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).
The finished products Spray painting After 75 coats of paint… Adding a hinge to hold the string Drilling a hole for the tuner Turning the eye bolt to act as string tree Applying clear coat The most important step…applying stickers Drilling the hole for the tuner Stringing it up Using magnifying glass to burn her name on the back Finished Altoids tin with piezo and bolt for bridge Stringing it up Proud of his creation Final tweaks Trying it out
