My latest piece is a droney violin prototype. Made from a violin body, piano tuning pegs, a motor from a RC Helicopter and my old favorite washing line for strings. I’m going to think about adding some frets and seeing if i can play it like an automatic hurdy-gurdy of sorts.
Category Archives: Instruments
The Movember Motinjo!
It’s Movember again! This year I’ve made another moustache instrument for the Movember campaign! It’s currently on auction at ebay at this link here. It’s made from 100% reclaimed materials including a Piano stool leg for the neck, a Picture frame for the body and a resonating body made from a shoe polish tin! SomeContinue reading “The Movember Motinjo!”
Acoustic Droneitar
This quick instrument was an experiment in three different things. It’s been made from the leg of a piano stool and some scrap wood, nails, washing line wire and a motor from an old cd player. The main reason for this build was I wanted to see if an acoustic version of the Droneitar would work atContinue reading “Acoustic Droneitar”
Dronemachine MKII
This latest instrument is an evolution of The Dronemachine I made a few months back. It uses the outer core of an electric fan motor as a pickup, a cassette player motor drives a piece of string which causes the musical strings to vibrate. The wooden peg looking things are actually part of the action in aContinue reading “Dronemachine MKII”
The Violindjo
My Aeolian harp didn’t withstand the batterings of the british weather, I salvaged the violin body and re-strung it with 4 fresh new banjo strings. And the Violndjo was born. Here’s me playing it with my megacheap-e-bow alternative, which is a piece of string attached to a quiet walkman motor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPDau5mIzL0
The Dronemachine
This is a prototype for a type of instrument i’ve had kicking around in my head for sometime now. It’s a droning instrument that you can change the tone/tune of while it’s playing. It uses a large circular pickup that is infact the outer-core of an electric drill motor. The wires run inside the pickupContinue reading “The Dronemachine”
Mini Tinjo
This is a quick prototype of a mini version of my Tinjo’s. I wanted to see if having a hollow body with a small tin attached to the resonating surface would work together/amplify well enough to hear. Some ridiculously quick/shoddy frets from bent nails and staples placed in an Appalachian dulcimer style positioning. Sounds likeContinue reading “Mini Tinjo”
The Newest Tinjo
Here is my latest Tinjo! It’s made from about 90% recycled wood and found/reclaimed bits and bobs. I used a fret scale from an Appalachian Dulcimer, which means that it’s just the Major scale. It sounds a bit like this: I’m accepting commissions if you’d like one, the fact that I use as much recycledContinue reading “The Newest Tinjo”
9V motor-electric-pickup with mono-slide
Most toys/gadgets/walkmans/tape players/electronic object that needs something to move will have a motor of some kind inside it. These can be easily turned into pickups thusly: The inside of the motor will look a bit like this, with the magnets around the edge and the coils around an axle in the middle: Drill a smallContinue reading “9V motor-electric-pickup with mono-slide”
Tennis Racketar
This is a demonstration of a tennis racket guitar prototype, It uses a piezo mic embedded in a wooden holder directly beneath the bridge to pick up the vibrations of the string. I’m still working on something to use for frets, the ‘neck’ isn’t in the slightest bit flat which doesn’t help at all…
Vulpestruments 