Instant Thumb Piano: How to make a set screw lamellaphone

Step 6 Body and Tine

The grounding bar mounted on a small wood crate from a thrift store.
This demonstrates what is great about this method - you can use tines with a variety of shapes, sizes and materials at the same time.

Tines shown in the photo below the video from left to right:
blue tempered spring steel
hairpin
street sweeper bristle
unknown steel lattice debris
electrician's snake
knitting needle
street sweeper bristle
bicycle spoke
spring steel
umbrella rib
plastic hobby/craft brush
plain steel wire - the end splayed by hammering

There is a video of this thumb piano being played.

Very roughly tuned and I used a guitar tuner pickup to run signal into a delay and guitar amp. Normally I would put the pickup closer to the bar but I was using a rubber band to hold it in place so where I placed it suited the size of the rubber band. The audio is just what the little point & shoot camera microphone was able to catch.

Comments

[Oledoug]

One of the best tines I've used come from Windshield wipers.....Check with you local repair shop and have the save you the stainless strips from the old wipers....The work great and are easily found.....

[amplex]

awesome sounds, i love the creative tines and the difference in tones you get from them, im definitely going to build one of these asap!!!!