Here comes my very first attempt to ever build an instrument. It´s literally from my backyard.
I live on a 300 year old farm in rural Bavaria in the south of Germany. Behind the farmhouse is a huge shed full of wood, of which some must be from times that Bavaria was still a kingdom. Last year I found a nice long chunk of wood and since someone gave me a little wooden suitacase that was originally for storing oil paints, I put those parts together, put a nice long bridge on it and strung it up as what I call "The Bavarian Barbarian Box" or "Nido Kora". It´s set up like a Kora, in the way of a double harp. However it´s got only 8 strings, because the wooden box sure wouldn´t take the string tension of 21 strings that press onto that little bridgepatch. On the bottom is a metal ring fixed with a couple of massive screws. It´s got no soundhole, is strung up with nylon classical guitar strings but the wood responds really well, so it got a very destinctive sound. And it´s not bad at all. It´s very warm and quite loud. I play it with a friend who plays the djembe from time to time and it actually works together volume-wise. However mainly I use it as a practice instrument for excersises in two hand picking. It´s like picking two guitars at the same time. At first it was really weird, but after a while on gets the hang of it. So in January I plan to start building a full-grown kora with a tone wood body and 21 strings.
I wouldn´t call it Lutherie, I´d call it putting-a-stick-through-a-box, but the result is a playble instrument with a nice sound. And you defintelly draw attention, when travelling with that thing by train. It´s still a suitcase with a handle, so when I travel I really just carry it like a piece of luggage. A piece of oddly stringed luggage.
