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.
Excellent set of photos of the construction of cigar box guitars from Pasque – “I am building guitars out of cigar boxes with my students. Here are some photos of the prototype I built at home (now updated with photos of my students’ guitars). I went begging and got a bunch of wooden fingerjointed cigar boxes. The fee… a photo of my students with their guitars, a fair trade. The project idea came from Make magazine Vol. 4.“ Link.
Here’s a Dance-Dance-Revolution style USB mat you can get from Kraft (the macaroni and cheese folks) for only $10. This is a pretty good deal and you could likely turn this into all sorts of controllers and as parts for projects. I bet it will even work with the open source version of DDR. So, grab one while you can and they’re available. [via via] Link.
Poulw has a good guitar stand how-to on Instructables – “A simple and cheap stand for one or more guitars. Takes maybe two hours to build. The Mod is based on imarunner2’s pvc bike rack. This is a 4 guitar version. I bought two 10 foot 3/4 inch pvc pipes and had them cut in half at the store. 11 3/4 “T” connectors 6 elbows 5 caps 2 sections of self adhesive insulating pipe foam. Total cost was less than 30 dollars. Similiarly manufactered items go for $50 to $100 in music shops.” Link.
Mostlyaudio’s article about building the AudioNote Kit1 PQ Signature Edition SET amplifier. “This kit will build a very high quality Single-Ended, Class A, directly heated triode amplifier. The amplifier will support a single line source (unless a pre-amp is used that will support more sources) as it incorporates a volume control. It has a class A output of 8watts per channel. Don’t be put off by this seemingly low wattage as it is every bit as loud, position for position, as my my old 40W Linn solid state amplifier was through the same speakers. It also has an input impedance of around 100K which is more than ample for a huge range of source components.” Link.
GarageSpin writes “ArtistServer was created by one guy, Gideon Marken. The ultimate DIY musician, he went out and built his own music hosting platform thousands of artists now use. All the music promotion tools are free (blog, podcast, ringtones, mobile sites, downloads, streams, etc), and it was even voted one of the top 5 music hosts by Time! Basically, a DIY musician empowering other musicians with DIY tools..!!” Link.
Aaron writes “Most of us cannot afford fancy 7.1 surround sound systems or feel that we do not utilize the computer’s audio functions enough to reap the benefit of one. However, most of us have stereos. That and a few cables is all you need to enjoy a nice audio system without damaging your bank account. In this article, I will show you an easy way to use your stereo as computer speakers for a nice sound system at a very low cost.” Thanks Star! Link.
Excellent guide on replacing capacitors in old radios “Second only to power cords, capacitors are the most failure-prone components in old radios. In a professional overhaul, it is common to replace all of a radio’s large electrolytic capacitors and small paper capacitors. This article explains how to do just that. In many cases, this “recapping” is all that the radio needs to be restored to health.” Link.
