This looks like a fun DIY

[Gus]

This is cool.  It is kind of like a wash bucket bass.  Just think of adding effects after it etc....   It looks like one could find most of the parts at a home depot etc.



http://www.welshcrew.com/kevin/whamola.html




 Gus

[Arn C.]

How about this one Gus!  I have an album that has a guy playing one of these.  The sound is awesome!

http://www.stick.com/instruments/

Arn C.

[Arn C.]

Good site to build your own instruments!

http://www.ehhs.cmich.edu/~dhavlena/

Arn C.

[Tim Escobedo]

I recently heard this tune on the radio and it just blew me away. It featured a Vietnamese instrument called the dan bau, which is sort of a higher pitched version of that bass.

Snooping around I came up with this vid clip of someone playing the isntrumenet. I can't figure out if it's electric. AFAIK, the instrument goes back a few centuries, but is commonly electrified these days.  And then this site turned up with a westerner's DIY interpretation of the instrument.

[phillip]

That actually looks like a really cool little project Tim.  I have all the bits and pieces laying around for that, and I bet it would be even cooler to have some sort of active setup attached to the output of the instrument, like a LPB or something, to give a controllable boost in volume.

Phillip

[Joe Davisson]

Hard (pointless?) to play, but it's nearly pitch-exact
http://www.joefus.com/oldstuff/images/bic_flute.jpg

[afranks]

Zamfir Davisson, master of the pan-flute...
:-)

[GFR]

Perhaps you've heard a brazilian instrument called "berimbau".

Article in english (with a nice diagram, explanation and some sheet music):

http://www.congaplace.com/instrument/berimbau/berimbau.php

photo:

http://www.capoeiraresources.com/berimbau.jpg

This page opens a sound sample:

http://www.capoeiradobrasil.com.br/instrumentos.htm


A brazilian instrument that is not very known even here in Brazil is the "marimbau". You play it like the berimbau, hitting the strings with a stick and "fretting" the notes with a coin or stone, but it can have two strings (wires) instead of one and instead of a wooden bow and a gourd, it's got a wooden board with metal cans on each side, the wires are attached to the cans. You can play melodies, not only percussive stuff.

diagram:

http://www.jazzitalia.net/lezioni/percussioni/immagini/Berimbau13.jpg

very low resolution photo:

http://www.antuliomadureira.com.br/figuras/marimbau.jpg

[Ansil]

Perhaps you've heard a brazilian instrument called "berimbau".

Article in english (with a nice diagram, explanation and some sheet music):

http://www.congaplace.com/instrument/berimbau/berimbau.php

photo:

http://www.capoeiraresources.com/berimbau.jpg

This page opens a sound sample:

http://www.capoeiradobrasil.com.br/instrumentos.htm


A brazilian instrument that is not very known even here in Brazil is the "marimbau". You play it like the berimbau, hitting the strings with a stick and "fretting" the notes with a coin or stone, but it can have two strings (wires) instead of one and instead of a wooden bow and a gourd, it's got a wooden board with metal cans on each side, the wires are attached to the cans. You can play melodies, not only percussive stuff.

diagram:

http://www.jazzitalia.net/lezioni/percussioni/immagini/Berimbau13.jpg

very low resolution photo:

http://www.antuliomadureira.com.br/figuras/marimbau.jpg

i guess if you can play a saw then you can play this bow and arrow thing shown above..  

and you can tune a guitar but can you TUNE  A FISH!!!!!!!!  LOL  sorry thats lame