instrument-a-day 17: pickup glove

I took some scrap wire and wound it into coils, which I sewed to the fingertips of a knit glove.  I tossed some extra magnets under the guitar strings, and then waggled my fingers over the strings while tapping the strings (still tuned to Open D) with a drumstick.  It works ok, not great.  The next version will use much finer, more sensitive coils, and probably only on the thumb and two fingers.  It's hard to use all five!


Posted via email from moonmilk’s posterous

instrument-a-day 16: guitar marxophone (marxotar)

As I said before, I love the sound of the obsolete Marxophone, but they're expensive on ebay.  I made this guitar-marxophone with hex nuts glued to street-sweeper bristles stapled to a chunk of wood.  The marxotar straps to the guitar's tailpiece and strap button with zipties, and can be attached and  removed without any damage to the guitar.

Despite my unpracticed fumbling with the  guitar marxophone and Open D tuning, I think this thing has a lot of promise.  Hey manufacturers!  You can have the idea, but I want credit and some free product!  (Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if someone else has already had the same idea.)


Posted via email from moonmilk’s posterous

instrument-a-day 12: oak ocarina

I had a 20 by 1.5 inch slab of oak, so I designed an ocarina that could be assembled from cross-sections that would fit on it.  I cut the parts on the laser cutter, glued them together, and it still didn't work until I took Bre's suggestion and coated the entire thing with glue to plug up any tiny holes.

If you have access to a laser cutter, you can get the plans and assembly instructions from http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1816



Posted via email from moonmilk’s posterous