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.
The finished product This rusted out door hings made the perfect bridge This sign must have come from a sunken boat I don’t know what this metal piece is, but I thought it would look cool as the headstock Wood burned the fret markers Happy little piezo Hard drive magnet really holds the tin in place.
