What's your favorite unconventional non-percussive musical instrument?

Don't say mayonnaise or horseradish or any other condiment, because that'd be classified as percussive. Anyone can bang two sticks together and call it music. I'm more talking about an instrument that can play an actual note. Can be electronic (but not completely a digital DAW/vst).

I think my favorite is maybe a hurdy gurdy? Those things are so interesting. Theremin + Tesla Coil is also really interesting (no, Edison did not invent the Theremin... Theremin did, and like 99% of the things attributed to him, he didn't invent it at all... goddamn thief)

I'm going to build a sstc tesla coil and have it play music (I have the skills to do so) but I don't have access to a theremin... could build one, it's mostly just a rod and some capacitors, but eh.

This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »

SomeLikeItHot ·

A tesla coil would be fun to modulate at an audio rate, audio tones with possible lightning strikes if you stand too close.
I like playing my palms on the wall.

TetrisGuy · 26-30, M

@SomeLikeItHot Oh yes, sstc and drsstc are fully capable of playing music. drsstc are much harder to build so I'm going with sstc for now to save money. No money for a faraday suit though. I'd love to make one that's form-fitting but they cost thousands to make so I'd have to make a "one size fits all" one lol.

SomeLikeItHot ·

@TetrisGuy
So you cop a buzz by taking risks with your life.i feel you. There is nothing liking incredibly high voltage to get the hair to stand up. Next possibility would be using the death ray for sound. 😉

TetrisGuy · 26-30, M

@SomeLikeItHot No, lol, SSTC won't kill you if you touch the arcs. SGTC and DRSSTC will. But I built the former when I was 13 lol. Sort of, it didn't work properly because I couldn't wind the secondary coil properly.

Honestly it's not as dangerous as people think--it's mostly common sense and a few safety rules.

And I mean, people HAVE modulated high powered lasers, it's not new heh, not what I wanna do right now though. But I do want to eventually create a project where I modulate all sorts of techy stuff and make an orchestra out of it. I couldn't do everything at once though because the Tesla Coil would WAY drown it out.

SomeLikeItHot ·

@TetrisGuy
You avoided my death ray contraption idea 😂 It would play across the skies!

TetrisGuy · 26-30, M

@SomeLikeItHot Yes the death ray would be like the laser... but at a larger scale. Also Tesla's (supposed) invention!

SomeLikeItHot ·

@TetrisGuy
Who would you source the death ray to?
I always thought of Edison of stealing from Tesla or trying to if he understood the science and quit trying to scare the public at large, a bit like Hawking!

TetrisGuy · 26-30, M

@SomeLikeItHot Edison stole from Tesla because all he cared about was profit, profit, profit. He didn't care about the science. Tesla invented for the sake of inventing, never cared for profit, and actually, really wanted to make the world better.

Also we'd find a group of hackers... some rich hackers... build the death ray together... lol

Musk's company should be called Edison, not Tesla, because of the way he acts

SomeLikeItHot ·

@TetrisGuy
Musk does like to grandstand with his space shots with a nice car and Bowie playing inside. Meanwhile people are getting killed by his automotive guidance systems gone awry. We use to fix ACLS Radar Systems very similar but much more expensive in the 80s.

TetrisGuy · 26-30, M

@SomeLikeItHot Not even that... the way he treats his workers is atrocious. Takes credit for almost everything his employees do.

SomeLikeItHot ·

@TetrisGuy
That would be Edison or apple even if you heard how they stole their voice recognition technology from a kid.

TetrisGuy · 26-30, M

@SomeLikeItHot Yeah Musk is a disgusting excuse of a person. Not that the tech isn't cool... but his actions are intolerable.

SomeLikeItHot ·

@TetrisGuy
You can tell he doesn’t respond in a serious manner. Must be the way all people in power act.

TetrisGuy · 26-30, M

@SomeLikeItHot Unfortunately so.