More work needs to be done

Guess I have to start learning how to play banjolin.



Oh well...

Le grandeur d'ukulele

Finally! FINALLY! I'm done! Ahhh! All the pain and suffering, bruises, cuts, burns, severed limbs, hairloss, chemicals inhaled are over. For now that is.

It's all worth it. Starting out probably around february or march 2009 I came into contact with my next door neighbours. Well Marko & Shelley subtly pushed me towards the Ukeboxal ways and voila, I can present you 3 ukes (of which 2 in tune and one having a tendency towards sitar/zen/singing bowl)



Contestant number one originates partialy from Italia being an olive oil tin can, the neck and head are made from hardwood and notably made from scratch. Originally I'd put wooden sticks in for tuners but that wouldn't fly all that well so I wrecked the old tuners for a banjitar. It's quirky feature is that because the neck is on a bendable surface I had to strap it down, thus coming to the idea of putting a spanny-thingy (don't have the slightest idea how to call it) so you can adjust the height of the strings towards/away from the neck. It also makes and excellent tremolo.
Contestant number two is made from old computercasing, a steel pipe and some crap metal. It fitted with steel strings, can be used for weightlifting, makes a great slide ukulele, but actual playing it is messed up.
Contestant number three is affectionately dubbed Kraftwagenverbandkastenukulele. Made out of a first aid kit and a salvaged ukuleleneck. The bridge is an old syringe tube. The soundhole was made sweet love to by a Bosch electric drill and a random wooddrill.



If you yourself are that sweet to have read this heapload of text, I will love and cherish you forever.

What to do on a Saturdaynight?

Ooh! I know, play washtub in 'de Ooievaar' with the neighbours dearest.



Little bit muffled sound, but with some decent speakers you ought to manage. (or turn up the bass)
Thanks to Marko & Shelley!

Look like we got ourselves some catchin' up to do: Coffee Bass

One findeth one box for coffee and one ripeth out one supportbeam out of the gardenfence. And taketh a rusty pipe and maketh a CoffeeBass.

It's still in progress (the comb needs to be mended and gotta shave some pegs), but it sure does look hella nifty (if I may so).

Look like we got ourselves some catchin' up to do: Air Organ

For all you people would like a good old hurtin' once in a while.

Feast your eyes on a project I'd spent buckloads of time on for a project. Intentionally it had to become a windorgan, powered by a few HP engine to play on a metal fencing. Unfortunately I ran out of time (i didn't manage to deliver enough HP) and since I had to carry the damn thing, weighing in at a firm 150kg, on wheels, to school (2,5 kilometres), I left it a school and that why this project is marked: FAIL







My sincere apologies to Dion, why was going to play it at a performance, I WILL redeem myself!

Hankdrum: Finished

Bend, grind, smoothen, weld... sounds gay, sure as heck ain't!




(made out of: plumbing pipes, a butane tank and some rubber from a bikewheel)

Hankdrum: Progress Pics

For your entertainment, lovely ladies and or gentlepeople I wil now magically conjur up pictures of a butanetank turned into a lovely little 'hank-drum'


Analogue baby!

Look like we got ourselves some catchin' up to do: Le pin du hole

Last year I made me a pinhole-camera (joy!) to try and get down some of the basics of photography (and to get a nice excuse to have a project to work on). Didn't use film, just straight onto photographic paper.

First try out was with an empty can of mashed tomatoes.




Le results:



Only well known problem is that if you make an image your have to take your closed container to wherever you chemicals are and THEN you can't print them.

So I made a large box that could fit 21,6 x 27,9 cm (8.5”x11”) paper and some sort of loading mechanism so I needn't walk back and forth to my Development Lab (=toilet).

And that worked!!!

-insert image cam-

...once (the paperloader kept on creating some kind of vaccuum so the pieces of paper kept clinging together)

At least I got some neat pictures out of it.





(the strange blue tone is due to the out-of-date chemicals that i used)

What I'll be doing today

Thanks in inspiration found, I'm going to replace the mouthharp that keeps disappearing.

http://www.szilagyi-jewsharp.com/

Reference for Banjolele (Decoration)

How to mount a skin for banjo

Cat Hurdy-Gurdy