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