Take your creations beyond the workshop and onto the stage with diy music instruments! Let us show you how these creations range from simple, basic setups that produce beautiful sounds to more complex projects that require a greater level of engineering knowledge. With these tutorials and examples, we’ll guide you on this journey to make your own musical instrument for experimental, artistic or everyday use – so whether you’re starting out new or a seasoned sound creator, come explore the wonderful world of making your own music.
From the MAKE Flickr pool Check out Ranjit’s homemade reed instrument, the Saxamaphone – I cut the stick in half the long way and chiseled out a rectangular trench in one half. I clamped the two halves together while I made the mouthpiece (which is coated with lemon oil and olive oil to protect it […]
From the MAKE Flickr pool Member Pekar poses the question – ‘Fancy a drink with that solo?’ This is a crackerbox type guitar amplifier I built into a vintage cocktail case. It runs on a 12 volt battery and uses a JRC386D to drive the 7″ driver. The amps sound and output can be influenced […]
Over at the Steampunk Workshop, Jake inaugurates a new Guest Artist Project feature with the wonderful Molly “Porkshanks” Friedrich as the first artist in residence. Molly shows how to update an antique Cannonball Empire headset with modern headphone innards. Porkshank’s Dieselpunk Headphone Mod – Link Related: The Ambiance Enhancer (retro MP3 player) – Link
Jay Wasco’s Swiss Army bass – an inconveniently unique instrument; hard to play, interesting to hear – Yup-that’s right. It’s a bass guitar with a midi keyboard mounted on it. Yes, the two are played simultaneously. The bass is played with the left hand alone by means of a guitar technique known as “hammer-ons” while […]
From the MAKE Flickr pool Another very original enclosure design, this one goes knob-less. Flickr member Rarebeasts writes- This unit makes a huge range of strange noises. You start by setting the controls on the top of the unit, this sets up a sweep on the LEDS, by moving the LEDs around the light sensors […]
I met up with Dan Paluska (the other maker is Jeff Lieberman) – they have created the “ABSOLUT QUARTET”, an “automated multi-instrumental orchestral machine, a large-scale electromechanical sculpture consisting of three instruments and thousands of parts, working together to create one piece of music. The main timbre is a marimba played by balls shot from […]
From the MAKE Flickr pool More good stuff from member Ranjit – The frets are bamboo skewers – I tuned them by ear so the tuning is kind of shaky. I might add more frets later. Note how the bamboo bridge rests on a point on the membrane (architectural vellum)- this helps to transfer the […]
