Questions: Experimental Stringed Instruments

by Bart Hopkin

Originally published in American Lutherie #87, 2006

J.B. from the Internet asks:

Do you have articles on “experimental” string instruments? I’ve been playing with guitar and bass strings stretched across different resonating bodies of various salvage materials. I knew a man in Montana that made a thing called the wind wagon; it was an old pioneer wagon frame made into a 50-string banjo. The resonator/body was an old dredge pipe reducer about 6' in diameter and the head was thin stainless stretched with a million bolts. It had a huge wooden bridge. He parked it on a windy hillside and it played itself, making an eerie Zen soundtrack oscillating sound that could be heard for miles. I was present when a guy from the Smithsonian recorded the maker playing it with hammers, bows, and other percussion implements. Have you heard of other artists doing similar research?

Bart Hopkin of Point Reyes Station, CA answers:

There are many people in the USA and abroad making strange and wonderful musical instruments, stringed and otherwise, but it’s not always easy to find them. There are some good resources, though. I’ll plug my own first: If you go to www.windworld.com, you will have entered the world of Experimental Musical Instruments. For many years EMI was the home of a quarterly journal by the same name and devoted to just that topic. The journal is no longer active but back issues are still available along with books and CDs on unusual instruments and their construction. The other great resource is Oddmusic (www.oddmusic.com), a discussion group for unusual instruments and creative instrument making with a large and active following. And if you join Musical Instrument Makers Forum (www.mimf.com) you’ll find a section devoted to “Wind, Percussion, and Miscellaneous and Experimental Instruments” with lots of fertile ideas and good information.