Spring Thing V1

From the Archives - Originally posted Nov. 18, 2007

In the aftermath of the ATG Mini project, I had a four foot piece of 1x4 collecting dust in the work room. So last weekend I decided to nail a spring to it and see how it sounded. One thing led to another and I ended up with this monstrosity:

So, really the project was going to be a little different. I wanted to build an instrument based on drone strings, where the big spring could be plucked/beat/slammed and the vibrations would cause the drone strings to hum etc etc. I couldn't find a decent way to mount and tune the strings, without investing a ton of money in tuning pegs, or compromising some of the basic goals of the project. And thus, while wandering the local Home Depot, I struck on the replacement spring aisle and decided to do away with drone strings and go with drone springs!

Things still weren't going as well as I had planned. The new springs I bought were either too tight to pull to a respectable length, or weren't strong enough to retain spring when overstretched. I settled on these four springs, and ended up with a surprising amount of diversity in the sounds produced.

Then I had to decide how I wanted to get the sound from the springs to the hard drive. I haven't had much luck with springs and pickups, so I decided early in the game that I would just use a contact mic for this project. Keep it simple, et al. With that in mind, I decided to mount one end of all the springs at the same place, and have a plate under them where the contact mic can be placed. I notched out a recess for the plate and made sure that each of the mounting hooks screwed down and touches the plate. This ensures that the vibrations have better transfer to the contact mic, and also allows for better transmission of sympathetic vibrations.

The last stroke of inspiration came at the end. I had originally bought cute little hammer-on felt feet for this, but started thinking about my dwindling desktop space. I thought it would be cute to have a stand, like a cello, so I could lean it against my should while sitting down and play it like a real instrument. In looking around the the work room, I found an old lamp stand which turned out to be even better. Now the unit can easily stand on its own, off to the side and out of the way until I need to use it. Perfect.

I'll post sounds later. I haven't had a proper chance to play with it, because I'm still waiting for the glue to dry on the stand.

Until then, etc etc...

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Updated:

Sounds.