Your Musical Instrument Creations

I've always been fascinated by the art of making acoustic instruments, especially guitars. When I was younger, I built two guitars: one solid electric and one jumbo acoustic, both from wood and metal items that were lying around the house. The sad thing is, I don't remember what happened to either of them, and I don't even have photos. I was particularly proud of the acoustic—it actually had a nice tone, given that it was my first attempt at making a guitar. Since then, I've always had the urge to build more instruments, but somehow I never got around to it. These days, one of my favorite things to do when I'm not writing songs or playing music is to watch videos of others building acoustic instruments. I find it really relaxing and fascinating. Have you ever made a musical instrument of any kind that you'd like to share here?

Latest video find that has my creative juices flowing and the furniture hiding from my wood tools :)
[youtube]WOO0rLFlvuQ?si=WO2XKw6KFdzK_rP_[/youtube]

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A few years ago I made a skin drum with its mallet, during a weekend with a Shaman from my region. The only thing that was already done is the wooden strapping. The steps, wet the skin and pull it as much as possible to stretch it by tying it around a tree, leave it like that all night. The next day, stretch it around the wooden hoop and make a bow behind with the pieces of skin that had been left to pass. Let dry. I had then painted a horse’s head on it. :)

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Lazyprune attached the following image:

So cool LP, the horse head painting is a really nice addition :W

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Thank you bluvation. :)

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I mentioned above I hadn't made any more guitars since I was younger but I forgot about this one that I made from an old tennis racket about ten years ago. A slide guitar just for fun, it really needs more work on the tuning keys to make it stay in tune, but using my acoustic guitar pickup and a bottle top I was able to get a reasonable sound from it for a couple of minutes at least :)
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/Y9B9WNHX/Tennis-Racket-Slide-Guitar.jpg[/img]

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haha that's cool Gerry!! :W:D

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Anyone for Tennis :D:D

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Very original Gerry ! <3

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I haven't made any instruments, but I love the idea! A few year ago at a wikiloops meeting I had the pleasure to play on JMrukker's Cigar Box guitar, was really cool. Did a slide boogie jam, brilliant. Definitely on my mind building one, probably need to wait until I retire so have more time.

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I've made many bamboo flutes, but more unusual were wax flutes. I sold literally thousands of them. Cheap things to make and they sounded really good. Extremely mellow and easy to play. They were accurately tuned to a major scale (seven holes) and could play a bit more than two octaves. I wish I still had one. Required a big pot of molten wax and I used a "prepared" wooden broom handle for the mold and built up layers of wax on that. The bore was thus always the same width. I made a pattern for cutting the length and holes quite accurately for the various tunings. Playing "half holes" gave a complete twelve tone scale. Dropping them wasn't a good idea.

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We have the ingredients for a unique quartet here, Lazyprune playing horse head drum, TeeGee on JMrukker's cigar box guitar, Wade on his wax flute and me playing tennis racket slide :D:W

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Don’t you have any photos Wade ?

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Ah Ah Ah ! Yes ! 😆

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I was making these a lifetime ago. I sold them at markets and fairs in the 1970s when I lived in California. They were nothing serious, however sounded really good. I'd play them, and the "punters" would look at me and the simple wax flute and think to themselves "I could do that". I'd get them to play a note (just pretend it's the top of a bottle) and a sale was made. Of course since I play flute they sounded pretty good. On my first trip to Australia I saw a musician selling ocarinas. He was a really good player. People saw his simple clay instrument and also thought to themselves "I can do that". Well the ocarina is even easier to play, but not the way he was playing. Same sort of mentality... good for sales!

When I emigrated to Australia and New Zealand I left that lifetime behind including pictures instruments, everything. I auctioned off all my possessions.

Dragging all of that halfway around the world wasn't going to happen. It was a new start.

Long way around to say... no I haven't got any pictures.

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I don't know how to do all that; in fact, I became a handyman late in life, out of necessity. I'm participating here because I'm interested in your experiences. I've played with all of you, and it's been a great pleasure. Every time I look at your usernames and profiles, I wonder who each of you is. It's not voyeurism. I know you primarily through music, and this exchange between you has been more of a human discovery. It's funny because of the subject matter and everyone's experiences. Well done, everyone. I will no longer see you as just a musician, but as a friend with whom I have shared this moment..;)

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Thanks Bluesy, thanks for participating not only on our tracks but also in this thread.:W:)

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Thank you Wade for these explanations. :)👌😉

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