The Mocitar!

This is a custom built moustache shaped Dulcitar that i’m selling to raise funds for my Movember campaign.
It’s constructed from Pine with an Oak neck, it uses a contact mic under the bridge to pick up the sound which then needs to be amplified.
You can find out more about Movember and prostate cancer awareness at movember.com
You can also donate directly to my fundraising efforts by going here: http://mobro.co/tomfox84

Kate’s Dulcitar

This instrument is a mix of a guitar and a dulcimer more commonly know as a Dulcitar. It’s for the amazingly talented Kate Mullins of The Puppini Sisters fame.

 

 This fella uses scrap wood for the body and neck and nails for frets. I burnt a peacock into it to make it prettier…

 

 

It started off as this box:

more photos of the construction process at this link…

 

 

 

 

 

The wood was taken from a wooden crate that delivered brocili, some rough planks

Junkwood Psaltry

A good friend of mine commisioned me to make a psaltry for him. I had to rush the construction a bit as I only had my workshop for another 2 weeks but the finished result still sounds ok.
The wood is taken from a busted old cupboard, the bridge is the plastic teeth bits you find on industrial sized cling film boxes and the strings are from a stripped washing line.
I can’t play it to save my life, but you can get a good idea of how its meant to be played and how it sounds.

News and Things!

I’ve got a new job, so for the time being my workshop is being packed away and put into storage until further notice! I’m scrambling to finish my unfinished projects and get some good recordings or videos of what i’ve got left, so here is the Bronze Bowl Megaharp being played
Also, a video of a Dulcitar which I’ll get some nice photos of done soon and do some more explaining of…

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 pickup in a circular position which eliminates the problem of having flat-pickups and having some wires quieter than others.
The strings are ‘played’ by a piece of frayed string attached to an axel that’s spun by a motor via a rubber band. The motor is from a walkman which is important to note because regular motors gave off far too much interferance and were picked up by the pickup even when quite a distance away.
It sounds like this:
The tone change was achieved by having two almost-bridges very close to each other, which one being very slightly higher than the other. Then by threading another piece of wire around the circle of wires between the two bridges you can increase the tension in each wire at the same time. Sorta like having a lasso that tightens around the humming wires.

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 like this:

more photos…

 

 

 

also S784HST3KTPQ

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 recycled materials keeps the costs low, so please contact me for an estimate! They’d range from £50 up to around £100 depending on how much customisation needed.
There’s more photos of it when you click the link: