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thing 19: coconut banjo
I was inspired when I saw coconuts for 99c at the bodega, but when I got home it took me half an hour just to get all the delicious meat out of the nut.
I keep making instruments that are too long for my short arms to play comfortably. You’d think I would’ve learned from the rotten stick guitar.
The frets are bamboo skewers - I tuned them by ear so the tuning is kind of shaky. I might add more frets later. Note how the bamboo bridge rests on a point on the membrane (architectural vellum)- this helps to transfer the vibrations of the string. The pick is made of two layers of vellum glued together.
The coconut banjo sounds like this.
Last 5 posts by ranjit
- thing 29: dog - February 29th, 2008
- thing 28: rotten stick box fiddle - February 28th, 2008
- thing 27: awful horsehair bow - February 27th, 2008
- thing 26: rotten stick saxamophone - February 26th, 2008
- thing 25: oak box boo - February 26th, 2008
very cool.
Your amount of creativity in managing to make unique musical instruments every day never ceases to amaze me. It’s wonderful really.
awesome!!! this is so ‘gilligan’s island’, dude. I love that you even made the pick.
(p.s. I’ve got hella long arms; I wish I could play all of these!)