Are you curious if strange musical instruments will ever make a resurgence? Hell, maybe you think that those who tinker with unique sound quality are pure artists. You could very well be right, but damn if we haven't found some tinkerers that were looking for more than just a new sound. These folks were down right engineers seeking a whole new level of opportunity.
Check out the original article on Popular Science
The Harpitar, September 1918
Finding the guitar to be a "sweet-toned instrument, but [lacking] in projection power," R.E. Bates created a Franken-instrument: a combination of a guitar and a harp, aptly called the Harpitar. It has six strings, and it's strung like a guitar with a key difference: The strings are stretched across the body of a harp. All six strings are at the center, where "the greatest volume of tone is obtained." The result, Bates said, is that "it combines the simple chromatic scale of the guitar with the peculiarly beautiful tones of the harp."
One-Man Orchestra, July 1922
If you know how to play one instrument, you are suddenly able to play three, using this device invented by William J. Maxwell. When the player strikes a chord on the "master instrument," two other instruments chime in with harmonious chords. This is made possible by "electrical contact on the fingerboard of the master instrument." In the photo here, the banjo is the master instrument.
Sound and Light Show, March 1926
The luminaphone turns beams of light into music, with 37 possible notes on its keyboard. When you strike a note, it releases a light beam from a projector. The beam then passes through a perforation in a revolving disk, hitting a selenium cell, which changes the light into an electrical vibration. A tube amplifier magnifies the vibrations and emits the sound through a loudspeaker, turning the flickering lights into a beautiful song.
Singing Coconut, March 1926
We've all heard of the ukelele. But what about that other Hawaiian export, the singing coconut? A stringed instrument whose body was made from the polished shell of a coconut, we predicted these singing coconuts would be produced at a rate of 50,000 per year, at factories such as this one in Honolulu, pictured at left.
World's Largest Fiddle, April 1935
An elderly gardener-cum-violin maker in Ironia, New Jersey, built this 14-foot fiddle as his magnum opus. The sound box alone is seven feet high. Just think of the jigs he could play! You could have a square dance that stretched for miles. It boggles the mind. But this master craftsman did not stop there, oh no. His other creations include a hybrid harp/cello, a dwarf cello and a violin with three necks.
Make Your Own Vegetable-Shaped Instruments, November 1935
A clay whistle called an ocarina is also known as a "sweet potato" because, well, it's shaped like one. PopSci determined that using plaster of Paris, you can make an ocarina at home, modeled after almost any fruit or vegetable that tickles your fancy ("carrots, turnips, Irish potatoes, beets, parsnips and bananas were all tried with equal success"). As long as you make sure the air chamber is irregular and the air is blown in from the side, not the end. Of course, you won't be playing any sonatas on these vegetables: "Though not extremely melodious, it is easily played and affords a great deal of entertainment."
The Cello-Horn, October 1936
This device that looks like a squirrel-sized playground slide debuted at a Chicago trade show under the name "cello-horn." It's played like a cello and "produces a unique tonal effect," making the player just one woodwind short of an orchestra.
Extracting Music From Anything, August 1937
Ohio State University professor Charles C. Weideman had more than 100 home-built instruments made from strange materials such as garden hoses, cardboard tubes, canceled bank checks and turkey bones. This peculiar predilection began early, when, "as a boy of ten, he tuned the pickets of a fence in front of his home by cutting them to various lengths, and played melodies on them with mallets."
Pictured here clockwise from the top, Weideman plays the world's largest xylophone made with cardboard mailing tubes, trumpets on a length of garden hose and plays a wire strung on a mop handle.
Typing Music, December 1939
If this instrument were available now, we could turn every blogger in the nation into a virtuoso worthy of Carnegie Hall. The "score" for a song is just words on a page, and by copying them on this typewriter invented by court reporter Alexander Rose, the words become music as the keys strike strings inside, much like a piano. Suddenly typing 120 words per minute becomes more than just a recipe for carpal tunnel syndrome.
