Thread: Wolphin Dhale Didgeridoos

Manufactured Didge's? They do look amazing.

I made Boomerangs and Didge's for around 20 years (still do) but never had to manufacture them, they were all natural and were played on their own natural merits and sound, so the bulk of the labor went into the artwork. I found that when heavily painted they would loose a great deal of tone and would become crisp and sharp, not necessarily a bad thing, all comes down to personal preference really.

At the start I actually gave quite a few of mine away to selected artists and personalities and the business and feedback i got from that was incredible. I had to leave my job and worked at it for 6 years full time. I was making about 20 a week working around the clock and for a while it was driving me crazy. Admittedly, the tourist market was red hot and made up 90% of my sales and kept all the premo Didge's for the serious. Now i only make a handful a year when someone orders something specific.

Wish your son all the best, its a rare talent to make and play them and it will never leave you. It took me on a wild journey.

Greg

Greg

Thanks for your comments. Simon is away for about a week but I know that when he returns he will lap up any information.

Just to explain the "manufacturing" aspect, he starts with a solid log, drills it and then hollows it further. The outside is shaped too until the whole piece sounds the way he wants and has the aesthetic appeal. The didges look even better in the flesh. He would be the first to admit that he is not a photographer.

As you would know, each didge is unique and in that it is different to many other instruments.

Regards
Paul

Finally! Whoo Hoo!! I reckon the pictures don't do the didgeridoos enough justice, oh, you know, how they sound and all that

Now that's craftsmanship to be proud of Paul, Simon's a legend .

My son doesn't manufacture anything cause he's a geek, that's rough neck talk for computer scientist. but I'm still proud.

I wouldn't mind having a blow of that big bugger on the top left, it looks like it could produce some lovely over tones . .

I engineered telescopic PVC didge's for band players for a while and also sold some to Chris Adnam. They could play through a whole octave from A - A But I wont bore you with pics cause they're not made of wood and this isn't a plastic forum LOL.

Check out Chris's wep page
Didgeridoo_1

kind regards

Wal

Wal

Thanks. Don't worry geeks are good too. Simon is currently building a web site and guess who is helping him; Adam his geek mate. We all have our strengths, I'm told, and I just know mine will come along one day. It is just deeply hidden.

Simon has a number of didges incuding one made of hemp fibre and a three section telescopic didge. He often takes the telescope along to jam sessions when he doesn't know the other muscians as he can adjust it to any key to fit in with them. He does complain that it has nowhere near the sound quality of the his timber instruments.

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by RufflyRustic

Finally! Whoo Hoo!! I reckon the pictures don't do the didgeridoos enough justice, oh, you know, how they sound and all that

Hi RR

Yes, they were a long time coming. I expect you had thought it was all hot air!

If anything I think his didges sound better than they look. I describe them as rich. I am absolutely amazed at the wide range of people that are impressed with the sound he makes from them; small children right through to the geriatric generation. I had assumed the appeal would be narrow and I was very wrong there.

He has played a couple of times at the Metro cafe in Toowoomba recently. If he is going to be there again I will let you know in case you are able to get along. There is not normally an entry fee.

Regards
Paul

Wow! I am just a new member and stumbled across these pictures, look amazing. Can I ask how he drills them out when they are so long, he must have a long boring machine or something.
Regards

Paul

Originally Posted by trickster2010

Wow! I am just a new member and stumbled across these pictures, look amazing. Can I ask how he drills them out when they are so long, he must have a long boring machine or something.
Regards

Paul

normally you train a bunch of termites to only eat the centre out of branches
or find hollowed out one's in the bush from convict termites that have escaped from there masters

dropping a hot coal or 20 down the roughed out tube will clean it out , keep the hose handy in case the smouldering turns into a fire , use a rebar sharpened at 45 deg to scrape out the burnt timber , bung some bee's wax on the small end , and your done

Originally Posted by trickster2010

Wow! I am just a new member and stumbled across these pictures, look amazing. Can I ask how he drills them out when they are so long, he must have a long boring machine or something.
Regards

Paul

Hello Trickster

Welcome to the forums and apologies for not replying before. I have been away in NSW without access to computers etc. since last Thursday.

Simon drills initially a 32mm holes using an auger bit in an electric drill and then continues with a spade bit once the hole has been started. At least that is how he started, but it is pretty difficult to keep the drill from wandering off line and he burnt out his 1000W Protool drill after about the third didge.

He then rigged up a horzontal borer driven by a 2HP induction motor. This was much faster and more accurate, but still way too slow. It takes at least a day to drill one hole! It is ironbark timber.

He is still investigating ways of drilling the hole.

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by SawDustSniffer

normally you train a bunch of termites to only eat the centre out of branches
or find hollowed out one's in the bush from convict termites that have escaped from there masters

dropping a hot coal or 20 down the roughed out tube will clean it out , keep the hose handy in case the smouldering turns into a fire , use a rebar sharpened at 45 deg to scrape out the burnt timber , bung some bee's wax on the small end , and your done

SawDustSniffer

I agree, that is the traditional method, but it is so difficult to train those pesky little termintes to eat the timber just the way you want. They just don't seem to be able to comprehend wall thickness.

Most commercial didges have a beeswax mouthpiece because the narrow end is too large.

The hole drilling stage is the easy part. Hollowing with a chisel 2m long is really tricky !

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

He then rigged up a horzontal borer driven by a 2HP induction motor. This was much faster and more accurate, but still way too slow. It takes at least a day to drill one hole! It is ironbark timber.

G'day Paul - was that with the 920mm Auger?

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

G'day Paul - was that with the 920mm Auger?

Brett

I think he is still using the 600mm auger with an extention. As you can imagine even 900mm long is not going to drill 2.4m, which was the last didge I saw him drill. As I have mentioned before, chip removal is one of the difficulties to overcome.

For those of you who have not seen the Colt Drills Group buy thread, with FFs help I purchased a 600mm and a 900mm auger bit, which superseeded the 450mm auger bit that Simon had been using. This was a step outside the main trend of purchases, which were primarily forstner and brad point drills.

Simon is working on an associated project at the moment and that is taking most of his time so I haven't seen too much activity on the drilling front.

Regards
Paul

Well then I think we can assume that the 920mm will be just as slow as the 600mm (assuming that the tip geometry is the same, and the steel is the same. A whole FAQn day??? Must have been some resharpenings going on.