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Anyone else playing strange instruments?
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Subject: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Duane D. Date: 10 Jan 99 - 10:11 PM I'm a fairly new Mudcatter and I don't know if this thread has come up before, but I was wondering if there are any other collectors/players of unusual musical instruments out there. When I first started going to folk activities around 1970, dulcimers, both hammered and fretted were considered rare in my locale. I own and play, among other things, a bowed psaltry and a pianolin. (The pianolin was made by the Marxochime Colony Instruments Co. of New Troy, Michigan.) |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Ralph Butts Date: 10 Jan 99 - 10:36 PM My daughter has been fiddling around with a nose flute....Tiger |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: gargoyle Date: 10 Jan 99 - 10:37 PM I suppose "strangness" is in the "eye of the beholder."
Those unfamilar with them - consider my "jew's harps" rather pecular....to most the rest it is "ordinary."
I'd be curious to know if there are any "bowed-saw" players out there....from childhood I've had a hankering to give a fiddle bow a try on a saw.
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Dan Keding Date: 10 Jan 99 - 11:40 PM Spoons. Not metal ones, wooden ones, made from red oak or osage orange. Just not into heavy metal folk. Dan |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Sandy Paton Date: 11 Jan 99 - 02:06 AM C'mon, Art! 'Fess up! We all know you play a magnificent musical saw, and we deserve to hear all of the various types of tunes you've mastered. Dave Para plays the heck out of a leaf. I tried to learn the technique, but barely managed a squeak. I do play a pretty mean Limberjack, though, and a killer comb. Sandy |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Big Mick Date: 11 Jan 99 - 07:57 AM Alright, Foster (as in Alan of Australia), it's time for you to come out of the bush and tell 'em about the lagerphone. You won't believe this one folks. ***grin***. I am going to build the Gun Lake version once I can walk the woods again to find the proper stick. So I am busy over the winter just collecting the beer caps. Confused? Alan will have to explain it. Mick Lane |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Hank Date: 11 Jan 99 - 09:57 AM Well, I said a month or so ago in the insterments I'd like to learn but won't thread that the saw was on the list. Well, I've started to learn it. I was at a party with some kids, and a mother who brought her kids from KY was there and bowed a saw blade. She was good. Afterwords we all had to try it, and I was about the best at it. So now I'm looking for a cheep bow (and rosin) so I can start with my own blades. Nobody belived the mom above when she suggested you can play the spoons, except me, since I've done it more then once. So I had to get some (and one of her kids who was pretty good at them) and demonstraight. I'm gonna have to try the wooden spoon trick, I never though of it, but I too am not into heavy metal and maybe the wooded sound would be better for me. :) I'd like to learn a jews harp, but don't know what they look like even, much less where to get one. I've heard some recordings though and they sound neat. And air piano is anouther strange one. People do air guitar all the time, but on a recient trip I got a lot of smiles from other cars as I played air piano all the way. And the best part is I've never hit a wrong note yet! I wouldn't even attempt the songs on a real piano. To be honest, most people I know would consider my mandolin in the strange insterments catagory too. I love it though, and know that many of my fellow catters consider it the true staple of music that it is. |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Mike Billo Date: 11 Jan 99 - 11:21 AM I've played the saw for years. Great fun. There is an annual Saw Players festival in Roaring Camp CA near Santa Cruz(music on the cutting edge that you can really sink your teeth into). I also play the bones, and my wife plays the spoons and