Oakland Discovery Center

Materials • a tube , cardboard ABS plastic, and bamboo all work • heavy mono filament fishing line 80-100 lb test. • 1'' wood screws • small eye screws • hard board • 1x2'' or 3/4'' dowel Tools • drill with small drill bits • hot glue gun • fin toothed wood saw The first step to making a tube zither is laying out the where the hole will be drilled so the string will be relatively straight. We used a piece of wood to mark a ring around the tube about 1 1/2'' from the top and bottom of the tube. Then we used a door jam to make four parallel line along the the length of the tube, we will drill holes at or near where the line cross the rings around the ends of the tube. Next drill some pilot holes for your screws, we opted to put the wood screws in a straight line and the eye screws on an angle for a long low string...

Tube Zither  This is our attempt to replicate a Valiha, a type of zither from Madagascar usually made using a piece of bamboo.  We pre-drilled small holes in a piece of abs pipe we had laying around and used wood screws and eye screws attach the strings just like in the canjo. We put a small pieces of wood on the point of the screws were sticking into the pipe (not visible) and used similar small blocks of wood with grooves in them to function as bridges.  The first test produced a soft but clearly audible sound, that could be adjusted by moving the bridges, tightening or loosening the strings or figuring them like a guitar.  As the tube functions as both the resonator and the neck of the instrument its a very simple and versatile.  We will try to make a more standard model employing a cardboard tube in the near future and will post instructions when we do.   Tube trumpet Some times referred to as a Hosaphone, there are hundreds of different examp...