Electric axe

This is my main electric guitar. It's a Yamaha Pacifica. The cat, of course, is none other than Flintlock himself, shooting his magic blue shit out of his claw. On the other hand, he's been de-clawed in the front, so where the blue shit comes from is beyond me...

A nice skully rattle

...that the missus got me a few years ago. Looks good on the Vodou Drum, n'est pas?

Kalimba 3

Here's a homemade kalimba using a coconut body, luan sounding board, an electrician's grounding bar as the bridge, and garden rake tines as the, uh, tines. The "buzzies" are from an old vegetable steamer.

In other news, I have to admit that I am winding down. I am frankly scraping the bottom of the barrel for goodies to blog about, and I'm afraid I won't make it until August (365 days). I've learned that 365 days of anything is a lot of things. I will continue on for a few more weeks, and I have a couple of interesting goodies left to show, but the end is near, dear readers.

I intend for my last post to be a panoramic image of the room I call "Flintlock's Arsenal", where most of my goodies are housed. When that day arrives, I shall also announce my next blog project, which will be quite different from, yet keeping with the aesthetic of, this one.

Kalimba 2

Another Kalimba. This one is handmade in Africa, but is probably a tourist item, since it doesn't have the rich overtones of the real deals. That said, this one produces some interesting tone colors, and it sounds nice in my homemade kalimba orchestra. Note the "buzzies" are little bits of aluminum can wrapped around the butt end of the lamellae. These are all printed in some foriegn (i.e., non English) font.

Washburn guitar

My main acoustic guitar, a Washburn D10S guitar in Caribbean Blue (it's faded to a drak greenish). I added the green/purple abalone shell pick guard as an aftermarket upgrade. Sorry the picture doesn't do it justice.

Djembe 1

Here's a little hand drum of African origin. Known as a Djembe (pronounced "Jem-Bee"), this is an hourglass shaped drum similar to the Middle Eastern Doumbek, but can be tuned using the lacings. This is a modern version, with a small (8") diameter head for travel.

At some point, I'd love to host a drum circle with all of my friends and hand drums...

Doumbek 1

Clay-shelled doumbek hand drum of recent make. I love hand drums, and have many of them in the Arsenal.

I see the moon

The moon guitar, that is. This is a yueqin - a Chinese lute. It's a modern version. Traditionally, it is strung with 4 strings. Right now, mine only has 3. I have it tuned to some weird tuning, and have used it on some of my recordings as "ambiance". Virtuosos on this instrument are tryly amazing...

This is a masinko

A masinko is an Ethiopian violin/fiddle played with a bow. This one was a gift to me, and had neither bow nor string. Before I knew anything about it and how it was played, I fashioned a wooden bridge for it and fit it with a fly fishing line string. I play it plucked, and adjust pitch by stopping the string with pinched fingers. It sounds pretty cool that way as a little rhythmic instrument with a nice bouncy yet earthy tone, but you really need to see out sounds or video of a master of this instrument playing it traditionally. Like this guy.