washboard. We maintain a "how to get started" on these folk percussion instruments website at http://home.earthlink.net/~mbillo/ please visit. |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Art Thieme Date: 11 Jan 99 - 11:22 AM STAR WARS METAL LUNCHBOX MOUNTAIN DULCIMER I've made a mountain dulcimer out of a Star Wars lunchbox (metal) fitted with a fretboard/neck (wooden). Has 3 strings. Is fretted with staples put into the wood with a regular stapler. (If you get 'em in the wrong place, and the intonation is wrong, you can simply pull 'em out by inserting a screwdriver under the staple and gently prying. Then (by ear) put another one in again. Do that while the one fretted string (the first string) is in it's proper place so you can check the intonation right away. I've also put an electric pickup on it & used it in school show for 22 years to show kids that we, like the pioneers, can STILL make music using what we have all around us. They did it from necessity. We do it for fun and for levity. Art |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Susan-Marie Date: 11 Jan 99 - 11:41 AM I spent some time living in west Africa (Gabon) and got a harp made from antelope skin and wood. There's a head carved into the top of the body of the harp and the player is supposed to put his/her ear to the head's ear while playing. The gut strings are tuned to a scale missing "do". I just mess around on it for fun but I'm thinking someone in Mudcat can tell me why the tuning is missing "do" - is this a special kind of tuning? There are eight strings tuned to re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, re, mi. Any ideas? |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bob Bolton Date: 11 Jan 99 - 05:20 PM G'day Duane and All,
With a particular interest in improvised traditions in Australian Bush Music, I have dabbled .. and often specialised ... in: Regards, Bob Bolton
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bill Cameron Date: 11 Jan 99 - 05:53 PM Lagerphone, eh? Crutch tip? I know it,slightly different, as a "Newfie boot", and of course it has an old rubber boot at the bottom. When not in play, it can be erected boot-end up to make a distinctive standard for your festival campsite. ("Just look for the boot".) Bill |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Barbara Date: 11 Jan 99 - 05:56 PM KELPHORN a dried piece of bull kelp from the beach with ends cut after drying. Mouthpiece in the small end, hole in the ball makes a bell. Makes a shofar-like sound, and like other instruments, can get limp from too much playing with. Also have a banjo around here the daughter made at a workshop several years back, made from cardboard (square sounding box) mounted on a lawn sign stake, with tuning pegs pounded into it, bamboo skewer frets and fishing line string. The question is not whether it is a musical instrument, but whether banjoes are. Blessings, Barbara |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: M Anderson Date: 11 Jan 99 - 08:36 PM I play jawharp, bones, noseflute, regular stange stuff. I also play a classical whanger. It's made from a juice can, steel string, and a dowel rod. Great fun, very expressive. I can be a bit sour if you use a grapefruit juice can. Mike Anderson |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: dulcimer Date: 11 Jan 99 - 09:02 PM I use a Stanley Traditional saw, off the hardware shelf, and a used fiddle bow. Rosin the bow and the saw. I hold it at the top with the end of a broom handle; put the saw blade in the slot cut by the saw. For spoons, I'm into walnut spoons designed by MARTIN. |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bill D Date: 12 Jan 99 - 12:10 AM well, occasionally
ukelin, whistles made of stall warning devices for small airplanes..bags & bags of'em(small reeds..set in pink plastic)..each has it's own basic tone, but you can 'lip them up' getting 3-4 notes from each..I guess I have maybe 20,000 to experiment with
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Alan of Australia Date: 12 Jan 99 - 12:45 AM G'day, Just for Big Mick, if you click here you will eventually find a link to the Foster's Lagerphone.
