Musical Intruments/Guitars

Here are some of the instruments that I have that I use to make my music.

One String Coffee Can Guitar
This is my first guitar that I used. It was given to me by someone who made it for me while on break at work. It has a bassy string and it sort of has a Tremelo like action by pressing on the can bottom when played. It also can be scraped to do neck slides. The neck is made from a scrap oak board.

Two String Cookie Tin Guitar
This guitar is has two strings...one nylon and one steel. The body is a small Danish cookie tin. I was also given this guitar, and was the first guitar I had that had frets on it for more notes. This guitar has 6 frets, and has a neck made from solid Padauk wood. It can be played by sound or a Piezo pickup.

Puzzle Kit Hurdy Gerdy...Borrowed
This was an instrument that I borrowed for my first album. I didn't practice but used it on a few songs anyway. It was made from thin plywood that were laser cut and pieced together. It has 3 strings and 6 keys. You turn the crank to make the strings rub against a wheel...sort of like a rotary violin.

Dollar Tree Plastic Toy Harmonica
This harmonica was purchased for $1.00 plus tax at the dollar store. It doesn't work very well, as you have to blow into it really hard. The tape shown here helps make it work better, but it works even better if you take the white part out and just blow on that alone. Maybe a different color works better.

Dollar Tree Toy Guitar - One
This was my first guitar that I purchased. It cost $1.00. It is made of plastic and has 4 nylon strings that are kind of tunable. I have broken the neck by bending it to made weird notes when playing it and it came apart at the plastic rivets that hold it together. The replacement cost has increased to $1.25.

Dollar Tree Toy Guitar - Two
This guitar was also bought at The Dollar Tree for $1.00. It has a different body style than the other one, and it also sounds different. Made from plastic and 4 nylon strings. Both of these have frets and I use a pen to make the notes different. Strings also have 4 notes when played individually.

Professional Mouth Harp
This is the first instrument that I used that was a legitimate instrument...as it was not a toy instrument or a homemade one. It is also called a Jaw Harp. You flick the metal spring with the instrument against your teeth and change the sound with your mouth. It makes your teeth hurt if you do it wrong.

Glarry Guitar...170 Type
This is my first real guitar. I bought it on Glarry's website. It has a basswood body with a sunburst finish. Rosewood fretboard with "mother of pearl" fret markers, three pickups: Humbucker-Single-Humbucker configuration with a five-way switch, and a tremolo bar. Also, volume and tone knobs.

Glarry 20 Watt Electric Guitar Amp
This is my amplifier that I plug my guitars into when playing. It has knobs for gain, bass, treble and volume. It also has a button for distortion. My software that I use also has lots of effects for morphing the sounds into an infinite variety of effects. It also has headphone jack for PC connection.

Homemade Cookie Tin 3 String Bass
My first guitar build. Made from a cookie tin from The Dollar Tree. Macacauba, Katalox fretboard...Osage Orange neck; Mahogany, Padauk, Walnut, Bubinga and Yellow Heart. Has a magnetic 3 string pickup and a jack for a cord to plug into amp. Has 21 wooden frets made from Argentine Lignum Vitae.

Magnus Custom Deluxe Organ
This electric chord organ has a normal keyboard and several little round keys that all make a different note. It sort of sounds like an accordion and has makes an audible blowing sound when recorded. I am pretty sure we had this same exact model in the basement when I was a kid in the 1970's.

Vintage Hawaiian Tremeloa Harp
This interesting instrument has two different parts to it...a 16-string harp-like part, and a one string part that has a heavy metal roller with a plucker. The plucker is broken right now, but I can just use a guitar pick. The roller rides on the string and makes a bended note kind of "Hawaiian" sound.

Cookie Tin 3 String Short Scale
This is my second build. Dollar Tree tin from Danish cookies... Beli wood fretboard, Canary Wood neck... also has Oak, Walnut, Hickory and Mahogany. It has 19 frets of African Blackwood. It has two pickups... a three-string magnetic and an internal Piezo. It also has a 3-way switch. Nasty Sound!

Tiny Tin Two String Electric Guitar
This is a very small electric guitar with two strings made from a Dollar Tree tin. It has a Beli wood fret board, a Maple neck, Walnut headstock and Purpleheart details. This guitar has 7 brass frets and was my first build that I installed real metal frets. It has a bigger sound than expected when amplified.

