Strange ideas for musical instruments.

[soundman]

In response to a request in the cigar box gituar thread..I have opened up a strange ideas thread.

so what do you recon you could make an instrument out of.

There has been some discussion here in the past & there have been some interedting TV programes and the odd book about such matters.

There was a british programe aired recently that had a whole professional orchestra playing improvised insiruments.

That is a book arround about makinh instruments out of fruit and vegitables....apparantly carrots and turnips make pretty fair woodwind instruments.

seasick steve is known to tour with a hubcap gituar.

I've had a passing thaught about making functional drums out of oil drums.

there is always the "thongophone".

When I was in primary school, one of the girls turned up with a fife made from plastic tube....that the teacher was initally scheptical about..but aparantly it played just fine.

Back when I was a very yong sound man, I had a foldback wedge made out of a 5 sided cardboard box and a pair of car speakers that came out of a triumph stag....it worked pretty fairly.

If ya want something crude but loud...graba length of corogated electrical conduit..20 and 25mm is best..32 works if you have big lungs. anything arround 2 or 3 feet will be fine
just roll it up in a loop.....point the open end away.....seriously AWAY...and blow good and hard.....it will scream a beauty...if you want a but more volume and depth..bung a funnel on the end.

There was a white bloke performing Dingerydoo music at expo88..that had a sliding didge made from a piece of 50mm conduit stuffed up a piece of 50mmm drain pipe......yeh quite funny and allowd the didge to be played across normal western notes.

so come on lets hear it..the weirder the better.

cheers

[PLD]

When I was real active on Cigar Box Nation forum, I tried to start a challenge of who could make the best looking guitar using wood from old pallets. Then I did a search on the internet about it and, wow there were all kinds of beautiful guitars made from pallet wood. I backed out of my own challenge! There was a gentleman on there (since pasted away), named Ron that made guitars out of all kinds of different things, including copper tubing. He was a real artist at it and "Barefoot Cajun " is another that uses all kinds of odd things to make his guitars.

There are lots of tutorials on making flute type instruments out of PVC pipe.

Too early in the morning for me to think good, but there are lots of instrument made of strange things, I use to research it quite a bit.

[orraloon]

Soundman,
So right about the corogated tube. Thats why my home made dust collector screams like a horror movie sound effect.
I guess with that as a prototype it may be possable to make a shop vac powered organ. Only an idea however,as i dont have unlimited time to waste.
Regards
John

[soundman]

yes indeed, corigated conduit is unsuitable for vacuum hose, because it wails like a faulty bagpipe on steroids.

proper vac hose has a relativly smooth interiour.

as for a viable instrume nt out of corigated conduit...um no...because the frequency that the hose occilates at is determined by the spacing of the groves in the hose...that is why it will resonate at several harmonically related frequencies depending on the air speed.

ANYway...a vacuum cleaner powered instrument would....suck.

cheers

[steamingbill]

Saxophony thing made from a rubber glove some clear plastic tube a rubber band and a piece of pvc pipe - have got one in shed will post picture when I find it.

Broad principles shown here Saxophone | ingridscience.ca and here Hands-On Activities: Water Bottle Membranophone | Exploratorium

Little kids would enjoy this.

Bill

[Sebastiaan56]

I've been making pvc woodwinds for years but I went to the Noh exhibition at the NSW art gallery yesterday and saw my first Noh flute. Hmmmm...

Sounds like a formal challenge you are putting out there Soundman. I'm happy to help organise it. Let's have three categories, woodwind, string and percussion. Winner gets the adoration of the public. No voting in the categories you enter. Whaddya reggon?

Some starting ideas, milk bottle ocarina, pvc Kalimba, speaker box dulcimer, fence post xylophone.

[kamusur]

Hhmmm,,,glass, wood, metal, clay, plastic, paper, probably make an instrument out of just about anything.

Steve

[Sebastiaan56]

OK not that much interest. Maybe another time.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Cliff Rogers]

I think there is a challenge currently underway on another forum.

[titchtheclown]

tn_IMAG1109.jpgtn_IMAG1110.jpg

Recycled pallet wood and heat shrunk LA Ice Cola bottle sopranino ukulele banjo. LA Ice Cola comes in slightly taller 3 litre bottles making for a bigger head. 2 litre pepsimax bottle would have been a tight fit. Coke bottles have too much shape to be useful.

The Hand made music club house and cigar box nation are full of stuff like this.

Handmade Music Clubhouse - Cigar Box Guitar Headquarters - CBG HQ
Cigar Box Nation - #1 resource for Cigar Box Guitars, Free Plans, How-To, Parts & More!

[tea lady]

Soundman,
So right about the corogated tube. Thats why my home made dust collector screams like a horror movie sound effect.
I guess with that as a prototype it may be possable to make a shop vac powered organ. Only an idea however,as i dont have unlimited time to waste.
Regards
John

Oh no. Got me thinking now.

[Sebastiaan56]

There is also
Experimental Musical Instruments. And oddmusic.com

[steamingbill]

This google search will show some interesting bits and pieces including the BBc programs about an entire orchestra built from materials found in rubbish dumps.

https://www.google.com/search?q=junk...BBC&gws_rd=ssl

Am aware of two projects of this nature one in Britain and one in South America somewhere.

Bill