Cheers, |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Art Thieme Date: 12 Jan 99 - 01:37 AM I made a PANJO----a 5-string banjo neck on a bedpan---for Cathy fink several years ago. One o' my prized posessions is a photo of Pete Seeger playing it in Cathy's kitchen. It's in a frame on my wall as we speak. Art |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: catspaw49 Date: 12 Jan 99 - 04:03 AM RE: Art's STAR WARS DULCIMER Nice variant on the "stick dulcimer" which a lot of mountain folk used to have if they couldn't afford the travellin' dulcimore maker. I've made a bunch of them with a bean can on the end. Then one day I was finishing a Courtin' Dulcimer and it occured to me, Why not a Courtin' Stick? A 2x4 with coffee cans did the job. Gets a lot of laughs and don't sound bad. catspaw |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bill D Date: 12 Jan 99 - 11:44 AM I saw a photo in an Australian book of songs in a library of 'dulcimer' made of a 5 gallon kerosene tin...single string, fretted, I believe, with a metal bar...giving a sort of Hawaiian sound...like the commercial 'Tremoloa' (sp?)..Anyone else ever see that book? |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Banjeray Date: 12 Jan 99 - 08:04 PM Not really considered all that "strange" is my homemade teardrop lap dulcimer. I'm still in the learning stages I guess, but have worked up nerve on several occasions to play where folks could actually hear me. |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Paul Jay Date: 12 Jan 99 - 09:05 PM Having grown up in the hills of Arkansas I knew a great folk musician named Jimmy Driftwood who played a guitar his father make out of the wood from the wagon seat their family had originally come to Arkansas in. He also played a Mouth Bow which he taught me how to make and play. It's probably on of the oldest types of string insturments in the world. We made ours from a barrel stave sanded down thin and attached a wire through a hole at one end and through the other end onto a tuning peg(friction). One plays it by holding it up to your cheek with your mouth open. You then vary the volume inside your mouth for the "notes". On a good day I can get about 6 or 7. Buffy St.Marie used to play the Native American version of the Mouth Bow on several of her records. |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Art Thieme Date: 12 Jan 99 - 10:15 PM The saw I played was the best one I've ever found. It was made by Clarence Mussehl of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. I bought it from him around 1970. Before that I played a store-bought cheapie---usually better than the thicker ones that were too stiff to bend easily. Clarence ran the Mussehl & Westphal company & started selling his saws in 1921. He passed away in 1986 (I think) at the age of 83. The company still sells the saws. The best one is the 28 inch blade (easier to bend than the 26 inch blade). I've always played mine with a bow made from a curved stick strung with nylon clothesline/cord (thin)--heavily rosined. Send for a list of what's available: MUSSEHL & WESTPHAL----Steve & Mary Kay Dawson-----W0626 Beech Drive-------East Troy, Wisconsin--53120
Sevral kinds of saws are musical: Always run the bow over the straight edge of the saw. (The other side always plays sharp.) Art |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: catspaw49 Date: 12 Jan 99 - 10:39 PM Can't let this stuff pass Art... Would people with excessive "flatulence" need a RipSaw? To play good music, would negative people live in Nassau? Do us "Kitchen Musicians" need a TableSaw? In the Bible, was Esau especially musical? If I have a bad cold, do I need to play a HackSaw? If you're playing & singing rounds, need a CircularSaw? To transcribe music do you need a ScrollSaw? If you sing in the park, do you use a BenchSaw? Feel like I've been Quartersawn after this! catssaw, er, uh, that's catspaw |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Roger in Baltimore Date: 12 Jan 99 - 11:00 PM I see the nose flute is popular (at least with the players, if not the listeners). Been there, done that. I keep a wooden "train whistle" in my bag for all "train songs." I also play the Mc Nally "Strumstick". Mc Nally sold his design of the Backpacker Guitar to Martin a few years back. The "Strumstick" is a about 20" long. It has a small sound box, a fretted neck and three strings. The neck is about an inch wide. The frets are set like a lap dulcimer and the strings are tuned to an open chord. You can effectively fret any string at any fret an yield a harmonious chord. Being small it is highly portable. Being small, it has a sound much like a wounded wasp (or perhaps a jaw harp or mouth bow), very thin, but still musical. I have a set of