Make your own Finnish Style Kantele!
5, 10 and 15 string instruments
Kantele making CD, Downloads, Plans
NEW!! Kantele Making CD-ROM 2008
Out
now!! The new improved
version of my Kantele Making CD has the video diary of making a 5
string along with the new playing guide The is a plan for a
piccolo kantele and the template for my electric kantele as well as the
5, 10,
and
15 string kantele.I now include a chapter on making a case with a video exerpt of how to outfit it to protect your instrument!
“The CD is most informative and well worth the money paid. I would recommend it to any novice or upcoming instrument maker or as a great resource for the experienced, Michael is very helpful via e-mail and responds to all queries in a timely and easy to understand manner.”
Ben Corby, Australia
£15 including Postage/shipping
(click on link below to purchase)
**If you have purchased the Kantele Cd previously there is now a serialised playing guide on Youtube(see below). Plus I will be making a special download for past purchasers of the CD which has the page and video for making a case for the Kantele , just give me an email for more details.
YouTube Video CD-Rom video preview
More individual Kantele plans to download!
*10 string kantele plans
*NEW!! Piccolo kantele plans (very portable and popular for ensemble)
please note:If you are downloading all of these please consider purchasing my CD-rom as there is much more content on there and I provide free email/skype support with this purchase.
DOWNLOADS
More individual Kantele plans to download!
10 string kantele plans also
Piccolo kantele plans
(If you are downloading all of these please consider purchasing my CD-rom as there is much more content on there and I provide free email/skype support with this purchase.)
For all available downloads click here
piccolo, 10 string, plus more.....
Kantele Construction Guide Original PDF Version
for £2.00 ($5 approx)
The current Kantele making CD is far more comprehensive but this ebook is fine if you want to find out quickly about whats involved in making them. please note:This is the original 2003/4 PDF 5 String Kantele guide by itself(no Plans), you can download the plans for an additional £2.00
(BTW The PDF ebook edition (2004) was reviewed here)
5 String Kantele plans (2 pdf files zipped for download)
The original 5 string plans, to be printed on tracing paper, available for download for £2.00
Other ways to pay
For customers in the UK, I can also recieve payment by cheque or postal order.
For customers without Paypal/Credit cards you can simply send the money in cash in your ocal currency(dollars , euros etc), sent discreetly with a covering note with your name and address.
Printing the Plans
You may need to play with the settings of your printer to get the printout right, usually if you use adobe reader, set at 100% you should be ok. Some people with very high definition printers found they had to lower the print quality to get a clearer printout.
If the plans are out of scale by 1 or two mm then I wouldnt worry, one of the nice things of making an open strung instrument is that you have more freedom with measurements and stringing, When I first began this project I was tempted not to include any measurements at all, in the spirit of the original Finnish makers working by eye, within the tradtion, but in the end I have included enough to keep most happy while still working to a template system of construction. several people making this instrument as their first musical instrument leave out some of the decorative features, like the bird head, or rebate on the underside of the head.
To use the plans Simply Print these off onto tracing paper
using your own printer, match up the printouts and tape together!
I have left a big overlap to cover different paper sizes and
also to aid collating the drawings.
The Kantele Making CD working in Ubuntu Linux (a free Microsoft Xp/Vista alternative) and xp below:
I will be adding customers Kanteles in the near future