FAQ

Things I’m asked often:

• Where do you sell these? – This is just barely a hobby. Making it a business is probably not going to happen. I occasionally auction an instrument on ebay, but I figure a body needs to play an instrument in person before buying one. That said, I may have a couple of instruments available. Send me an e-mail if you are itching to get in touch or dying to buy something.
• I have one of your weird instruments, now how do I tune the idiot thing? – Have a look at the illustrations in tuning your instrument.
• Rats, I broke a string! – Most of my instruments use loop end plain steel strings (not wound). Inside the tin on the neck extension I write the original string sizes. A good instrument shop will have them or you can order online. Canjos are another matter. Those strings are scavenged from “braided” steel cable. Drop me a line and I may have one to send you or you can get creative.
• How long does it take to make one? – I don’t know for certain (If I timed it I’m certain that I would cry at how little I manage to sell these things for), but an ukulele or dulcimer will take two weeks of working every evening after my day job and the better part of both weekends. A canjo is a much simpler thing and I will often make them in a batch of four or five in one weekend. For more about how I make instruments, have a look at the evolving how it’s made link in the top menu.
• Why cookie tins? – I took a real shine to the brash banjo like sound of steel strings and a steel resonator after I made my first cookie tin dulcimer. It had lots of barking, favored resonant frequencies as a result of the flat can surface and how the string tension changed its shape. Once I started shaping the tin bottoms and got them to behave, there was no going back. Every tin is an adventure in a thousand hammer blows.
• How do you shape the tins? – That’s easy and complicated. I hit them over and over again with a ball-peen hammer over a curved anvil. The metal stretches, becomes harder, and more brittle as I work. It’s loud and sweaty work. I have posted some pictures of the process in the how it’s made link in the top menu. More to come.
• Can a cookie tin instrument get LOUDER? – Why, yes! have a look at my fooling with an electric ukulele.
• Why not nylon strings? – I like the itch of the steel strings but I am getting around to making some instruments with the familiar and forgiving plastic strings.