wooden spoons that are permanently attached at the handle end (really made from one piece of wood). They are nearly as versatile as a regular set of spoons and much easier to play. Of course, rhythm instruments tend to make for the strangest animals. I do not own one, but I have played a rain stick. I have numerous "eggs" filled with sand. I have also played the tuned drums made by carving "tongues" of various sizes in a wooden board mounted on a sound box. You strike the tongues with a rubber tipped mallet. Very nice sound. It's not an instrument, per se, but I have a friend who mounted a rubber chicken head on her Kaypro capo. She calls it, of course, her capon. Roger in Baltimore |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: alison Date: 12 Jan 99 - 11:13 PM Speaking of shakey eggs, I have a shakey banana (always get some wise comment when I play that... ususally to do with it requiring batteries!), a shakey lemon and a shakey apple. The lemon has the best sound, if you play the banana lengthwise there is a bit of a delay, so I play it sideways.... which probably isn't as funny to watch.... Slainte alison |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: gargoyle Date: 12 Jan 99 - 11:32 PM What is "nose flute?" Seriously - is there such a thing? Is there a "homepage?" I feel like a "greenhorn" asking An explanation of its derrivative would be appreaciated, Random House, Funk and Wagnals and Music Encylopedia do not have listings. |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Art Thieme Date: 13 Jan 99 - 12:09 AM NOSE FLUTE was invented by he New Crusty Nostrils---some say as an I.U.D. for Catherine The Great. (Or was that the Jews Harp?) |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Barbara Date: 13 Jan 99 - 12:39 AM Actually, gargoyle, there are a number of nose flutes, but the kind most people here are talking about is a plastic gimmie that is designed to butt up against the bottom of your nose and cover your mouth except for a whistle hole. YOu exhale thru the nose apperture (no colds allowed), and shape the tone and pitch with your open mouth. Makes a very silly noise, a straight tone with very little vibrato that sounds something like a slide whistle. The nose connection is usually a flat rectangular shape with a flange that seals it to your nose, and the mouth shield part is an slightly curved oval to fit it to your mouth. maybe 3 inches each way. You have probably stared down at them when you cruised the harmonica-jewsharp-fingerpicks-and-other-little-instrument-bits case in your local music store. Next time keep a straight face and ask, and I bet they'll have one. However, the some cultures of the East, India and others, believe that the breath of the nose is more pure than that of the mouth and have designed a number of 'normal' looking flutes to butt up against the nose rather than being played by the mouth. So those also are 'nose flutes'. Blessings, Barbara |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Roger the Zimmer Date: 13 Jan 99 - 05:49 AM As the old music hall comedians used to say:" I was musically precocious- I was playing on the linoleum when I was only 4" |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bob BoltonBob Bolton Date: 13 Jan 99 - 07:05 PM G'day Bill D, That photograph was probably in John Meredith and Hugh Anderson's book 'Folk Songs of Australia and the Men and Women who sang them' (if you're interested in Australian books, including this one, I recently [yesterday?] listed some available from the Bush Music Club, Sydney, in another thread asking about "lyrics to an Australian song"). I cover the "Kerosene Tin Dulcimer" briefly in a booklet (not in the preliminary booklist mentioned above) on "Traditional Bush Instruments" along with many other improvised instruments ... the product of living on the other side of the world from musical instrument manufacturers - and, often, a few hundred miles from the nearest town. I have been meaning to make a replica, but we no longer get kerosene in square tins ... a round 18 litre (~ 5 gallon) drum doesn't sit so neatly on the lap. I guess my best substitute (living, as I do, in Leichhardt or Sydney's 'Little Italy') will be one of the very large square tins in which imported olive oil is packed ... an interestingly 'multi-cultural' turn to a traditional Australian makeshift! Regards, Bob Bolton Regards, Bob Bolton |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bill DBill D Date: 13 Jan 99 - 08:08 PM thanks BobBolton BobBolton..