Instrument builder, Don Peddle first debuted this video back in 2011 and features his tabletop, double strung harp. It has 17 strings each side and uses a cigar box for the soundbox. It also has built in piezo pickups.
Peddle ran Random Sound Musical Instruments and has apparently retired.
Replies
Coolness factor is great. But, it does somewhat beg the question as to why use a cigar box when there is such extensive woodwork already. That aside, it sounds great....so, plus 1 for that. :)
with so much extensive woodwork on the neck, fingerboard/fretboard, headstock, tailpiece, why use a cigar box for a guitar? bwahahaha
It is very cool, agreed.
so a lyre has the CBG equivelants of a headstock, nut, saddle distinct from the string anchor points, a harp has the string anchor points and saddle integrated and indistinct from each other....fascinating
So he's stopped building instruments? :(
Wonderful instrument and playing.
Anychance of plans being available?
David Tranter
Australia
It looks like a very straight forward build. One nice thing about harps (by definition, this is actually a lyre because of the use of a bridge), is that you can use just about any measurement for the string lengths as long as there is some compensation (neck angle) to accomodate for the string lengths. Pretty much you could just approximate everything according to the scale of the cigar box.
I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that the hollowed and lightened neck must also be adding to the harp's overall volume - acting as an additional resonating chamber.
This is awesome and she's a great player.