PVC Instrument

by Poehls05

24K10518

Intro: PVC Instrument

Here is some stuff I can play on it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLO9u9ab_UM

This is a Blue-Man Group style instrument my dad and I built over spring break. It's made from PVC pipe and some wood, mainly got from restore (habitat for humanity). The longer pipes make make deeper sounds with lower pitches and the shorter ones have higher pitches. It's pretty basic. It was built for a science project, and I think it turned out fairly nice. Basic dimensions:

Height:   3.5 ft
Width:    4.5 ft
Depth:   3.5 ft

18 Comments

antoniraj 9 years ago

nice project... step-by-step instructions on how you built it would have been much helpful for others to follow

jasonsj 10 years ago

hey, this is great job, and your performance in the video is amazing. I have one question, What king of paddle do you use to play this instrument? how did you buid it? I have seen other tubulums online and they have the mouth of the pipe cut in diagonal with a patch or something, have you tried this type of thing? any idea of what kind of material would that patch be? THANKS FOR YOUR POST!!! THIS IS ON MY LIST OF VACATION PROJECTS!

Sambataro 11 years ago

Your musical Abilities are Outstanding, I went to your video and thought it was stupendously amazing, keep it up bud. Thank you for a great instructables.

hooflepoof13 12 years ago

hey gabe its aidan. this is so cool!

Poehls05 12 years ago

Thanks. Glad you checked it out.

hooflepoof13 12 years ago

hey r u going to enter the make it stick contest? i think i might

Poehls05 12 years ago

Yeah, I might enter my new assingment notebook thing. I'm not sure if I've shown you yet. It swivels. But its crazy some of the things people enter in these contests. An ipad would be cool though. You got any ideas so far?

ovan der beek 12 years ago

http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/1214951/bc1ad37a/spelen_op_pvc_pijp.html

nice

RebeccaLee 12 years ago

This looks quite cool. Tbh your explanation makes it look more realistic for someone to make it :) If don't mind me asking, is it costly to make? I'm wanting to build one but I don't know if I can afford it. Good luck with it though :)

Poehls05 12 years ago

It can be fairly cheap to make, but that depends on where you get the supplies. If you got all of the pieces at say home depot (nothing against them), you could get a cost of over a couple hundred. I purchased my parts at mainly restore, which is sort of like a goodwill for home improvement. I did have to end up getting most of the elbows from the home depot, which costed $40 alone. Altogether it cost a little over $100, maybe $120. Hope that helps.

splazem 13 years ago

This is cool. So freakin' cool.

patriots8888 13 years ago

Thats so cool! i just have to make this!

SHIFT! 13 years ago

This is awesome! Please post a step by step on this!

Poehls05 13 years ago

Thats a good idea. I made this page so that I could display it to my class. I didn't really document the process though, so it might be hard, but I could get the measurements for everything and explain the process. Looking for a contest to enter somthing like this into. Anyway, thanks for the comment. Happy making.

ynze 13 years ago

Totally fantastic! How did you determine the right length for the tubes? Just trial and error?

Poehls05 13 years ago

Well, on Nate True's website (google it) you can get an equation to get the pipe lengths. Mine wasn't exact, so I cut rough lengths and then used a chromatic tuner I borrowed from the guitar player from my church. There's also online tuners you could try, but I don't really trust them. Anyway, have you seen snubbyj yet? Pretty good, huh?
Thanks for checking it out. Have a great day and God bless.