(*grin*..poor Max, this programming stuff is fraught with pitfalls) yes...when I was looking at possible ways to make that dulcimer, I saw commercial, square tins of various oils as reasonable substitutes... I am going to go back down to that library and see if the book is still there after almost 20 years...what I REALLY need is another strange instrument taking up space in my besement! But I really do appreciate the book title...will make it all much easier. |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: catspaw49catspaw49 Date: 13 Jan 99 - 10:34 PM Hey Bill and Bob...If you're in need of another strange instrument in your basement......Following the dulcimer theme build a 4 player table dulcimer. Even otherwise shy people like to try it out and when you get a few people swapping around after awhile you're laughing so damn hard it doesn't matter how well anybody plays. I think I've gotten more people involved with that thing than any other method Ive tried. Kids love it, old folks love it, uptight people love it...It's raucous, hideous sounding, and no one sounds too good therefore no one sounds to bad. catspaw |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: JimBunchGutBucketeer Date: 13 Jan 99 - 10:49 PM I have been playing the gut bucket, or washtub bass, on and off since the mid 70's when I was in Undergrad at Univ. of Michigan. All my friends played "real" instruments such as the banjo, guitar, and mandolin. I added the gut bucket, jaw harp, bones etc. We busked at the Ann Arbor Art Fair for change on year and made enough for pizza at dinner. Recently, I have brought my gut bucket to the jams at the Washington Folk Fest. I had a great time though I don't know how much the other musicians liked it (Nobody asked me to leave). Anyway, If you can't read music for it, or tune it, its probably my kind of instrument. Jim in Silver Spring |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: AliceAlice Date: 13 Jan 99 - 10:51 PM I have two instruments that are common in India, but are uncommon in the US. People always ask what the harmonium is when they see it. Harmonium and shruti drone box |
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Subject: This is only a test From: DonMeixner Date: 14 Jan 99 - 11:40 PM xyz |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: DonMeixner Date: 14 Jan 99 - 11:45 PM I don't play strange instrumentsso much as I play instrument strangely. By the way Art, your Star Wars steel lunch pail with thermos in excellent condition would be worth a car payment, or plane fare to a warm place or a couple weeks worth of groceries. Don Meixner |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Nick G. Date: 24 Jan 99 - 07:05 PM I am in a band and all the instruments are strange to my fellow Americans. I play the "bugarija", our lead player plays the "prim" and two other guys play "brac's." They're not really strange to me since I have heard these instruments since the time I was in diapers. I hope this type of music is still around when I'm in diapers again some day. |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Guy Wolff Date: 24 Jan 99 - 07:55 PM Years ago I was lucky enough to get a mandolion body with a five sting banjo neck.Inside it says Patton aplyed for 188?....I am a heavey metle spoon player.Mine are from the kitchen at a Waterbury Ct. colledge from 1972.Years latter Lui Collins gave me another pair for my birthday but those are my back up set.I also have a great set of castanets that have taken meny a song cicle by suprise. Sorry about my spelling...I once made a sighn at my pottery shop BANGOS AND BANGO LESSONS.When someone asked what a bango was I said it was the traditional way of spelling banjo..Ah new traditions.... |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: phinque Date: 24 Jan 99 - 08:29 PM Washboard and spoons. The spoons are 1 piece of wood attached at the top. I saw a great spoons player who used regular spoons (2 sets) and rubberbanded them together at the top so that they didn't slip. Since then, I don't feel like I'm cheating while playing the attached o |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Roger the zimmer Date: 27 Jan 99 - 10:42 AM I remember the Corries (Scottish Folk group) in the 60s/70s built many of their own instruments including a couple of twin necked beasts doubling (from memory) mandolin/lute or mandolin /guitar which the called "combolins" and featured on an LP called, I think, Strings and Things. They claimed it was to cut down on the number of instruments they carried (around a dozen) , but admitted it just added two more as the new ones had their own qualities different from the intended constituent parts. As they were self-built they were probably unique. They also featured on some records "English guitar". As they were Scottish this may have been intended as an insult! I have not seen such a description elsewhere, does anyone know what it meant? |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Art Thieme