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Cool! I saw one of these in the Schwarzwald Museum in Triberg, Germany. (The Black Forest is known for mechanical instruments). I thought the museum made it. Glad to see that it's available.

Been there, done that, thanks to the Eccentric Genius!

http://www.artvod.co.uk/wheel.html

Made in 2003 for the Peter Blake Sculpture Prize (it won). Cost £7.99 for the toy xylophone the other materials came from the skip outside. Took about two days to put together.

Posted by: Eloine on March 29, 2008 at 8:54 AM

I was working on designs on something similar last year, but rather than the glock chimes, the hammers hit piezo'd metal pieces. Didn't work out so well. in the end it was to be a wind-up drum machine with some type of governor to adjust tempo. The trick is to get the holes straight for the pegs.. Maybe next year.

Posted by: Kaden on March 29, 2008 at 4:10 PM

One of the projects in Eccentric Cubicle is Hammerhead Live (http://www.eccentriccubicle.com/hammer.htm) which takes this basic concept and expands the reach and angle of the hammers to let it whack a noise out of just about anything. If you add peizo triggers to the face of each hammer, you can use it as a trigger for your electronic percussion module.

20 years ago In Spain was sold a nearly identical toy. It was named Xylomatic, you can read more about it here:

http://www.teacuerdas.com/nostalgia-juguetes-xilomatic.htm

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