Meet the Savart's Wheel, a tuned rasp instrument performed by legendary instrument inventor, Bart Hopkin. There are thirty discs placed on a rotating spindle, each with ridges placed on the edges. Hopkin uses hand-held styrofoam cups with plastic plectrums as the means of playing/amplifying the notes. (Styrofoam is a great resonating material!)
Enjoy the irritating sounds as Hopkin plays Somewhere Over the Rainbow! (We're hoping that he records a Christmas album on the Savart's Wheel someday...)
Learn more about the Savart's Wheel by visiting Bart Hopkin's website.
A note from Shane Speal: Bart Hopkin's work has been highly influential in my study of DIY instruments. The back issues of his now out-of-print magazine, "Experimental Musical Instruments" are an essential resource. 
This book contains all of the canjo-building how-to info that Ben "Gitty" Baker has gleaned over almost a decade of building these fun, easy-to-play instruments. Canjos are one of the easiest homemade instruments to build, and now you have all of the how-to guidance you need right at your fingertips! This guide is chock-full of detailed color photos and diagrams to walk you through each step of canjo-building.
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Almost as irritating as my wife on a relentless rant about my cbg's?
Too funny. You better hope she doesn't see this post or you'll be making a lot of replacement gits. Haha
It deserves a spot on the Steve Allen show...
holy hell... it's like screaming puppies nails on a chalkboard. Good for him! Glad I don't HAVE to listen to it...
Thanks for the morning laugh
I am pretty sure that with some effort, I could improve the design.
Getting the drum to run true and reduce "wow" and "flutter" would be a start. Then changing to a drum of infinitely varying diameter instead of steps.
Color coding zones for pitch reference might be a good thing.
I am confident I could improve the results to at minimum, the level of horrible. LOL!
Interesting concept, from a thinking man. Dig it.
That's very raspy.
Yea. Pretty ugly. Sorta takes the glass harmonica concept and gives it a big middle finger! But...have any of you guys done any exploring on Bart's website? I think it's REALLY cool! Some of the instruments he invented and plays are just weird and not very pleasant-sounding. But some of them are really beautiful! Inspired by Bart's pot harp (I think that's its name)--I have a couple of old stew pots at home that I'm going to make into some kind of harp. His floating guitar is really pretty-sounding too. And IMO he plays pretty well. I like the gongs too.
I'll be featuring his videos on a weekly basis. His work radically changed my life. Learn everything you can from Bart Hopkin.
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