Other Instrument Manufacturers and Makers

Other instruments eh? - well theres a huge undertaking on its own. What I hope to do is put together a list of lesser known but still valid folkie type instruments that have found their way in to our ever widening musical genre. Being a strings player myself, many of these may be biased towards that idiom - but only because of my lack of knowledge. There are probably loads of you out there playing scroggum pumps or weazel-horns or other mythical beasts - if so LET ME KNOW ! (by the way, there are no such instruments as scroggum pumps or weazel-horns - unless you know different !

Here are a few interesting items I have found, played or discovered myself.

www.smokeymountaindulcimer.com - Owned a run by Blaine Horlocker, the Smokey Mountain Dulcimer Works makes a variety of top-class dulcimers. He was taught by his grandfather up in the smokey mountains how to make musical instruments. He makes a fine array of other instruments as well, such as the ever popular strum stick

The Strum Stick - These instruments play like a Mountain Dulcimer. They use numbers to play songs. You only put your finger on the bottom string and strum all 3, you will have a beautiful sound, none like you ever heard.

These instruments have been found in the Smokey Mountains for a lot of years. No body knows exactly where or how they became but our mountain folks are very inventive people and we can only guess.

 

 

This instrument is known as a DIDDLEBOW and comes from the mountain folk. We don't know how far back. The Mountain folks are very inventive and come up with so many instruments which we are still finding.

This one is a one string steel guitar. It is 30 inches long by1 1/2 wide, two feet on it so it can set on the a table. It has one geared guitar tuner on one end and a single string is ran across the body through a tin can which is the sound resonator.

You can tune to any pitch. you use a metal or glass slide just like a steel or dobro guitar uses. You run the slide up the string and get a beautiful slidding sound used a lot in playing the Blues music and Country music. As you move the slide up the string, you will go through all notes in a chromatic scale just like a guitar scale.

 

Smokey Mountain Dulcimer Works
Florida, USA

Phone: 239-910-5216
blaine_horlocker@yahoo.com

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www.sounding-bowls.com

Sounding Bowls were first created and developed in 1986 by Tobias Kaye, a sculptor in Devon, UK, out of the wonderful, harmonious acoustics he discovered in the flowing spiral curves of his turned forms.
Guided by an image arising in meditation, Tobias fitted strings to a specially formed bowl and was amazed at how the form seemed to breath with life as it gave birth to sound.
Developing the image he was given, Tobias made dozens of variations and was delighted when his customers began to include people using music in healing. ~
Sounding Bowls are now a sophisticated sculptural musical instrument and have built a reputation that has spread worldwide. In use from Japan to America and Norway to Australia, Sounding Bowls are making music with performers and healers, multiply challenged children and hospice patients… they are ideal for anyone who wants to experience music as a healing force in their lives.
Sounding Bowls are unique. One of their advantages lies in the fact that there is no history of “right” and “wrong, any way you want to play it is the right way. Each person has their own style and interpretation.
Sounding Bowls have a rich resonance. This arises from an open, spiral section resonator giving them a warm and available tone. They gather up the sounds you make and whisper them, newly harmonised into your ears, making them excellent for meditation. Sounding Bowls are not cheap, for each one is individually made to order. The wood for each one is carefully selected for its tonal richness and visual attractiveness. Each one is signed and numbered by Tobias and comes in a made to measure case of equivalent quality.

Tobias Kaye Sounding Bowls
The Workshop,
11 Lower Dean,
BUCKFASTLEIGH,
Devon,
TQ11 0LS, England.

Phone: +44 (0) 1364 64 28 37
email: Tobias@SoundingBowls.com

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www.oakwoodinstruments.co.uk

Here is a company making a range of beautiful, hand-crafted instruments designed with players in mind. They make the whole range - Guitars, Banjos, Mandolins - even harps and hammered dulcimers.

Always a warm and friendly welcome in their Aladdins Cave of top class musical instruments. If you visit the shop be sure and allow enough time to view their extensive range. (a note of warning - take along a handkerchief - their quality and craftsmanship of their musical instruments will make you weep with joy)

Oakwood Instruments
8 Ladywood Road,
Leeds
LS8 2QF.

phone 0113 2658585
fax 0113 2933011
email:workshop@oakwoodinstruments.co.uk