12 String Coffee Can Kora

I love Kora’s. They look amazing and sound amazing. I didn’t have a massive Gourd or any hide so i had to settle with a coffee can…
It’s played with dark piece of wood between your knees with the copper pipe on your lap to keep it in place with one hand on each side plucking the strings like a harp.
It sounds pretty good, although nowhere near as nice as the proper Kora’s.

The Piperophone

My previous attempt at a microphone for Hecktate’s vocalist Jon was a roaring failure. Not because it didn’t work, but because it was far too noisy and didn’t really suit his style of running around and destroying things on stage.
So I’ve come up with a much sturdier solution…
Amazingly simple, Copper pipe, Hose clips, in one end is the small condenser microphone element from an old tape recorder and the other end an unwanted XLR connection held in place with a silicone sealant.
It does have the draw back of looking like a pipebomb. So i’m also going to make a small carrycase for it.

The 1-Stringed presplit Bamboo-cane Ektara?

Ektara‘s normally have a cane of bamboo split in two with a soundbox at the base and a tuning peg at the top. The bamboo is pressed together to change the pitch of the string…
I’ve changed things a bit…
I chopped a length of fresh bamboo at two nodes, making a closed cylindrical bit of bamboo. Then embedded a piezo at one end, attached that to a socket I took from an old tape recorder. Cut a slot into the handle end of a BBQ skewer and drilled some small holes for the string, and voila! The 1-Stringed presplit Bamboo-cane Ektara. Or shall we just call it Dave?

Turn the handle to change the pitch of the string, best played into an amp ’cause it’s hard to hear otherwise!