The Finale (Part III)

So once the curved elements are completed we can add on the platform.

The back of the Korg as you can see from the image has a number of connectors and things in a group on the back.  The Q25 is just a bit wider than this connector group.

I figured that two "C" hooks would work on each side of the connector group and give the platform plenty of stability.  Once I had two decent "C"'s completed I made a check to be sure that they wouldn't hit anything else, like feet on the bottom.  In the end there is just room to either side of the connector group for the "C"'s.

The next step was to attach the "C"'s to the Korg and figure out where the top piece would go.  After figuring the top piece position I marked both "C"'s and cut them to the exact same lengths.  Next I modeled two triangular pieces to fit on the "C".

The triangular pieces would lock into the top piece.  The top piece would have a lip which would fit over the face of the Korg and hold the entire thing in place.

Figuring this out took some work.  At first I wasn't sure if the top piece would extend out over the Korg's face or would remain essentially flush.  I also had to make sure that the top piece wouldn't obstruct anything important - like a knob or indicator light.

In the end I came up with this:

The triangular part sits on top and creates a kind of level platform on the top of the SV-1.

Due to slight differences in how the wood bending went I had to take the time to align and trim the two triangles down to match exactly.  The "C"'s were not quite the same and without that step the platform would not be level.

Next I created the top piece.  For this I used a piece of hardwood plywood about 7" by 16" - large enough to provide some room on either side of the "C".  I cut two slots in the bottom to hold the top of the triangles.  I measured this in place on the Korg to get the positioning right.  I then attached two small wooden blocks to hold the top piece against the face of the Korg.


Here the top piece is sitting on a platform for finishing. 


Once this was completed I did a test fit.  That complete I did the finishing.

For things that get frequent use and handling I like tung oil (oil from the tung tree Vernicia fordii) and marine varnish.  Usually I thin out the tung oil and apply multiple coats over several days.  Once that's dry I apply multiple coats of varnish.

The finished pieces came out like this (pre-varnishing):

Attaching them works as follows (very simple) - attach the "C"'s:

Next attach the base plate (note the wood blocks on the front are out of the way of anything important on the face of the Korg):

All that was left at this point was to add the Q25:

The Q25 sits nice and tight against the stop of the Korg.  It also fits quite tight and doesn't rock or move when played.

Bend Me, Shape Me, Any Way You Want Me (Part II)

So as I covered last time I was about to bend the wood strips for my project into a curve to match the SV-1.  The first round of bending failed.  For that I soaked the strips in hot water for about an hour.  The strips, while becoming more flexible than they were initially, did not really become flexible enough until they were fully soaked.

At that point I put them onto the form and glued them.  Unfortunately the glue would not work properly with wet strips and the resulting piece was a failure.

The next round was steam bending.

The first trick here is patience.  My little kettle here is fairly full of water (to just below the spout) so I get maximum steam time.  You have to focus on one strip at a time and not rush things.  First off I sort of steamed the whole strip by moving it back and forth through the main steam stream.  Its important to figure out where most of the stream is emanating from the spout - if you miss that you spend a lot more time making a bend.

The next step is to start putting gentle pressure on the strip to curve while you heat it.  You have to keep in mind the general shape of what you are trying to accomplish and you have to work at forming the piece to that shape.  This is a bit more tricky because you need to get most of the strip streamed (which is tough on your fingers) and because you have to keep the strip moving so that it doesn't cool too quickly.

So basically you just keep working it until, in the stream, you can bend it beyond where it will need to go on the form.  I worked each piece until it got to this point, then switched to the next pieces, then switched back to reinforce the previously pieces, and so on.

It helps to have the form ready to go so that when the strips are bent you don't have to rush to organize the form and so forth.

Once the strips are ready it was time to get them on the form.

The pieces must be fully clamped to the form.  This means that there must be continuous pressure around the full curve of the piece.  If there isn't, some parts will separate and the lamination will look bad or fail.  For this I used a motorcycle strap with a ratcheting clamp along with some wood clamps to get the parts that needed extra tightening.

Each strip gets a good coating of glue (Titebond II) on the faces that will be touching.  You can't glue just one side and expect the other to stick because the glue will not always flow evenly when you clamp things up.

Some skill is required to line up the strips, get things clamped before the glue dries, and otherwise make it work.  I screwed up a couple of tries before I got it working the way I wanted.


You have to let these dry overnight so that the glue has a chance to set.  They don't need to be on the form for more than a couple of hours.  Once I took them off I set them aside in another clamp to dry overnight.

