Musical Stuff I've Built

Please, click on the links below each pic for more info.

Original Kodakaster

My First Acoustic 3-string Canjo Build 

250 Watt GE TV Set Cabinet Combo Amp  

Left Handed Kodakaster 2 Acoustic Canjo

The Dymaxion Film Can Combo Amp/Speaker

shown with Kodakaster 1 piezo pup upgrade and Berringer preamp

 

Kodakaster 3 with Flatpup Humbucker UpGrade

 Kodakaster 4 Sapele Gold 3-String Canjo

 Utah Plates 4-String Tenor Electric Guitar

 Kodakaster Duo 4-string Electric Canjo

Kodak Film Can Snare Drum

Padron Cigar Box Kalimba with Platpup Humbuckers Upgrade

Electric Kalimba Upgrade

Beefed Up Electric Padron Kalimba

Last year I gave my wife, Anita Gayle, a birthday present of a cigarbox kalimba that I made from a Padron cigar box. Originally the kalimba was equipped with a piezo disc pickup and volume control so that it could be amplified through a combo speaker/amp. It worked just OK since the tone from the kalimba was kind of muffled, produced a slight hum, and needed to be boosted with an additional preamp, an attempted fix that really was not that satisfactory. Since piezo pickups work by picking up vibrations, they will also pickup any vibration that might be made through incidental handling and movement, not just the musical sound of the instrument it is attached to. So, piezos are a bit touchy and also prone to feedback when used at higher amplified volumes.

After a few weeks of thinking about it, I thought, since the tines that produce the vibration are likely made of ferrous metal (steel), why couldn't I replace the piezo pup with a humbucker which would likely increase the volume able to be produced and get rid of the hum. 

I consulted with my goto humbucker supplier, Elmar Zeilhofer in Vienna, Austria. He thought my idea might work but told me that another client had tried to amplify his kalimba with one of Elmar's Flatpup Humbuckers and was not satisfied with it because it sounded too "thumpy". But, I reasoned, "thumpy" would be a great way to describe the tone that naturally emanates from a kalimba when it is not amplified or when played acoustically without any amplification. "Thumpy" makes a kilimba sound like a kalimba.

I measured Anita Gayle's Kalimba so I could order the right size flatpups, determined that the the metal tines were, indeed, made of ferrous metal (able to be picked up by a humbucker pickup) with the never-fail magnet test.

So, I ordered two of Elmar's 6-string Flatpup Humbuckers, installed them on the Pedron Cigarbox Kalimba, wired it up and, jeez, what a difference in the sound. The replacement of the piezo pickup really makes a big improvement in the strength of the signal to the amplifier AND reproduces a wider range of tone, too. Anita plays it a lot more, too.

Worth all the effort and expense. An electric kalimba cranked up to 11 with just a touch a reverb is a "bootiful thang".

Well, I'll be a MoogerFooger

Here are the latest additions to Anita Gayle's Musical Kit of Treasures. One reason Asheville is so cool is that it's the home to the Moog Synthesizer Factory, right off the freeway through downtown and way too easy to get to. Pictured are three MoogerFoogers - Ring Modulator, 12-stage Filter and Midi-MuRF sitting right next to Anita's beautiful Kevin Spears model Hugh Tracy Electric Kalimba, which Anita daisy-chains through the MoogerFoogers and out through a combo amp.

We already used it for Anita to lay down a music track for one of her short recipe videos about making a  yummy, nutritious whole grain hot cereal on her cooking blog. Nice!

Since we got home with this Moog trio, there have been some etherial and sometimes rather strange vibes emanating from our home.

But living in Asheville, no one really notices.

The Birthday Kalimba

I found a large wooden button at a craft store, drilled a few more holes in it, and glued it on to cover for a very effective sound hole.

The kalimba kit came with a Padron cigar box, the kalimba hardware and instructions. But, I thought it should be electrified so I added a piezo pickup and guitar cord jack.

My wife, Anita Gayle has always asked our three daughters to make her something for her birthday instead of buying a gift because she really doesn’t need anything, and even a hand-written note or poem celebrating her birthday means so much more to her than anything else they might buy. And, although she has always been very gracious to accept any gift with a smile and expressions of thanks to whom ever gives it, I know that hand-made things mean a lot more to her because she knows what it is to create something versus purchasing it.

So, this year I decided to make her a birthday present myself. And, I’m glad I did because I think she really liked it and was touched that I would spend the time to make something just for her.

The cigar box kalimba, a cool kit I purchased from C.B. Gitty Crafters Supply, turned out to be the perfect gift for someone who appreciates a good thumb piano, as they are also known. Since I have used some parts C.B. Gitty makes at their plant in Vermont to build film can canjos (that I call Kodakasters), I ordered the kit online with confidence that it would, first, be made of quality parts, and second, something I could probably put together even with my relative inexperience in making anything musical.

I suppose that it took me about two hours all told, and I have to admit, it does make pretty musical tones.  The hardest part was tuning it to the key of C major after it was assembled, but luckily the Gitty kit also included instructions complete with a simple tuning tutorial. I already own a couple of electronic guitar tuners which made my tuning task even easier. About halfway through the process I realized that recycling old cigar boxes is probably the best thing about cigars.

The only real glitch in my birthday kalimba project was when I left the printed instructions in my pants pocket and they went through the wash, which resulted in a tomato-sized lump of useless soggy paper.

But no worries. I emailed C.B. Gitty about my predicament and they emailed me a link to a PDF of the entire instruction booklet within an hour of my asking for help. 

Hey! Gotta love those guys!