Monday, February 25, 2008

The Swirl Hi-Hat


















This is one of my attempts at making an instrument that is road worthy. Something I can pack away in a box that can easily be situated safely into a touring van. Right now if you try and move any more then four instruments a time you’ll end up with cacophony of stings and fridge parts that sound slightly better than when I perform live.

The “Swirl” as I will call it from now on was made from a busted hi-hat stand. A ribbed metal vase, and six handmade aluminum swirls. On the top there is an aluminum ring that guides the swirls around the vase. Below that sits a cymbal I found at the dollar store. Not the greatest of sounds but it is more about the swirls in this one.

Basically the swirls run up and down the vase scraping along side its ribs and flicking off the tops and bottom to get more of the swirls chimes.

I am still up in the air about the sound it produces, sometimes it can be a bit harsh, and then sometimes I think harsh is good.

I guess I will have to wait till my next trip up north and get the word from the professionals.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Been a while since you posted-- but this one was worth the wait! Very weird, very cool. Also, it's "cymbal"... my inner spell-check was crying.

Iner Souster said...

Haha
thank you sir. i don't know what I was thinking.
now was it your inner spell check or your iner spell check? because iner spell check needs a lot of work.

Anonymous said...

This is genius!
even if i was trying to create something like that id probably enup with two plates, on a stick or something! this is incredibly brilliant.

Very cool.

Cheers,
Ken

london canvas prints said...

Haha love this, thanks a lot for sharing and welcome back!

Sammy said...

Awesome post, it's blooody brilliant idea well done!

7 panel canvas said...

Hopefully you're back to blogging! Missed you!

banksy canvas said...

Really cool, thanks a lot!