Tapehead inspector plays magnetics manually


Glasgow sound-makers Roy Mohan Shearer and Jonnie Common built this excellent manual playback device as a gift for their bandmate Chris -
Simply a hack of the increasingly hard-to-source cassette walkman, I took out all the mechanics, hard-wired the tape circuit to 'on', lengthened the cable to the tapehead and housed the whole thing in a videotape casing. Jonnie built the instrument case/playing surface and then we made up a few audio tape 'slides' by recording some of Jonnie's choice vinyl to tape and getting crafty with scissors and sticky tape! I am abridging greatly for brevity here - I maimed one walkman making the whole thing work and the overall instrument design was chewed over a few times over cups of tea at Jonnie's house. We're pretty pleased with the results and hope Chris enjoys inspecting his tapes!That case alone makes for an awesome gift - well done!
- Tapehead Inspector on Zero-Waste
- Tapehead Inspector on Flickr
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Jun 23, 2008 02:00 PM
Music |
Permalink
| Comments (2)
| Email This |
| Digg this!
Recent Entries
- Best of CRAFT
- Not so lazy Sunday... Weekend Project - Ultimate LED fan sign
- Making Austin Weird: LED Bling
- Brush knuckles
- Found object robot sculptures
- Blob Mentality
- Got 10 hours? Make a paper swan
- Make it or break it
- Maker Faire Austin: Oct. 18th and 19th, 2008, Austin, TX (2 weeks away!)
- Halloween science grossology
Comments
Oldest comments listed first.
| Posted by: regis on June 23, 2008 at 5:42 PM |
30 years ago, performance artist Laurie Anderson did something like this with her invention of the tape-bow violin.
She put a stretch of magnetic tape on the bow of a violin and a pickup head on the body of the violin. On "Home of the Brave", she does this with one track, where she plays the phrase "Listen to my heart beat" (iirc) over and over with different samples of it and speeds.
| Posted by: Andre on June 24, 2008 at 7:25 AM |
This little toy has some neat security applications as well! I bet you can use it to read mag stripe cards...
Leave a comment
Subscribe to MAKE Magazine!
Subscribe today, save 42% and get web access to MAKE free. MAKE Digital Edition is available only to subscribers.
$34.95 / 1 year
(4 Quarterly Issues)
Features and more @ MAKE!
Add MAKE to iGoogle - GoogleGoogle.
Add MAKE to your RSS reader - Real simple.
Add MAKE on Twitter.
Add MAKE on FriendFeed & the MAKE room.

Why advertise on MAKE?
Read what folks are saying about us!
Click here to advertise on MAKE!
Phillip Torrone
Senior Editor
Tel: 707-827-7311
Gareth Branwyn
Robot Maker
Kip Kay
Video Maker
Jonah Brucker-Cohen
Artist / Researcher
Natalie Zee Drieu
Senior Editor
CRAFT
Becky Stern
Culture jammer
Collin Cunningham
Sound Maker
Marc de Vinck
CNC Maker


