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My instrument is named the Mandatar. It is
like a mandolin and guitar. That is how it got its
name. I was inspired by my brother's guitar that he
got the previous year. It is a string instrument
like my Mandatar. It is a dark chestnut color and
sounds eerie. It has a high pitch and a soft
volume.
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I used wood, nails, glue, string, eyelets,
saws, and a hammer. I cut various sizes of wood to
nail and glue together. I found most of the
materials in my basement. My dad bought only the
string and eyelets at the hardware store. I was
used to working with those materials.
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My instrument was made very well. I cut and
measured wood for ten minutes. Then I nailed and
glued pieces together, which took a long time. Then
I cut a thin board into the exact sizes. Then I
glued and nailed that down. It was a tiring
process.
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Two days
later.....
I was taking out stain and varnish from my
basement. My dad had a two-in-one varnish and stain
that I used. I painted on it all morning and let it
dry.
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One day
later.....
My dad and I were in the basement and we were
cutting out a bridge for my Mandatar. Then we glued
it on and then strung and tuned it. The tuning was
hard because the strings kept stretching out. But
that was the only problem. My dad supervised me
using all the power tools and cutting the bridge. I
did the rest of it.
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The Mandatar can be played in various ways.
You can pluck the strings on either side of the
bridge and you can play it like a guitar. Also you
can hit the strings lightly with something. The
Mandatar can play any octave you set it to. You do
that by turning the eyelets on the end of the
instrument. The volume depends on how hard you it
the strings or how far you pluck the
strings.
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