Building a 5-string kantele without plans (success)

We put in around 7-9 hours of work into this instrument. It isn't proportionally perfect, but has a wonderful sound.
Neither of us have ever built an instrument before. It was my first project, and my friend was helping me get the basics of woodworking during it.

[@voidheir]

beautiful kantele! I can tell your friend has had experience with luthier crafts

[@ianm2317]

Great vid. Thank you for sharing.

[@m21sup]

Hello! great video. How is the first song called?

[@aaronwolff4]

Ykköskiperä. I got it off of Martti Pokela's "The Tradition of Kantele, Vol 1" CD.

[@JossX99]

I thought it it was made from a great pikes shoulders, a water dogs hooked bones?

[@northwind9505]

Great job! Where did you buy your strings and tuning pins from? Did it all come together with the tune handle? (not the wood)

[@aaronwolff4]

I got the strings from DustyStrings, and the pins and tuning lever from eBay!

[@northwind9505]

Wow! That was a fast reply! I have made a Kantele out of solf popular wood that I had laying around and hardware screws. Amazing sound that I didn't expect. The next one will be from red oak and real hardware.

[@aaronwolff4]

@@northwind9505 that's great! I'd love to hear how it sounds! Also, I realized I made a mistake thinking this was my video on the dulcimer. For this kantele, I actually got the strings from my local music store. They were called Loop end singles, .014 inch, and they're basically mandolin strings. Available from various string and music wire websites.

[@northwind9505]

It was the history of this instrument that got my attention. Like almost 2000 years old.

[@DarvinostheGreat]

What do you use for strings/where can I get them?

[@aaronwolff4]

I just bought single plain steel loop end strings from a local music store. You can also get these from a set of mandolin strings. There are online places too, like Juststrings.com. If I remember correctly, I used .016" gauge strings for the low few, and .014" for the higher strings, but it doesnt matter that much, anything in that range will do.

[@kiwisworld6646]

Nice build! Can you use guitar strings for the kantele?

[@aaronwolff4]

Thanks! You sure can. I just used some for my most recent kantele. The ball end works just as well as the loop end for making that secondary loop, as long as you have a metal bar in the tailpiece, and not hitch pins.
I would only use the high B and E strings for this smaller kind of kantele though, as the wound strings would be too big.

[@kiwisworld6646]

@@aaronwolff4 Thank you!!