesterday afternoon. Came upstairs with the strings not tightened, to pour myself a martini before tightening the strings and hearing the song.
The first step was to set the saddle in exactly the right place. That was made complicated by the "zero fret". I taped the measurement jig over the fingerboard with the top of it placed midway over the zero fret hoping that would be exactly where the strings left the fret. Then at the other end, I canted the bass side of the bridge by 1/8th inch to aide intonation and accommodate the cut I had made in the bridge.
You are looking down at half of the zero fret and the nut end of my wooden jig. to the right you see the bone nut which is only being used to separate the strings to the proper place. the bone is lower than the fret.
When I was confident the bridge was in the right place I began to shingle small pieces of blue tape around its edge to accommodate its curves. More and more tape so that it would hold position when glued.
This picture shows how much the saddle was canted down on the bass side.
Once it was taped, I scraped the finish off the tone board with a razor blade, glued up the bridge and set it in place held there with a 25 pound bag of #6 bird shot. I had no clamp that would reach through that off centered sound hole. The lead shot bag was my clamp-and it worked perfectly.
Two hours later I was sitting upstairs with a martini in hand hearing 100's song-and it was lovely. This is a real "cannon". huge volume, great resonance and rich clear notes. The trebles ring with crystalline clarity, the basses are wonderfully mellow and rich. Sounds like a larger instrument than a tenor. It is so different that I needed the opinion of others, and that came this morning when
Chip Lauckhart and John Weaver came to the workshop for a two hour jam. They both declared the Kasha/Schneider #100 a success. Here John is trying it out while Chip looks at his Collings tenor. It has been a fun and very interesting build. I am delighted also with the zero fret. I have never built an instrument and achieved such low action so easily and quickly. Not sure I am thrilled with the appearance of the extra fret, but I sure like the results.
