Dragonfly Diddley Bow

Dragonflies symbolize many things across many cultures - change, transformation, resilience. The dragonfly on this build started life as a drawer pull and is now the bridge!

The neck started as a hardwood dowel bought on clearance and has been shaped and topped with a fretless scrap maple fingerboard. The two pieces of maple right about where the natural "twelfth fret" harmonic is located. The string feeds from bottom through neck and the wings cover the soundholes. The top unscrews for access to the inside to replace the string. Inside the box is a piezoelectric pickup mounted to the lid and a reverb spring mounted inside the box bottom for extra reverb and kick.

Strung with a wound .036 gauge string, this diddly bow is tuned to G and sounds a bit like an erhu. The action is pretty good and fingerboard is super smooth (sanded to 1200 grit and oiled) for running up and down and doing lots of slidey stuff.

Handcrafted in Las Cruces, New Mexico.