You're with the band

May 16, 2006 8:18 AM

DIY Instruments: Guitar, Bass, A Drum, Yokobue, Pipes, analog synth sound effects. And for those of you who don't want to build anything - you can play the spoons.
posted by bigmusic (8 comments total)

I wish there were 72 hours in a day; I'd build the bass.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:36 AM on May 16, 2006

I made a bunch of kazoos once. I can't find the plans online, though. They made excellent presents.
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:15 AM on May 16, 2006

How about playing a guitar with a spoon?
posted by ijoshua at 9:20 AM on May 16, 2006

another good place to start with electronics is diystompboxes.com. It's a really active forum and they're friendly to beginners.
posted by peptide at 10:29 AM on May 16, 2006

Your second link goes to Denis Havlena's site, which has a number of excellent "homemade" instructions for simple instruments. I have used several of his plans to build some nice little instruments, including the upright bass, the bobby-pin kalimbas, and the cookie-tin banjo - which rocks.
posted by bradth27 at 10:45 AM on May 16, 2006

If you don't mind kits, this bass looks pretty sweet.
And on the subject of "kits" of various complexity/completeness, here are some good synth sites:

• Paia - quite complete and relatively easy to build kits
  
• CGS - Ken Stone's modular - pcbs for some really neat and out there synth stuff
  
• Blacet - really nice kits, fit the same cage as the Paia modular.
  

There are, of course, many many others...
posted by jdfan at 11:07 AM on May 16, 2006

I only have one spoon. =(

Seriously cool links, but a bit beyond me skill and finances at present. The one I like best is the electronics primer; I look forward to digging into that one when I have the resources and the space! Thanks.
posted by Eideteker at 11:45 AM on May 16, 2006

There are a ton of other interesting instruments on Dennis Havlena's site. I built a variation of this acoustic bass [pic]. It sounds surprisingly good, if a bit quiet, given that it's made out of scrap.
posted by lekvar at 12:27 PM on May 16, 2006