alternatives to machine heads?

So I really like the idea of taking non-musical parts and making a musical instrument, or at the very least, making the part yourself. Using machine heads is sort of like cheating to me and sort of kills the spirit of "this something I threw together with crap I found in my garage."

Thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Yankee Dog on October 2, 2013 at 3:13pm

hey its an internet forum. for coversating and otherwise wasting time. If we weren't suppose to post they would delete them.

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Permalink Reply by Bad Finger (Eric) on October 4, 2013 at 4:18am

First, third, fourth and thirteenth answer to a tech question on here is always "use the search." Someone does and then someone says "you know how old this thread is?"

Hahahaha.

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Permalink Reply by jawbone on October 4, 2013 at 5:25am

I can't get that "search" to work - always comes back with Nada - check you spelling etc.

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Permalink Reply by Daddy D on October 3, 2013 at 7:00pm

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Permalink Reply by Bad Finger (Eric) on October 4, 2013 at 4:16am

Worst Photoshop EVER! Hahaha!

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Permalink Reply by jawbone on October 4, 2013 at 5:26am

Whoa - those strings look pretty tight !! I'm gonna keep watching to see if they hold!!

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Permalink Reply by JL on June 1, 2016 at 1:01am

I love it when old threads resurface. this just reinforces the "no rules means be creative".

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Permalink Reply by Order99 on June 1, 2016 at 5:31am

Found this on Youtube recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDKCvCQzkTk&list=FLFV2uN2ixNcpe...

Interesting variation of an Uncle Crow hybrid, both with the stick-across method and the tuners...

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Permalink Reply by Bjørn Houdorf on May 29, 2017 at 12:57am

I have tried to twist the strings to make torsion tuning.
I works quite well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvgtbnsC2EU&feature=youtu.be

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Permalink Reply by Order99 on June 1, 2017 at 1:59pm

So has anyone tried Zither Pins yet? I found some and tried a build or two-the down side is that you probably want a tuning wrench...

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/birdb2?context=user

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Permalink Reply by Poor_Richard on November 7, 2017 at 12:28am

i saw an instructable about a diy $7,-- guitar were the builder used them succesfully.

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Permalink Reply by Poor_Richard on November 7, 2017 at 12:27am

i get what you're saying. Since i want to make a cbg the quick an ddirty style i woun't be using the machine heads, because that would mean taking an instrument appart that i might wanna sell in the future. CBG's appeal to me because people use to make best with what they've had to make what they want. If i would have some machine heads laying around i would use them to enhance the sound of the instrument and reliability.