Little Guitar Works makes really twisted Bass Guitars

I spotted these awesome bass guitars today, and I am blown away by the craftsmanship in these instruments. Just have a look at the ergonomic design of these bass guitar. They call it the Torzal Natural Twist and (per their website): the ergonomic design increases the efficiency of the hands, wrists and arms, reducing the risk of developing repetitive strain injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis.


As a bass player I definitely get the idea that the bass players job is to hold down the groove and that can lead to issues with carpel tunnel.


You have to check out all of the Little Guitar Works bass guitar product line to appreciate how beautiful these babies are.

Cigar Box Guitar Festival in Pennsylvania this Saturday

WHAT: The second annual Pennsylvania Cigar Box Guitar Festival
WHEN: Friday, August 28 and Saturday, August 27, 2011
TIME: 10am-5pm
WHERE: Downtown York, PA. on the grounds of The York Emporium


DETAILS: The fest will host 14 acts on two stages plus demonstrations, instrument vendors and more. Headlining acts include Purgatory Hill, Shane Speal (from Cigar Box Nation) and psych-folk legends, Stone Breath. YouTube favorite and NY street musician, Keni Lee Burgess will give a free playing seminar as well.


There is a special Friday night jam session on the 26th for instrument makers and players starting at 6pm. The jam is $20 and includes pizza and beer. In addition, there will be cigar box guitar concerts in local pubs throughout the weekend.


BoingBoing blog on Cigar Box Guitar Festival

Otomata

Here's an awesome sound creation tool that works for free on the web, or you can download for $.99 for iPhone and iPad.


You can chose the scale and tempo as you setup the generative items. There are 40 scales to choose from.


I picked up my Native American Flute in the key of E and jammed along, it was great.

I downloaded to my iPhone 3 and there isn't enough processing power, it sounds horrible. I am hoping that it runs better on one of the newer iPhones. Please post a comment if you've verified this.


Otomata for iPhone
Earslap website for Otomata

Otamatone

I saw this interesting musical instrument in the video by Michael Hearst that i posted yesterday. I thought that it was worth some additional investigation.


The Otamatone is an electronic instrument, designed by Maywa Denki. Some would call it a toy, but it's shaped like a musical note. I think that there are some real musical possibilities
This video gives you a pretty good idea of the possibilities:







Here's another video (in Japanese) which shows all of the possibilities:





And this one is my all time favorite video:





Sells for about $35 US




Links:
http://www.otamatone.co.uk/
Think Geek
Otamatone on Amazon

Michael Hearst Ode to Odd Instruments

Saw this awesome video today:





Including (in order of appearance):

• Knockman “ChaCha”
• Daxophone
• Hohner claviola
• Bass melodica
• Stylophone
• Otamatone
• Moog theremin
• Elasticbrand Audioware rattle
• Porter’s bell

Thingamajigs Fundraiser Concert

To help support artists traveling from overseas and other parts of the country to join Thingamajigs for its Annual Music for People & Thingamajig Festival, a special fundraising concert will be held at Meridian Gallery in San Francisco. Local Bay Area artists will volunteer their time to perform music and demonstrate their special instruments to audience members and bring awareness to Thingamajigs' arts and education programming.


The Thingamajigs Fundraiser Concert features the music and original homemade instruments of Bart Hopkin and Tom Nunn, and will also feature Persian-Tuned Piano performed by Iranian artist Ramin Zoufonoun.




Date: Aug 19,2011
Time: 08:00 PM - 10:00 PM
$15 general; $10 students/seniors
Reservations: (510) 444-1322 or reserve@thingamajigs.org
For more information: 510-418-3447 or edward@thingamajigs.org


Thingamajigs Website

Musical Desk

Here's an awesome example of both craftsmanship and ingenuity. This guy created a musical desk: