NEWZ

I've finally managed to acquire all the pieces for my next creation:

If you can guess what it's going to be I'll shake your hand firmly.

I've also been working on a few things with http://daveconservatoire.org/ that'll be coming to fruition soons.

Other than that I currently have no commissions going on, so feel free to give me money to make you something.

In the meantime, head over to http://www.moonmilk.com/ and enjoy the rest of this month's instrument-a-day which are always amazing.

AAaaaaaannnnnd, as valentines day is coming up, I recommend singing this one to your nearest and dearest:

The Oak Tinjo

This latest Tinjo was commissioned for a friend of mine for his birthday (these make excellent birthday presents, hint hint). It was constructed from some scrap oak planks I found which were glued together, shaped, sanded, burnt, carved and varnished to end up with this:

The frets are simply nails chopped down and grinded to take away ane edges then glued on with araldite using an online fret calculator to get the exact position right. The tin has a basic piezo contact mic inside which is wired up to the socket.

Here's 2 videos of it being played, one amped and one acoustic:

Here's what it started out as

 more photos of the build and finished product when you click the link

The poorly edited portfolio and other news

I've had a re-organise of the site to make it a bit easier to navigate, also I'm going to start posting some more tutorials and tips/ideas for aspiring instrument makers to show them just how easy it can be to make cheap but awesome instruments!

Also, using youtube's new video editing service, I've thrown this mini 'portfolio' together. Enjoy and share with friends!

The Mocitar!

This is a custom built moustache shaped Dulcitar that i'm selling to raise funds for my Movember campaign.

It's constructed from Pine with an Oak neck, it uses a contact mic under the bridge to pick up the sound which then needs to be amplified.

You can find out more about Movember and prostate cancer awareness at movember.com

You can also donate directly to my fundraising efforts by going here: http://mobro.co/tomfox84

The Violindjo

My Aeolian harp didn't withstand the batterings of the british weather, I salvaged the violin body and re-strung it with 4 fresh new banjo strings. And the Violndjo was born.

Here's me playing it with my megacheap-e-bow alternative, which is a piece of string attached to a quiet walkman motor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPDau5mIzL0

Mini Squidulele

This one is a quick mini hollow-body ukulele of sorts I made for my lovely wife.

And here's a video of it being played badly:

A Plea for a Friend

My good friend helen, who I posted about not too long ago, recently lost everything she had in the london riots. Her flat was destroyed when the shop beneath her was petrol bombed. 

She is ridiculously talented, and was trying to raise money to fund her new album (which already sounds incredible), but now she's lost everything it's even more important that her album can get finished so she can start re-building on a good foot.

please either pledge or pass this on to friends. 

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/hazlitt

Kate's Dulcitar

This instrument is a mix of a guitar and a dulcimer more commonly know as a Dulcitar. It's for the amazingly talented Kate Mullins of The Puppini Sisters fame.

 This fella uses scrap wood for the body and neck and nails for frets. I burnt a peacock into it to make it prettier...

It started off as this box:

 more photos of the construction process at this link...

Dronemachine in use

Here's what happened when I hooked my Dronemachine up to my loopstation:

A side note

A good friend of mine and an incredibly talented musician is trying to raise the funds to get her new full length album finished.

this is what she sounds like:

Once the target is reached, a percentage of the profits will be donated to the British Heart Foundation for further research on cardiac arthythmia and heart disease.

you can go here to help out: www.pledgemusic.com/projects/Hazlitt

and her own site is here: http://www.hazlittmusic.com/