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.
A “cajón” is an Afro-Peruvian percussion instrument that consists, essentially, of a box with at least one thin plywood “playing face.” The other five sides are commonly made of thicker plywood, and most designs feature a sound hole cut in the face opposite the playing face.
Fireball Mail instrumental from dave patterson on Vimeo. Bob Knetzger is a longtime MAKE contributor and the columnist for the magazine’s “Toy Inventor’s Notebook.” Not only is he an accomplished toy designer and writer, he’s also a terrific musician. Here he is playing Floyd Jenkins’”Fireball Mail” on resophonic guitar, banjo, and mandolin. The video was […]
Here’s my take on bending the Coleco Talking Teacher toy. Four bends have been added: short glitch loop, long glitch loop, unsteady long glitch loop, and pitch adjustment. A side cart was added to make room for the controls. This is one of the most stable talking toys I have bent. The long and short […]
Spotted on the Dieselpunk site: In 1910 Gaumont demonstrated his Chronophone system, which synchronised sound and film, at the Gaumont Palace in Paris. The compressed-air amplifier, which he called the Eglephone, was just a part of the whole system. The volume was enough for an audience of 4000. Initially the longest moving picture that could […]
Sean Ragan created this fantastic dodecahedron speaker and shares a full guide to building it with all of the design files.
More Giger alien love in the lead-up to Prometheus. Check out this awesome hand-carved guitar body, created by Gig Goldstein. This detailed carving job took between 40 to 50 hours to complete. According to the artist, the most difficult part of the entire process is the overall design and ensuring it flows throughout the entire […]
Using a Propeller Quickstart, some basic electronic components, and eight bananas, Jeff Ledger created a gnarly sounding touch capacitive synth.
