I had a busy weekend finishing up a project and starting a new one. It was exciting as I didn't had much to do in previous weekends.

I missed the chance to make a post about the instrument I have finished recently. It was because when the internet connection came back, I did some checking on posts, answered comments and read others. Also, I was catching up with a lot of pending things. But surprisingly, the connection is working at the moment and mi mind is fresh. I'll give this a shot.

This is the conclusion of an experiment that was started months ago. Reason stopping the advance of it, are explained here. The final thoughts about this project can be summarized this way:

A sound board of a rarely used wood

Rarely used for this task, Samanea saman, is wood that almost never has a straight grain. It is mostly used in construction. Some of the wood beams in the house are made of it. It has a very crisp and high pitch sound quality. The main issue with its gain is that it's hard to fill with sealant. I would only make another instrument like this on request.

The only bad thing of having these successful results is that I can't show it off to the group of people who told me all the bad things about trying to do this. But it doesn't actually matter. I mean let stubborn people get stuck in their own views. Trying new things is part of growing.

Sound

The pitch achieved in this project is interesting for a Venezuelan Cuatro. It is bright. I think it could be improved if the struts were in a different configuration. I'm also experimenting on making cuatros without these struts are the vibrating area on a sound board this small is reduced. It will surely come as future project.

Bindings

These ornaments are a hassle to make by hand. I'll only work with them again if I get my own router. Otherwise, I'm not touching the stuff.

Symmetry

This is not a so relevant aspect of construction. However, some people find it better to see a symmetric body in an instrument. That is if it doesn't have a cutaway. This is only my 4th instrument and the symmetry factor needs a little bit more improving. It's way better than it was in my first. That's an improvement.

Overall Aesthetics

This is the weakest point of this build. I was focused in getting the best sound I could that I didn't pay too much attention to this fact. The price of the instrument will suffer for my carelessness, but an experimental cuatro shouldn't be that expensive.

But, help yourself and judge the instrument yourself. Here I added some pictures and a video to show it.