story

For me, the cello has always been intimately connected to family and memory.

My grandpa, Gong Gong, bought me my first cello, still the only cello I play today… so far. The same cello I used to play for my other grandpa, Ye Ye, in his hospital ward room. Ye Ye suffered from dementia, and the music my brother and I played for him seemed to be the only thing that brought him back from his reverie, somehow. Our music brought clarity to his eyes and a smile to his face, and at least for those short afternoons, he remembered us. He was present.

When Ye Ye passed away, a year after we had begun playing music for him, my brother and I played an elegy at his funeral, in his memory. 8 years later, in 2021, my grandma, Po Po, had a hemorrhagic stroke. A week before, we had celebrated her 96th birthday with her, at our house. For the next few weeks, my brother and I visited her often, bringing our instruments to play for her as she struggled to heal. When she passed, with great heaviness but also gratitude for the life we shared, Luke and I played a few duets at her funeral, songs as light and sweet as she was.

Despite all of the sadness and grief surrounding my experience with music, to me, the cello has always been, above all else, a source of joy and connection. Alongside classical music, I’ve always enjoyed non-classical music, like jazz, pop, indie, and rock, especially when played on the cello. Non-classical cello music has always inspired so much joy for me: a similar kind of joy, and peace, which I hope my music has brought to my family over the years.

In creating this electric cello, I only hope that the memory of my grandparents, and the love and joy we shared together, shines through, in its physical form, and its voice.

overview

• goal:

  • design + fabricate an electric cello embodying what cello means to me: music, family, & memory, while learning various manufacturing processes including sand casting, machining, forming, & woodworking

• electric cello components:

  • created

    • tuning pegs

    • body

    • frame

  • purchased

    • strings

    • fingerboard

    • tailpiece

    • endpin

    • nut

    • saddle

  • unfinished

    • bridge

    • electronics

• fabrication:

  • tuning pegs sand cast in silicon bronze

    • 3d printed pattern (debossed characters’ depth = 0.020”)

    • made pattern board from wood + 3d printed pieces (family mold)

      • risers included on ends to minimize sink

    • cut shaft tapers on lathe, using taper attachment (standard 1:25 taper ratio)

    • used foredom to clean up debossed characters + sanded to 1000 grit + polished

  • body carved from a single plank of bastogne walnut wood

    • laser cut templates for marking

    • hollowed out main cavity for electronics

    • routed channel for endpin + grooves for wiring from piezo pickups (mounted in bridge)

    • carved recesses for sheet metal flanges to sit flush within body

      • installed wood inserts for 6-32 machine screws to make frame detachable

  • frame formed from aluminum sheet metal

    • sheet metal: 5052 aluminum, 0.100” thick

    • screw hole countersinks (82 degrees) + endpin holes created on mill

    • formed curves using slip roller + propane torch + hammer

    • flanges for interfacing with wood body created using press brake

    • bead blasted finish

cad

sand casting - tuning pegs

lathe - tuning pegs

woodworking - body

sheet metal - frame

final assembly - cello