I have been working on these since I finished my 12 String Biscuit Tin during Quarantine. I wanted to get the sound of the 12 String and scale it down to something more familiar and whilst I have a few other ideas on how to do this and will be trying them, I think these are a good start.
I call them Octave or Harmonic Diddley Bows. quite simple, I made some Diddley Bows in my usual manner; Biscuit Tin, Broom Handle, Piezo, etc and I added an extra string to each, like a Chugger, but not quite. each extra string is a lot lighter than the 1st and tuned an octave up from the 1st. The result created the distinctive shimmer you get from coursed strings of the 12 string. getting the strings that close together was at first a bit tricky without a specially cut Nut, but I quickly found that a small threaded bolt works nicely for the nut and some careful cutting of the bridge pieces quickly solved that problem.
Although I admit to being very fond of the Dd tuned model (I made 5 as I had a set of Ernie Ball Electric 12 strings laying around and wanted to experiment), my favourite is the unison tuned bb model, which in my mind has a better shimmer tone as the strings are the same.
I love these builds, the variety of tone unlike anything I have ever seen or built before and each one is unique. What you guys think, I hope you love them as much as I do?
Replies
Thank you Matthew, I might do more of them, the bb unison model has got to be done again.
that is a great idea!! Well done!