I just found an article in my local paper about a retired machinist who has been keeping himself busy making unique instruments.
Pretty cool what can be done with enough imagination
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
Let's not forget Brian May - him of Queen fame - made the "Red Special" with wood from an old fireplace, and used a spring from an old motor bike for the whammy bar.
How unique was that.
A :-)
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
Let's not forget Brian May - him of Queen fame - made the "Red Special" with wood from an old fireplace, and used a spring from an old motor bike for the whammy bar.
How unique was that.
A :-)
Or Les Paul's original "the log" which was made from a railway tie (sleeper) and some phonograph parts.
Or in a similar vein, this
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
I've watched "it might get loud" and in the early part Jack White makes a guitar out of a plank and some coke bottles...
Both of these are pretty interesting. I particulaly love the Jack White Plank-o-wood thing. Inspiration coming my way. I only lack an input jack........
I might make me a 2 or 3 stringer. Heck, talk about ear training. :)
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
A common home made instrument way back in ye olde dayes of the blues, which can be replicated easily and tried out at home involved making a one-string slide guitar.
Take two empty glass beer bottles (or cans might work, too), a couple of nails, and a length of fishing wire or similar. Attach wire to the two nails, and drive the two nails into a wall, so the line is taught. Put the two bottles under the line, one under each end. Then, take one slide (or a third glass bottle or can) and pick. Pluck the line and slide your slide. Instant lap steel. Only a bit more side-of-the-house steel.
Funnily, I went to Africa Oye in Liverpool a couple of years ago and saw some Arabic musicians playing. One of them played a small one-stringed instrument that was kind of in this fashion. A square 'drum' (think of a square bodran) with what looked like a small broom handle coming up for the neck, and one string stretched across it. He played it both by plucking and with a bow. And he alternated between fretting and using a makeshift slide. I have a photo of it somewhere.
In the late 50s and early 60s, skiffle groups used to use a tea chest, broom stick and some string to play bass.
I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
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In the late 50s and early 60s, skiffle groups used to use a tea chest, broom stick and some string to play bass.
In north america, the soundbox of choice was a washtub. Still used in bluegrass.
Here's a local bluegrass fusion group, the D-Rangers
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
Rolf Harris's 'wobble board' is another unique sounding home made instrument - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wobble_board .
Sounds so right on 'Stairway to Heaven' by Harris. :lol:
kent, that is a fabulous article, and some really neat-o Canadian, home-grown guitars. I can't believe it, a moose horn, and then a rake? :shock: I guess we've all seen the toilet seat guitars at some point, not associated with this original dude.
I can't even remember the guitars that I built with my oldest daughter, some 25+ years ago, but we had several and she played them every day when she was 2,3, 4 years old till they wore out, and we got a plastic ukelele.
My son had a school project to build any instrument that made 3 or more different pitches when he was around 5, so we built another guitar of course, with an articulating or hinged neck, not unlike the washtub basses, but it had 4 strings of different gauges and he played Mary Had a Little Lamb and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, what else? :lol:
This pic hasn't been on the board for a long time, so here's my youngest who initiated what she saw as "her" ideal guitar, wasn't shown or helped, but made a mock-up of what she REALLY wanted, with the Kleenex box, when dad goofed and you know... got her a LP Custom as axe #1. Reason: because I wanted one since I was 10 and had to wait for decades.
Nothing strange, nobody was pushed... a normal family, the girls played with R/C trucks and racecars and regular dolls?
When I was a kid I had ukes and built guitars and drums too, not that it matters, but my first electric was a Telecaster.
Like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
Your daughter is too cute, Blue Jay...and her guitars are only a step less cute than her...:)
I should have mentioned these guys before - http://www.usl.org.uk/content/AboutUs.aspx
Homemade sitars...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45j4bS19wkQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mskEJwU4ck (actually looks like a sarod).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGWr2wU1VbU
Ravi Shankar's reputation is secure but these are pretty ingenius. :)
It is difficult to answer when one does not understand the question.
A shameless "look at me" moment. https://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=49237 :oops: Well, some shame. still, I did one this weekend. Modifications going through my head now.
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
Blue Jay, I recently saw that guitar or a very similar one in a magazine and it is really cool! There also was another Telecaster with drawings (I think it was pink or purple). Perhaps some people prefer the "classical" colors but these models seem very attractive to me.
Is the Tele of your daughter a stock model? (BTW, very cute as Rahul said!) Is it a Fender? I was searching it but I didn't find it.
Thanks!