Check out the original article on Popular Science
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| Known to woo sirens of any sort and as a precursor to prog metal, the Harpitar in the right hands was a lethal instrument |
Finding the guitar to be a "sweet-toned instrument, but [lacking] in projection power," R.E. Bates created a Franken-instrument: a combination of a guitar and a harp, aptly called the Harpitar. It has six strings, and it's strung like a guitar with a key difference: The strings are stretched across the body of a harp. All six strings are at the center, where "the greatest volume of tone is obtained." The result, Bates said, is that "it combines the simple chromatic scale of the guitar with the peculiarly beautiful tones of the harp."
 |
| Who cares about a one man band, when you could have a one man orchestra. Solo folks, take note... |
If you know how to play one instrument, you are suddenly able to play three, using this device invented by William J. Maxwell. When the player strikes a chord on the "master instrument," two other instruments chime in with harmonious chords. This is made possible by "electrical contact on the fingerboard of the master instrument." In the photo here, the banjo is the master instrument.
 |
| Anton LeVey and his Theremin would be no match for this Sound and Light show, who's composer also looks like Houdini |
The luminaphone turns beams of light into music, with 37 possible notes on its keyboard. When you strike a note, it releases a light beam from a projector. The beam then passes through a perforation in a revolving disk, hitting a selenium cell, which changes the light into an electrical vibration. A tube amplifier magnifies the vibrations and emits the sound through a loudspeaker, turning the flickering lights into a beautiful song.
 |
| Coconut milk giveth and taketh away, in this case musically |
We've all heard of the ukelele. But what about that other Hawaiian export, the singing coconut? A stringed instrument whose body was made from the polished shell of a coconut, we predicted these singing coconuts would be produced at a rate of 50,000 per year, at factories such as this one in Honolulu, pictured at left.
 |
| Rockabilly should take note, no matter how much you slap that neck, yours is still tiny in comparison |
World's Largest Fiddle, April 1935
An elderly gardener-cum-violin maker in Ironia, New Jersey, built this 14-foot fiddle as his magnum opus. The sound box alone is seven feet high. Just think of the jigs he could play! You could have a square dance that stretched for miles. It boggles the mind. But this master craftsman did not stop there, oh no. His other creations include a hybrid harp/cello, a dwarf cello and a violin with three necks.
 |
| Want to get really folky with your vegetables? Make an instrument from them. |
A clay whistle called an ocarina is also known as a "sweet potato" because, well, it's shaped like one. PopSci determined that using plaster of Paris, you can make an ocarina at home, modeled after almost any fruit or vegetable that tickles your fancy ("carrots, turnips, Irish potatoes, beets, parsnips and bananas were all tried with equal success"). As long as you make sure the air chamber is irregular and the air is blown in from the side, not the end. Of course, you won't be playing any sonatas on these vegetables: "Though not extremely melodious, it is easily played and affords a great deal of entertainment."
 |
| This is totally the wrong person in this illustration, it should be a dude with really tight pants, curly Q mustache and be singing about the rapid decline of squirrels in city parks or something else completely random and hipsterish |
This device that looks like a squirrel-sized playground slide debuted at a Chicago trade show under the name "cello-horn." It's played like a cello and "produces a unique tonal effect," making the player just one woodwind short of an orchestra.
 |
| Really? A bow on a mop handle? C'mon! |
Ohio State University professor Charles C. Weideman had more than 100 home-built instruments made from strange materials such as garden hoses, cardboard tubes, canceled bank checks and turkey bones. This peculiar predilection began early, when, "as a boy of ten, he tuned the pickets of a fence in front of his home by cutting them to various lengths, and played melodies on them with mallets."
Pictured here clockwise from the top, Weideman plays the world's largest xylophone made with cardboard mailing tubes, trumpets on a length of garden hose and plays a wire strung on a mop handle.
 |
| Typing music? Wasn't this meant for assistants or maybe scribes known as umm... secretaries? |
If this instrument were available now, we could turn every blogger in the nation into a virtuoso worthy of Carnegie Hall. The "score" for a song is just words on a page, and by copying them on this typewriter invented by court reporter Alexander Rose, the words become music as the keys strike strings inside, much like a piano. Suddenly typing 120 words per minute becomes more than just a recipe for carpal tunnel syndrome.