I test fitted the first piece to make sure it matched the back of the SV-1.

On to the next step next time....

SV-1 Bass Rig (Part I)

About a year ago I purchased a Korg SV-1 for gig use.  Previously I had a Kurzweil SPX 88 which I had used for about five or six years.  The Kurzweil was a great keyboard - rugged, reliable - and had survived rain, cold and a large variety of misery over the years.  Sadly the power supply connections internally went flaky - it would not reliably turn on without an extensive power supply rain dance to get it going - not the sort of thing you want at an important gig.  Though I tried to fix it I could not isolate the problem.  It has since retired to Philadelphia.

As for the SV-1 - there aren't enough nice words for it.  It sounds good and its reliable.  The only problem is that it cannot be stored vertically.  If it is the keys stop working until it lays back down horizontally for a while...  A while being anywhere from 15 minutes to 1/2 hour.  Then the keys start to work again, one by one, until they are all okay.  Needless to say it now spends all of its time horizontal - without incident.

Until recently I just used the SV-1.  But lately I have begun to need a small, second keyboard for bass sounds for some weeknight gigs. The SV-1 keyboard cannot be split so that leaves a second keyboard as the only solution for adding bass.  Ideally this second keyboard would be located immediately above the left end of the keyboard while still leaving room to use the SV-1 keys and knobs.   While I have an X-stand I use for the Korg the options for adding a second tier to it are cumbersome, heavy, ugly and difficult to adjust.

First thing I tracked down a very inexpensive 25 key keyboard.  I chose the Alesis Q25 (see link) - for $79 USD you can't go wrong with this.  I've had Alesis keyboards in the past - the oldest is about 15 years old or so - and still in use (I gave it to a friend's daughter).  They are good quality though not usually the most feature packed or fancy.


This particular keyboard has exactly what I needed: one MIDI out, USB port (for power/computer connectivity), small footprint, and easy programming and setup.

The only problem is how to put the Q25 on top of the SV-1.  As you can see from the picture at the top of the post its not exactly conducive to having something set on it - far too much curvature.

After some head scratching I came up with an idea.  Looking at the curved back and the lipped front of the SV-1 control panel face (above the keys) I decided I could make a curved "hook" that would extend around the back to the bottom of the SV-1, lock into a platform for the Q25 and grab hold of the front face.  If the hook were a little springy and could grasp the curved back without sliding it seemed like a reasonable approach to getting a flat platform onto the SV-1.  I reasoned the tension between the springy clamps and the catch on the front face would keep things from moving.

I decided that the platform had to have a couple of key features:

- Quick and easy to attached and remove from the SV-1 (since I don't always need it).

- Simple, light weight, and easy to break down flat to fit in my single gig case.

- Solid so that it would not move around or rock back and forth while being used.

So the first step was to come up with some kind of "C"-shaped clamp to reach from the top of the front keyboard face around to the bottom of the keyboard.  Being interested in creating some new wood products to sell as well as use for other things I decided to create a laminated wood "C" that was matched to the back of the SV-1.

To do this I needed to capture the shape of the SV-1 back.  Given its curvy shape this was not an easy task to  do well.  I settled on what basically amounted to a piece of cardboard and a compass which I traced the back shape with.  The compass was not easy to keep oriented to exact tangent of the back so some fiddling with knives and tape was required to make the proper pattern.  After an hour or so I came up with this.

The face of the SV-1 (where the knobs are) is in the foreground.  The curved back is toward the rear.  Once this was completed I converted it into a plywood form to support the lamination.  Since I don't have a band saw I had to cut it by hand and manually shape it.

Because I would be wrapping glue-soaked strips of would around its edge it needed to be varnished to keep the glue from sticking.  Initially the right edge of the form was flat but, after some experimentation I decided that it needed a slight curve to get the "C" hooks formed properly.  The little notch on the left side is where the front face of the SV-1 meets the curved back.  I made the notch to ensure that I would be able to match the curvature and orientation of multiple "C"s.

The next step was to cut some 1/16" oak slats (you can also buy these but it was easier for me to make them).  I figured three per "C" would be strong yet flexible.  I had some handy 150 year old oak from our barn tear-down so I cut a number of these figuring it would take a few tries to get it right.

By themselves the strips are not flexible enough to bend around the form so I had to steam them.  The strips were small - only about 3/4" wide and about 18 inches or so long so I headed to the kitchen for the most efficient steamer I could find.  (I also tried soaking but the results were not as quick or as good as steaming).  The basic steaming setup looked like this.

(To be continued.)