Diddley Bows on Strings And Tines

Lake Scraps Diddley Bow

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A friend of mine invited us to spend a long weekend at their lake house. While there I noticed that there was a lot of debris that would wash up on the shore. He knows I like to make instruments from reclaimed materials, so we went hunting for junk to make something out of. I saw this old rusty oil can, and the idea for this instrument was born. Everything I used for this diddley bow came from the lake, except for the string and the tuner. I wanted to add a piezo to it but didn’t want to cut into it, so I took a mint tin, added a piezo and jack to it, then attached it to the bottom of the oil can with a magnet. It picks up the sound ok, but this is really more of a wall piece and not so much for playing.

Driftwood from Babcock Hovey

Sat, 29 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

My son was in Boy Scouts for a couple of years, and we went to a weekend camping trip at their Babcock Hovey Scout Camp in September, 2018. On our way to dig for fossils by the lake, I saw this piece of driftwood that looked perfect for a diddley bow. We pulled it out of the water, and found two rocks that would work perfectly as the bridge and nut. I added a thin humbucker pickup so it can be played via an amp. To commemorate the experience, I woodburned the date of the camping trip. This made for a great souvenir!

Motorized Pilsner Urquell Beer Tin Diddley Bow

Sun, 14 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

After making a handcranked Hurdy Gurdy Dulcimer mashup, and a Optimo Cigar Box Diddley Bow with Fishing Reel to do the strumming, I thought…”why am I doing the cranking myself? I should automate this.” So I made this thing. I used a Pilsner Urquell beer lunchbox and added a small motor from an old toy. I glued a couple of wires to it, just long enough to hit the single string. To keep the beer theme going I used a bottle opener as the tailpiece. It sounds pretty terrible to be honest, watch the video and judge for yourself.

Clarus Cigar Box Diddley Bow

Wed, 20 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This is the second diddley bow I make with this type of yard stick. See my King Edward diddley box elsewhere on this site for pictures of that one. The bridge is part of the locking mechanism from a door knob, and the sound hole cover is a drain cover.

The finished product

Dollar Store Toy Guitar Diddley Bow

Wed, 07 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Ok this one is pretty much a joke. We spotted a toy guitar at the dollar store and thought it would be funny to turn it into a playable instrument. I added a real tuner to attempt to get a real note out of it. The tension was so strong that I had to add a wooden dowel to the inside of the guitar to keep it from bending. It was a fun little experiment for an afternoon.

Antonio Y Cleopatra Cigar Box Diddley Bow Made by my Daughter

Sat, 10 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

My daughter wanted to try her hand at making a diddley bow…so that’s what we did. She did 90% of the work herself, with me guiding her and taking pictures. It was a bit difficult to keep an 8 year old focused enough to complete it, but in the end it came out great!

The finished product

Cutting the neck

Sanding the place for the tuner

Optimo Cigar Box Diddley Bow with Fishing Reel

Tue, 21 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This diddley bow has been through a couple of iterations. At first, it was a simple diddley bow I made in an afternoon. It featured a ukulele tuner, a piece of a door lock to hold the string, and a wooden plug for the bridge. I especially liked the writing on the box, which was apparently used to hold melon seeds. At some point I saw a video by the Blue Man Group where they had constructed an instrument that was played by rotating a wheel, which had plastic flaps all around its edge that would pluck the string, creating an endless strumming of the single string. I wanted to make this same sound, so I grabbed a fishing reel and attached a couple of zip ties to it. I also added some aluminum wire for frets. It is a bit clunky to play, but does the job.

King Edward Cigar Box Diddley Bow

Sun, 19 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This build started with the unique yardstick I had. It was made from a square wooden dowel, with measurements on one edge and the name of the company on another edge. Given that it has some flex to it, I could only use it for a diddley bow, or risk it bending under string tension. The King Edward cigar box I used is a bit flimsy, so I reinforced it with wood. Looking back at these pictures I think I overdid it with the bracing, but you can never be too sure!

Oliver Twist Fake Book Diddley Bow

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This one took part of an afternoon to complete. It was a simple build, just a box and a wooden dowel, a tuner and a bold for a bridge.

After seeing this post about a one string instrument called a Marxolin, I added a hose splicer to this diddley bow to try it out.

The finished product

Fret lines are cut into the dowel

My Kids Made These Diddley Bows

Sat, 06 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A diddley bow is one of the simplest instruments you can make. All you need is a piece of wood, a string, two bridges to hold the string above the wood, and a tuner, if you want a specific note. This makes it a perfect project to make with your kids. And that’s exactly what we did here, when they were 5 and 7 years old. We used scrap wood for the body of the diddley bow. We got fancy and added an Altoids tin on one end with a piezo (contact mic) inside of it, so you can play it through an amplifier. I think the most fun part of the project was painting them. I let them pick the colors they wanted to use, and they did all the painting themselves. I purposely did not cover the sawhorses we used so they would get paint all over them, and to this day I remember this project whenever I look at them. To add a bit of a science lesson, we woodburned their names on the back using a magnifying glass (which came from my scanner camera – see elsewhere on this site for details on that one).

Eddie Van Halen Tribute

Sat, 22 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I had a can of red wood stain, so I decided to make a diddley bow that looked like Eddie Van Halen’s classic Frankenstrat. The body is a scrap piece of wood that I had lying around. I got the paint job and black and red lines as close as I could to the original. I used a “Cap-O-Tone” from C.B. Gitty and an Altoids tin to add a piezo and volume knob so it can be played through an amp. The bridge is held to the frame by a cabinet hinge spray painted black. Later I added some frets from white wire hangers, and fret markers from thumbtacks

My Proud Son and His Creation

Wed, 07 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

My son made this diddley bow out of scrap materials. It’s a simple project to make with kids to start teaching them about how stringed instruments work. All you need is a stick, a can and a string…that’s it!

My son with his creation

My First Diddley Bow

Sat, 19 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Here are my first few attempts at a diddley bow. I changed it up a couple of times, but the concept stayed pretty consistent. I started with a scrap piece of wood that had been used as a property marker for snow plows to avoid tearing up my lawn (hence the blue paint on one end). I added a couple of screws to hold the string, and a couple of beer bottles to add tension. Since the wooden stake is so narrow, I had to add a separate board to keep it stable on a table.