Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on September 25, 2016 at 3:30pm

How many you got?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Eric Davis on September 26, 2016 at 5:06am

Maybe a dozen strings all together.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kigar on September 25, 2016 at 3:47pm

I just made a 21" scale cbg and tuned DAD using leftover 1,2, and 6 strings.  I made the cbg without really thinking about strings and have a few of these around (maybe a common theme!) and figured what did I have to lose so I tried it.  Kind of twangy but different, good change from the usual GDG for me.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on September 25, 2016 at 4:04pm

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Cause the Blue rat on September 25, 2016 at 11:32pm

Ye, I got strings laying around the place myself. First and sixth strings. I need to make a two stringer so they'll all find a home. 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Fomhorach on September 26, 2016 at 3:20am

Diddly bow's for kids. Try building sympathetic strings inside the box. Short scale instruments.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Eric Davis on September 26, 2016 at 5:09am

I just gave my first diddley bow to a bass player.  The guy was pretty happy with it.  He tried to give me money, but I told him that as long as it was appreciated, that would be enough

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Tommy Phillips on September 28, 2016 at 5:13am

Fomhorach, can you elaborate?

First, if you are saying "Diddly bows are for kids," I would disagree with that.  Diddly bows, or one-string guitars, are a great simplified introduction to hand-made instruments, but they are not only for kids.

Second, even if you view a diddly bow as a children's instrument, I would hope you are not lacking respect for kids.  Kids are people, too.  Just shorter.  And naive.  And often sticky.

I like the idea of resonating strings inside the box, though.  That's something to think about.

-Tommy

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Lane Martin on September 28, 2016 at 6:46am

I read it as "Use them to make diddly bows for kids."

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Fomhorach on September 28, 2016 at 8:41am

Diddly bow's are a great introduction to musical instruments. Yup, they are not just for kids but kids love them and loving music creation is the key to a lasting love of of all kinds of musical instruments. I think there's nothing worse than a kid being made to take lessons. I believe it drives them away from playing. Give them something noisey that they can get really creative on and let them rip. It doesn't take a long time to make a simple one so get them strings on and give the gift of music. I'll add a picture of my efforts of sympathetic strings inside the box.

Attachments:

• IMG_20160703_194028.jpg, 2.6 MB

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Tommy Phillips on September 28, 2016 at 9:29am

Oh, thank you for that picture, that just makes my head spin.  Do you have a recording of what that sounds like?

Also, I appreciate your clarification about diddly bows and kids.  I've made and given away a number of them, mostly but not exclusively to kids.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Fomhorach on September 28, 2016 at 9:40am

I don't have a recording. It sounded ghostly when it was working. The guitar would 'sing' back harmonics. It was strange and lovely but very sensitive to bumps and hard strums just made all the strings sing. The way that I constructed it was bad design too. It was murder to tune without the strings knocking each other out of tune.
I've raided that guitar for parts but I have a good understanding of it all, what to expect and how to build a better one. It's the main reason I've been practising headless designs.

One day I will sit down with everything I've learned so far from all my builds and build something crazy and cool. But I have more to learn, lots more.

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page