Another bowed keyboard

This is more of a prototype than anything, made from 2×4’s and plywood. This is another attempt to produce sound by mechanically bowing something (in this case tuned brass rods) and selecting notes with a keyboard. This instrument only has 24 notes, the reason so few is, it produces vibrations using the length of the brass rods. More notes would have quickly made this thing 20 ft or more long to get low notes. I may someday build something that uses rods mounted in the rafters of a building, but for now this “scratched my itch” to build something that sounds a bit like bowed glass. This photo was taken at a folk music festival my hometown is trying to get rolling. This was it’s second year, and I had my wheelharp (see my other projects for it) and a few other things on display. It went pretty well, and I hope to build something new to put on display every year and help breathe a little life back into our old town.

I was going to paint this instrument to hide the pine, but just couldn’t bring myself to do it…

I’ll try and figure out how to post a recording of it soon- I think it sounds pretty neat, but most people tend to lean a little more towards “creepy” when they descibe what it sounds like.

-- Jon