Date: 28 Jan 99 - 02:32 AM Don, (on my dulcimer) I know!! All that junk is worth a fortune now. I bought the Star Wars lunchbox for $1.50 at a Salvation Army thrift store. But I think I depreciated it some when I punched a hole in the metal to put the neck wood into the box like a dowel rod would run through the body of the banjo-head rim. (I anchor it with 2 screw-eyes going through the metal on the other side of the box and screwing 'em into the wood.) I threw the thermos bottle away to make room for the rubber chicken I always pulled out of the lunchbox when (as it always did) the kid's attention wandered. (I always said that kids and drunks in folk clubs had the same attention span!) Art |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bill D Date: 28 Jan 99 - 01:10 PM I added a pic of a couple of my unusual instruments to the web page I have been messing with...click here to see Marxophone & Ukelin
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Jon W. Date: 28 Jan 99 - 02:32 PM Great pix, Bill. I think I mentioned on an earlier thread I was building a wood-topped 5-string banjo. I finally finished it (almost) last night, enough to string it up and play. It has a great clear sound, more cutting than a guitar but with almost the same sustain. I think I'm going to really enjoy playing Irish/Celtic melodies on it. The extra sustain will add to the drone qualities of the music. Jon W. |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Art Thieme Date: 28 Jan 99 - 05:22 PM Jon W, No value judgment in this at all. Please, don't think that at all 'cause it's not intended that way fer sure.I'm just a bit of a nit picker. But I do believe that your wood-topped instrument, even with a 5-string banjo's neck, would ,by definition, actually be a GUITAR. Even the "PANJO" I made from a bedpan would, technically, be a guitar and not a banjo. A guitar being: A box wityh strings.(basic definition) A banjo is: A drum with strings.(basic definition) Does this seem right to you folks out there?? Or am I wrong about this? Art |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: cleod (in the Philippines) Date: 29 Jan 99 - 01:59 AM Nose flutes has been around forever here, played by the Ifugaos (a tribe of aborigines in the northern part of Luzon). I've got a Muslim version of the mouth bow -- it's made entirely of wood and has a mellow, twangy sound. I bought it in this shop that specializes in ethnic instruments, mostly drums (made with lizard skin!), rainsticks, some of those shakey eggs, and something that sounds like the sheep-herding tambourine mentioned earlier. If anyone ever drops by this part of the world, I'll bring you to the shop -- I've heard there's this group that uses those instruments and plays in local nightclubs... sla/n cleod |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bert Date: 29 Jan 99 - 09:52 AM Art, The definitions that I once heard, a long time ago, didn't differentiate between soundbox materials. Lute. has strings parallel with the soundbox and has a long neck. (includes guitar and banjo) Fiddle. has strings parallel with the soundbox and has a short neck. Zither. has strings parallel with the soundbox and no neck. (includes autoharp, the hammered dulcimers, piano, etc.) Harp. has strings at 90 degrees to the soundbox. That's all I can remember for now, I sure we have some students out there who know more. Bert. |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Jon W. Date: 29 Jan 99 - 10:58 AM Art - my banjo is a drum. It just happens to have a wooden head instead of a skin head. I got the moral authority to build it that way from an article on banjo makers of the Appalachians in a book named "Foxfire 3." While the vast majority of banjos are made with skin heads, some are from wood and some are from metal (cookie tins being preferred). Actually, the truth is I just didn't want to spring for the expensive hardware it takes to tighten a skin or plastic head, nor did I have confidence in my ability to properly stretch and shrink a rawhide head. Maybe next time. Bert - seems to me a fiddle also has to have a bow. Otherwise a mandolin would be a fiddle. Jon W, also picking nits. |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Date: 29 Jan 99 - 11:04 AM |
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Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Rex Rideout Date: 29 Jan 99 - 11:07 AM One odd gadget I treasure is a version of the jews/jaw harp. This one is entirely made of bamboo and is about ten inches long. I'm told it may have come from Thailand. A nice bit of carving with two thin strips of bamboo fitted in close to the twanger part. The volume it produces is astounding. Rex Rideout |
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