Xanthe Matychak of Core77 and Chris Tomkins-Tinch of Rochester Institute of Technology's Makers Club interviewed me about my Clubhouse Strummer drone stick when I was in Rochester a couple of weeks ago.

Mark Frauenfelder's DIY 3-string electric uke

Read more in Music at Boing Boing

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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shanespeal

Hey Mark, try feeding it into a digital delay pedal. It’ll take all those “good notes” and make them sound angelic when repeated onto themselves.
Anonymous

oh man. please do a how-to. i’ve never attempted to build a guitar from scratch, but i have modded guitars and built simple fuzz pedals. it looks like it would be fun and super simple.
eustace

…or make a digital delay with an arduino, Mark. I’ve been playing with my arduino the last two weekends, making sounds and waveforms, and I’m tellin ya, you could make a great effects box for your dronestick!
Anonymous

Sounds good, man. Now plug it in to a huge amp for us :)
Mark Frauenfelder

Eustace, I’d love to have you write an article about that for MAKE.
eleganteater

I saw Jake Shimabukuro, a most amazing ukulele player live tonight.

The you-tube video he claims gave him notoriety four years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puSkP3uym5k

displaying his speed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN0jD8AjXJU
TroofSeeker

Hey Mark,
Your Alpha prototype works great!
For the Beta version, maybe you can buy a banjo neck (if you get one with a fifth string, you could tune it an octave higher than the fourth string), cut new notches in the nut and bridge so you can move string 4 close to string 3, as a drone string.
Use a real electric guitar pick-up for better sound than whatever that was you used. You might buy a used guitar cheap, just for the pick-up and the tone and volume knobs, and cord jack.
You might consider nylon strings, for a more mellow sound, but you won’t hear much when it’s not amplified.
Anyway, great project, great post! Glad you’re back!
Troof
Anonymous

Nice build Mark. Yes, definately using a diatonic scale is a great way to make an instrument even more user friendly. Here is tip: You can also cut small notches on both side of the neck where the frets should be, and wrap very thick fishing line around the neck to create frets. Please visit my friend, Charles at http://www.cyberferal.com to see more. Good to see you promoting the “Joy of Homemade Music”. Thanks for sharing. Keni Lee
Anonymous

Putting real frets on this would be easy.

All you need is fret wire and a thin cut that can be made carefully with a chisel or saw and then a wooden mallet to tap in snugly the fret wire.

Fret wire is cheap and can be purchased at almost any music outlet.

here’s some that is going for 12 bucks.

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Fender-Vintage-Guitar-Fret-Wire?sku=361346&src=3WFRWXX&ZYXSEM=0&CAWELAID=26024122

Now set her up properly!
devophill

The you-tube video he claims gave him notoriety four years ago

You say that like you don’t believe it, but you’ll notice the video has almost three million views. (I know a few are me, over the years I’ve watched that video lots of times.)
Anonymous

i love it – what a great way to encourage kids to make music.my two year old has a little mini guitar, but she can’t get a decent sound out of that. with a drone stick she’d be away laughing in no time! i hope instructions eventuually find their way to somewhere where those of us who don’t have a make subsription can find them!
moniker42

I have to say, that really is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.
splashfrog

This looks very similar to a 3-stringed instrument called the “kankara” in Okinawa after WWII. It’s based on the traditional sanshin, but since they were making do with very little at the time, the body was a round metal tin (like a cookie tin, or a large coffee can).
The can resonator gives you a bit of volume without plugging in.
I’ve made a few with regular guitar tuning pegs in place of the traditional tension pegs, which look very simitar to what you’ve done, except that they’ve got the can resonator.
Here’s a link to how-to site:

http://www6.atwiki.jp/yae/pages/9.html

This guy goes overboard; most kankara are much simpler than what he’s doing here, but it gives you an idea.
And here’s how it sounds (song starts about 30 seconds in):

http://www6.atwiki.jp/yae/pages/16.html

Mark, if any of this is of interest to you, I’d be happy to translate.
Anonymous

Her clubhouse? You wild-haired monster!
Anonymous

oh my freakin gosh please let us know if you do a how-to
jfrancis

Just play it, already!

j/k :)

It had a very nice sound.
Anonymous

Essentially an electric mountain dulcimer.
Anonymous

@SplashFrog: That looks like a great project. A good (non-Bablefish) translation would be excellent.
shanespeal

Looks great and sounds great, Mark. Ever since you showcased the cigar box guitar in Make, the whole movement has taken off! Thank you so much.

BTW, we’re trying to bring the whole cigar box/primitive instrument communities together over at http://www.cigarboxnation.com. Stop by when you get a chance.

Keep it up. Keep posting all the uke links too. We love it all!

Shane Speal
http://www.insurrectionrecords.com
(“…because cigar box guitars are so freakin’ cool!”)
Marble River

It does sound really good and looks like fun to play, but would you plug the &*%* thing in already??
Sincerely,
Marble River
naomind

Mark, you rock! Thanks for posting this. I look forward to reading the article about how you created it. Could you also do a video of how it sounds amplified? Also, I’m wondering how it would sound with a slide.
eustace

A friend of mine saw Jake Shimabukuro at NAMM a few years ago – when he played near the cafe the crowd went silent – first time my friend had seen that happen at NAMM…
I may take you up on that challenge this weekend, Mark. Any excuse to head over to Radio Shack!
gong

This reminds me of the Bogdon Box Bass, a do-it-yourself 3 string cardboard electric upright bass made of a cardboard box. I’ve never played one, but the videos are convincing, and it comes as a kit!

http://www.edencompanies.com/bogdon/

Anybody made or played one?
gsmphoto

It reminds me of a Strumstick that I have. Go to strumstick.com to see it. I have no financial stake in this product- I just bought one years ago.

I demonstrate my 3-string dronestick on Core77

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