Comments on: You're with the band

You're with the band

bigmusic — Tue, 16 May 2006 08:18:48 -0800

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.

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Tue, 16 May 2006 08:36:11 -0800

I wish there were 72 hours in a day; I'd build the bass.

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Tue, 16 May 2006 09:15:57 -0800

I made a bunch of kazoos once. I can't find the plans online, though. They made excellent presents.

By: ijoshua

ijoshua — Tue, 16 May 2006 09:20:55 -0800

How about playing a guitar with a spoon?

By: peptide

peptide — Tue, 16 May 2006 10:29:40 -0800

another good place to start with electronics is diystompboxes.com. It's a really active forum and they're friendly to beginners.

By: bradth27

bradth27 — Tue, 16 May 2006 10:45:42 -0800

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.

By: jdfan

jdfan — Tue, 16 May 2006 11:07:19 -0800

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...

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Tue, 16 May 2006 11:45:09 -0800

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.

By: lekvar

lekvar — Tue, 16 May 2006 12:27:41 -0800

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.