Worlde Panda Mini MIDI Conroller
This 25 key keyboard only makes sound when hooked up via a USB cable to my music making software...which can be set to be various instruments. It also has a bunch of buttons and dials which may or may not do anything...as I can't figure them out. It has a normal keyboard and 8 "drum" keys.

PRS Style "Floyd Rose" Kit Guitar
This guitar was built from a kit. It has a Quilted Maple body face, mahogany neck and body, rosewood fretboard and bird abalone inlays for markers. The bridge is a floating "Floyd Rose" style, so it has tremelo that goes up or down. Two humbucker pickups with tone, volume and 3 way switch.

Live Edge 3 String, 2 Pickup Build
This has an Aspen log slice with bark for a body. Canary Wood neck, Rosewood fretboard, Zebra Wood accents, Bubinga and Buckthorn headstock. Magnetic and a Piezo pick up inside the small tin with lid. I used brass frets and tuners. Floating tremelo, 3-way switch, Tone and Volume.

M. Hohner Super Chromonica
This professional harmonica has twelve notes and a spring-loaded button on the side to alter each note by pushing it. It plays really well, but it is kind of gross as it smells like a heavy smoker used it a lot. It probably is really old, but I am not really sure. It has real wood sides and back to it.

Cookie Tin Piezo Pick-up Electric Guitar
This guitar is made from a Cookie Tin from The Dollar Tree. It can have nylon or steel strings installed in it as it has no need for steel strings. It has a fretboard made from Canary Wood and has a Jatoba neck. It has Osage Orange headstock and Bridge, and Yellow Heart and Buckthorn accents.

Tiny Tin Three String Electric Guitar
This small guitar is made from a Dollar Tree tin. It has three strings, 10 brass frets, real Abalone fret markers, and a Rosewood fretboard. It also has a Canary Wood neck and Yellow Heart bridge and nut and has a Macacauba headstock. It has a Piezo pick-up inside the tiny tin, so it plugs into an amp.

Mini "Telecaster" Hand Built Guitar
This is a small homemade guitar that has three strings and 11 frets. It also has two pick-ups...both a magnetic one and a Piezo one inside the little metal tin. There is an on/off switch for the pickup in the tin. It has a Rosewood fretboard, a Maple neck, an Olivewood body, and a Walnut headstock.

One String Coffee Can Hurdy Gerdy
This is a homemade coffee can Hurdy-Gerdy that someone gave me. It is made from Cherry, Walnut, Oak and Padauk. It has a crank from an old Ford truck and the string rubs against some CDs for the sound. It has a very gritty and nasty sound like a nail on a chalkboard. It is adjustable.

"Big Blues" Five Below Harmonica
This real metal and plastic harmonica plays pretty satisfactory, despite only costing me five dollars plus tax at the Five Below store. It has ten notes and is pretty easy to play. It is still a pretty small harmonica, as I believe it is meant as a toy for kids to play with. It plays much better than the Dollar Tree one.

Five Below Plastic Toy Ukelele
This ukelele is meant as a toy for kids to play with, as it is really cheap feeling and is made entirely of plastic. It has four "nylon" strings and has tuning pegs, but the gears slip if you tighten it too much. I cut into the back of it and installed a Piezo pickup in it so it can now be plugged into a guitar amp.

Teal Blue Anodized Toy Kazoo
This metal kazoo was purchased at Five Below in the toy aisle. The metal that it is made of is anodized in a nice teal blue color. It has a thin plastic diaphragm that vibrates when you hum into it with different pitches. The blowing sound also records kind of loud, so it doesn't work too good.

Mahogany and Metal Xylophone
This is an old xylophone that I got for $20,
used. It has metal keys and rubber tipped sticks that you bonk the keys with. The keys are marked with the notes and are fine-tuned...but those marks mean nothing to me as I don't read music or know notes. There is a lever that dampens the sound.

Toy Drum Kit from Five Below
This is a metal and plastic drum kit that I bought for $5.00. It is meant as a toy...as the box is marked "for ages 6 and up." There are three drums and a cymbal. It came with two plastic drumsticks, but I made two wooden ones from dowels. If you hit the rim, it makes a different sound too.

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