Pringle tube Speaker

I didn’t have any way of playing my mp3 player in my office. I have an awesome old boombox that plays tapes and radio but it’s far too awesome to try and take apart. This was my 5 minute solution…
There’s 3 computer speakers inside and one speaker from a long forgotten source ontop, all simply wired up to a small audio jack. It’s not the loudest thing in the world, but I only need it to play on my desk to my ears so it works just fine!
Quick video to show it in action, also to see how good the blogger video hosting stuff is!
//www.youtube.com/get_player
Quick Note! for those who are searching for the current Pringle Tube limited edition speaker, it’s not here. However, you could easily make one from spare parts and a quick small amplifier and it’d probably end up being cheaper than the 3 tubes of pringles you bought.

The 10p Tuning Peg!

To me, the trickiest part to a completely DIY stringed instrument is the tuning pegs. Which is why I came up with this incredibly simple (and must have been done before somewhere) 10 pence tuning peg!

UPDATE: I’ve written a new post on various tuning pegs ideas I’ve come up with, check it out here!

All it involves is a bolt, a nut, a washer and a washer with a hole drilled into it.
  • Tie the wire to hole in the washer
  • .Put that washer onto a secured bolt and add the nut, but don’t screw it on too far.
  • Tie the other end of the wire as tight as you can to whatever it’s going to be anchored to.
  • Turn the bolt with screwdriver while holding the nut, this will push the nut and washer up the shaft of the bolt, increasing the tension in the wire.
  • Simples!
I knocked up a quick and simple hammered dulcimer to see how well it worked, and so far so good!

Cultlovesyou Tinjo

My latest, and so far my favourite, instrument, is another Tinjo, with an awesome goatskull headstock, frets from a barbeque skewer and a piezo mic hooked up inside the tin.
This one is for my brother who is an awesome designer, check out his stuff which you may have already seen on telly over at cultlovesyou

The Windjo

I’ve been wanting to get more into creating sound sculptures and things that can play themselves, so I knocked together this quick prototype for an idea I had using wind to pluck strings.
I used 4 dessert pots to act as a windmill that turns a metal rod with the plucking device attached. I had to experiment with what to use for the plucking bit and in the end the corner of a train ticket was the best! The strings are banjo strings and are set up to surround the shaft with the train ticket.

The Monolin

This one surprised the hell out of me! I had a plastic desert bowl and a violin string so threw together a prototype to get them together.
I’m no violinist, I’ve managed some horrible squeaks and squeals on them before, but this was quite easy to get a good sound out of…
Try and guess the tune!
The ‘bridge’ is a nylon fishing line tied tight around the violin string and two small holes in the base of the bowl.

The Ukuleopod or the Squidulele

Alright, I cheated a bit on this one…
It was my wife birthday yesterday, she’d always half joked about wanting a ukulele, and she’s had a serious squid obsession since she was a little girl. So I did what any good husband would do, I bought a cheap ukulele and engraved a squid into it!
I engraved one layer and stained it with a mahogany stain, then engraved another layer to get a 2 tone engraved look.
She’s had it for less than 2 days and is already pounding out some awesome ukulele chords, which is bloody impressive for someone who’s never played a stringed instrument before. She’s a natural and I will try and persuade her to let me record her play it soon!

The Aeoliolin

This is a kitty litter scooper Aeolian Violin. Or an Aeoliolin. A Violin played by the wind.
One of the benefits at working at a school is that kids break things. A lot. Somebody broke their violin at the neck, which left me with a perfectly nice body to play with.
It works when the wind makes the strings resonate. I rigged up a neck to allow as much wind to hit the strings as possible, added 11 strings (3 steel guitar, 2 Nylon Guitar and 6 Banjo) and a very basic headstock.
(It starts about 18 seconds in)
It’s been finished for about a month now but today was the first windy day we’ve had in a while! Also the school I work in is next to a train track, which explains the train in the recording… and the children…
There’s more photos too…

The Two-String Tobaco Tinjo

mystery instrument number 1 solved… by me!
I got a small Tobacco tin from a charity shop and decided to make it awesome. I cut some small mounts and drilled some tiny holes so that it could be ‘suspended’ in the middle of the wooden frame, that way the sound wouldn’t be dampened so much. I put a piezo transducer inside the tin because I was afraid it would be far too quiet, but it actually managed to amplify the sound pretty well without it!
Definitely something I can make many more of, so if you want one, let me know and I’ll make you one!