Morin Khuur try out electric concept

[impala59]

Well recovery has been attempted and at least it looks like a piece of wood now not a toffee apple (English delicacy of apple dipped in caramelised (burnt) sugar!) Got some Danish oil on it curing, we will see how it turns out. It actually looks a little better than in the photo so hopeful at least. The spalted ash unfortunately has some grain that looks like pencil marks, have to live with that.
I went with my original plan of two tele neck pickups, (the bridge mount raised a few mm) and control panel across the body, (switch will be uppermost when using strap) My reasoning being that the player will have relatively easy access to the controls with his/her bow hand little finger (pinky) due to the upside down technique of bowing the traditional instrument.
The folding aluminium sharks fin with strap button actually works well, when played in the sitting position it folds out of sight. I profiled the back end/ bottom of the body, for lap playing and will fit a rubber anti slip pad on the curve. The neck has been stained with a touch of black and is being oil finished

pic 1 The body hanging/curing

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pic 2 The hanging tree, neck in foreground

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As I have stated previously this is a make it up as I go project, very much suck it and see, if the concept is feasible then there are a myriad of other ways and means to hopefully improve it

[impala59]

Had a couple of weeks off laid up with a pelvis/back injury, now on the mend thankfully and thought I should finish off a few projects now I can move again.
As a first tryout this has been relatively successful, it holds tune, is easy to play in either the traditional way on the lap or with the strap using the fold out shark fin. So far have tuned to A on the low string and E on the high, easy chords and bluesy feel. I am using heavy gauge flat wounds, 56 and 42 respectively.
Two old tele neck pickups from different manufacturers give a nice warm sound with a little subtle variation when switched with a standard tele plate
The third silent bracing string is a bit overkill, .7mm piano wire, I found that if I wound it up too much I could possibly rip the screws out of the neck pocket.
Not a brilliant finish, due to taking some bad advice but it looks ok in the flesh
A second one is brewing in the back of my mind, looking to correct errors and improve on this one. It will be off to Mongolia shortly for some locals to try out, we shall await their verdict...………
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[Fretworn]

Love to see video of it being played. Love it. Good on you for trying sometime new.

[impala59]

Well an old pal popped in and promptly picked up the morin Khuur, Laid it flat across his lap, detuned it to D and A, produced a bottleneck and announced that he was going to make a 2 string lap steel! Despite him being a philistine, it did sound good, maybe I should have just got a plank!

[Simon Barden]

Just call it a 'versatile' instrument.

But a 2-string lap steel plank could be your next quick project!