MAKE Editor-in-Chief Mark Frauenfelder made this stringed instrument last weekend and posted it on Dinosaurs and Robots:
My goal was to make an electric string instrument that uses drone tuning. I don’t know anything about music theory, but drone tuning is a way to tune an instrument that makes it sound good no matter what you do with your fret fingers. Sitars, some dulcimers, and bagpipes use drone tuning. The clubhouse strummer uses GDG tuning (the Gs are one octave apart). I copied the fret layout from a strumstick, but I could have used this handy mountain dulcimer fret calculator to figure out the fret spacing.
More:
- Maker Workshop – Cigar Box Guitar on Make: television
- Project: The $5 Cracker Box Amplifier
- Download a free PDF of the Cracker Box Amp article from MAKE, Volume 09 here.
Mark,
I kind of expected it would be a giant hand carved Spoon shape!