STRINGED INSTRUMENTS

FALL 2005

We can classify the stringed instruments made by the class in Fall 2005 according to the conventional instruments they most resemble. (Some instruments are not shown because the camera ran out of memory.)

Bucket basses

James Curtiss’ Bass Diddly-bo uses a plastic drawer as the resonating cavity and cotton twine for the string. It has a very directional radiation pattern, being loudest when heard from the back (the open side of the drawer).

Robbie Sackman’s Rowawa is a literal example of the bucket bass genre, since its resonating cavity is a bucket. Appropriately for an instrument with a canoe paddle for a neck, it is strung with fishing line.

James Landrum’s Violonswifter (left) is more of a treble instrument, and uses a floor sweeper for the neck. Like the instrument made by the other James, it is strung with cotton twine.

Tom McElwee’s Filthy Rich uses a coin storage can and is strung with dental floss, which turns out to have interesting tensile properties.

Lutes

Sara Kelleher’s Benade-jo has a very traditional banjo shape and uses a pie pan for the body. It is strung with guitar strings.

Luke Hostetter used a drum major’s cap to make his Stringed Eagle 3000, which is strung with rubber bands. The pitch can be changed by changing the tension in the bands by bending the neck.

Eli Sinkus’ Shitar more resembles a banjo than a sitar. The body is made from Frisbees® and it is strung with guitar strings. The drumstick neck is an unusual touch.

Mckenzie Thompson’s Banjealousy has a wooden body and a duct tape top. She matched one of the string fundamentals to the air resonance found by blowing across the sound hole. It uses guitar strings.,

Not shown: Nick Bitove’s Johnny McEntar is made from a tennis racquet and a cookie tin to form the body, and is strung with guitar strings (though there is not a mechanism to change the tension). Kimberly Frank’s Industrial Crunch has a cereal box body and fishing line strings, and its pitch is changed by changing the tension. Another cardboard box instrument is Alan Daniel’s Down-Home Low End, which uses Weedwhacker® strings. It’s sound was improved by the addition of a better bridge. Matthew Putterman’s String Green Bean is similar, using a Frisbee® and a tin can for the body and rubber band strings. Spencer Pope made the Balalin with a balsa wood body and metal strings. Austin Torcici also used his woodworking skills to make the Ratul out of plywood. Both of these instruments project the sound well.

Harps

Ben Reid’s A-box has a body made from a Rubbermaid® storage container and is strung with rubber bands.

Christian Vasquez’s Reel Deal has rubber bands strung on a hose reel. Both of these two instruments play full scales, though they are not very loud.

Not shown: Jarrett Grimm’s Racquet Racket uses a cake pan for the body but holds it together with a racquet press. It is strung with fishing line. Inspired by an Indonesian instrument that John Pringle owns, Alex Fincham created the Pipe Bass, which really blossomed when a bridge was added.