In my HP capstone project, I could do a project on whatever I want. I wanted to make an electric violin because I play on the worship team at my church, but ther were some songs an acustic violin just didn't fit. An electric violin would fit better.
I learned a lot while I was researching about electric violins. I learned the pickup is in the bridge, so the body doesn't need to be a specific shape. It can be anything you want it to be, and out of any material you want. I also learned one of the challenges with making an electric violin is making sure it isn't too heavy. a normal accustic violin is one pound, and the good electric violins are between one and two pounds. if it gets much heavier than that it could give you tendinitis after playing it for a long time. another thing I found was that you need some way for the player to referance where the body of an accustic violin would start on your electric violin, so the player doesn't get lost while they are shifting up the fingerboard. and the part of the violin that would rest against your neck needs to be the same shape to fit a shoulder rest on it.
because of all the different freedoms and restrictions from an accustic violin, I needed to make a lot of choices. first of all, what material to make it out of. I could make it out of metal, but wood looks much better and is much lighter. there are many types of wood, some lighter than others. I chose two woods, walnut and basswood. walnut is very dark in color and basswood is very light in color and weight. the walnut would form the top of the body, the neck, and the fingerboard. the basswood sits below the walnut and is hollowed out to make the body the right width to be able to play, while keeping the weight down. I also decided to get creative with the way I made the referance as to where the accustic body would start. I have small hands, so shifting up the fingerboard very high is realy hard for me. so I made the neck curve the way it normaly would up to where the body starts. then it just won't curve anymore. that way I can tell where the body starts, but I can also shift higher without too much trouble. I also saw online that many people buy a neck and fingerboard, but I decided to make the whole thing, neck and fingerboard included, out of one solid piece.
I got a nice piece of walnut from my uncle. he cuts down trees and mills them for a living. this piece, though, was in a dumpster because it was crotchwood so it wouldn't mill well for industrial uses. so he took it and made boards out of it. he gave it to me for my cristmas present. I won't explain all the steps, because there are a lot of them, but I will explain some of the notable things. to get the curves of the body, I used a drill press and a jigsaw. (a bandsaw would have been better, but we don't have one.) I then used a belt sander to smooth it out. to cut the slope of the neck and fingerboard, I had to use a table saw and remove material one bladewidth at a time, making the cut deeper as neccesary. as of now, I still need to cut the basswood to shape using the shape of the walnut and glue it on, make a nut (the part that anchors the string at the end of the neck) and glue it on, compensate for the wiggle room I gave myself on the original cuts, and cut the shape of the neck. then I will need to drill the hole for the wire comming out of the bridge, and one for the plug, and do all the electronics and I'll be done.