Prototype of bowed psaltery/hammerred dulcimer built from some scrap, zither tuners and guitar strings.

I’m on a bit of a trend. This was built as a belated Valentines day gift so it was made from a heart shaped candy box. The main set of tines use a busbar, just like the kalimba’s on the kalimbazooka.

The pine sounding board and metal resonator gives it a pretty good sound. It is tuned to two octaves of a pentatonic C major scale.

my build notes:

- laser cut purpleheart box
  – purple heart sourced at Woodcraft, ~1/8″ thick plank

  – cut in four pieces

1.     top piece

•         – sound hole
•         – holes for retaining bar screws to go though

2.     middle pieces

•         – most of interior volume removed
•         – slightly larger holes cut for end of screw and nut to fit
•             – should probably be even larger for washer/lock washers to fit

3.     bottom pieces

•         – no holes, etc
•         – (should have made holes through the bottom, would make assembly/disassembly easier)

- retaining bar is 1/4 inch steel rod
    – sourced at hardware store
    – two holes drilled through for retaining bar screws

      – best done on a mill/drill press but I did it with a cordless drill
    – cut to ~1.5 inches

- sound bars are 3/16 inch steel rod
    – sourced at hardware store
    – cut to ~1.25 inches
    – in theory this can be free floating on the surface, but I found

    assembly much easier after I glued them to the surface
        – gorilla glue, clamped with the retaining bar, screws, and two extra tines

-tines
    – used bobby pins
        – sourced from the pile of bobby pins in the bathroom

        – cut apart with dremel
        – used the straight part, with the rubberized coating at the end
    – (tried using tines cut from a sewer snake approx 1/8 inch wide, but these
    tines seemed to be too stiff for the small size of the box)

- fasteners

    – 3mm phillips pan screws
    – 3mm hex nuts
        – (washers and lock washers recommended if space allows)

- wood finish
    – walnut oil
        – (something a little clearer would have probably been better, to lessen discoloration of the purpleheart)

- hanging
    – slot cut though 3rd layer of wood before box assembly
        – large enough to fit some silver craft wire though to make
         wire wrapped loops on each end
    – cording created from hand-dyed silk ribbon and attached to wire-wrapped loops with overhand knots

    – overhand knots covered with cones
    – ends finished with ribbon ends

Wherein you can witness my awe inspiring stage presence.

The Raleigh NC Scene circa 1984. Featuring a lot of punks and some band called “subculture”

The Chapel Hill scene. Circa 1990

Geezer Lake – Liberated Woman Reunion show at Cats Cradle. I was at that show. Probably my favorite NC band. Also The Bag, Birds, Fresly Reaped, Flat World

Picasso Trigger – Rub A Dub
Bicycle Face, last show.
Squatweiler – Belle Star fan video?
odd mtv segment about Flat Duo Jets
Video about some of the “comboland” bands
Projexorcism in Winston Salem

Bio Video
Interview part1, part 2

King Crimson – Discipline and interview
David Bowie – Hero’s 1978, with Belew
Fame from same tour.

some fripp
Robert Fripp And The League Of Gentlemen
League of Crafty Guitarists pt1, pt2, pt3, pt4, pt5
Sunday All Over The World live

And continuing on that theme, California guitar Trio.
Bohemina Rhapsody
Ghost Riders On The Storm
Walk Don’t Run
Freebird

Miles Davis – Bitches Brew live 1969
Miles Davis Live in rome 1969. Looks like the last bits of the quintet
Miles Davis Electric 1973 pt1, pt2. Thats one cool motherfucker. more, from 71

Herbie Hancock – Chameleon
Bruford & Levin duet
Eddie Van Halen, Tony Levin, Jan Hammer

Johny Guitar Watson – Gangster Of Love

Some local (NC) stuff.
Geezer Lake – Liberated Woman Reunion show at Cats Cradle. I was at that show. Probably my favorite NC band.
Picasso Trigger – Rub A Dub
Bicycle Face, last show.
Squatweiler – Belle Star fan video?
odd mtv segment about Flat Duo Jets
Projexorcism in Winston Salem

Tom Morello, Perry Farrel, Wayne Cramer, Nuno Bettencourt, Slash, Les Claypool play “mountain song. My brain hurts.

And on an unrelated note, I present
Kurt Rambis

Battles – Atlas
Battles – Tras
Battles – HiLo
Trans Am – Play In Summer
Trans Am – I want it all
Behold… The Arctopus – Transient Exuberance
Behold.. The Arctopus – “instructional video?”
Behold.. The Arctopus = Skullgrind
The Red Sparowes – Alone and Unaware, The Landscape Was Transformed In Front Of Our Eyes
Don Cab – Fire back about your new babys sex

nucleus – jam on it
Shannon – Let The Music Play
George Clinton – Atomic Dogg
Eddy Grant – Electric Avenue

Return To Forever – Battle Of the Jester And The Tryant
Al Di Meola – Egyption Danza/Race With Devil On Spanish Highway
Mahivishnu Orchestra – Dance Of The Maya

Jawbox – Manatee Bound live 1989

S.O.D – Fuck The Middle East
Stars Wars Kid Meets S.O.D
S.O.D – March Of the S.O.D live
(now thats a song that should be in guitar hero…)

A Very Metal Charlie Brown Christmas
(did anyone else _hate_ the charlie brown specials as a kid?)