Building a Whamola!

AmazingGracePlayer · Nov 19, 2006

Hey everyone, I was thinking about building a whamola around Thanksgiving, and I will definitely need some help on building one. Please feel free to add to items I need for the list, Thanks!

Items needed:
wood for the body (edit: w/ steel pole inside?)
a strip of wood as the "fretboard"
EMG (or other kind) humbuckers/P pickups
some metal stuff to connect the lever w/ the body
screws

After I get these above items, I will post how I will build the whamola, and of course, I would need your help on that too.

Thanks!

:bassist:

britrit · Nov 19, 2006

you might want to put this in the luthiers corner.

El-Bob · Nov 19, 2006

...yeah...luthiers is probably what your looking for...

Eric Moesle · Nov 19, 2006

Be aware that the body of the actual whamola is made of aluminum, not wood. I would be concerned that the extreme tension variations when yanking the lever would cause such a thin piece of wood to flex unacceptably.

Also, the lever and pulley are the critical pieces. I'd suggest you locate those first before you plan everything else.

spudmaster34 · Nov 19, 2006

yeah, it was made of bent hollow alluminum

AmazingGracePlayer · Nov 19, 2006

I was thinking, for the body, wood with a steel pole inside it... would that work?

KarateKid25 · Nov 19, 2006

Use the TB search. There have been threads on building Whamolas before. There are some pretty good pictures in those threads too. They are quite basic to make

AmazingGracePlayer · Nov 19, 2006

I did search before and found 2 threads worth mentioning.

1. a thread made by a person like me wanting to make a whamola, and on it, I found no guides or anything. (not like I was expecting to find guides)

2. a thread with pictures of a finish whamola....

Enden · Nov 20, 2006

good luck man.

nonohmic · Nov 20, 2006

I have one in pieces in my wardrobe - need some motivation to make it (and tools might help too!)

AmazingGracePlayer · Nov 20, 2006

I might take it to my school's woodshop class and make it with the teacher together after/before school

Fishbrain · Nov 20, 2006

sorry...what's a whamola?

ehque · Nov 20, 2006

too complicated. a thick plank of wood with no fretboard and no steel bar will probably work best.

vindy500 · Nov 20, 2006

whats the point of a fretboard, you dont fret the whamloa, you play it like a trombone... (kind of)

Fishbrain · Nov 20, 2006

Fishbrain said:
sorry...what's a whamola?

anyone??

iamlowsound · Nov 20, 2006

Fishbrain said:
anyone??

That

lowsound

Nils · Nov 20, 2006

I'm actaully in the process of building a whamola myself, and I'm probably finishing it after work this thursday. I have a hollow aluminium square "tube", a wooden (oak) handle and that's about it. I'll use a double bass-string, a simple machine for it and one of those cello-things you use to raise and lower it.

AmazingGracePlayer · Nov 22, 2006

It's impossible to drill a hole in a 4 feet long wood and put a pole in it, so I'm just going to spend a few extra bucks and get the best piece of wood possible. The project starts next week! My friend from school is helping me build my whamola because I helped him build a waterfall. Yes, a waterfall.

spudmaster34 · Nov 22, 2006

a router would be the way to put the metal in, route a channel, put in the metal so it partially fills the channel, glue in a piece of wod

AmazingGracePlayer · Nov 22, 2006

Nah, I'l just get a solid piece of maple.

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Building a Whamola!

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AmazingGracePlayer

britrit

El-Bob

Eric Moesle

spudmaster34

AmazingGracePlayer

KarateKid25

AmazingGracePlayer

Enden

nonohmic

AmazingGracePlayer

Fishbrain

ehque

vindy500

Fishbrain

iamlowsound

Nils

AmazingGracePlayer

spudmaster34

AmazingGracePlayer

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