Diddly bows!

For all non-guitar instruments; mandolins, synths, kazoos, and anything else musical that doesn't fit elsewhere.

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Dave
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Diddly bows!

Post by Dave »

This thread is a little bit of a placeholder as I have some footage somewhere of me and a mate building our diddly bows. His is made out of a skateboard with bass strings. Rad. in the mean time here's a pic of mine below. I'm sure other have made diddly bows on this forum....post pics or vids!

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Bacchus
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Post by Bacchus »

Nice.

I thought a diddle bo was a string attached to a wall, though, and what you've made is basically just a simple two-string electric guitar.

I've been meaning to do something like this for ages.

Could you show the other end, with the tuning pegs?
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Post by rps-10 »

Dave, what stings did you use, or did you go hardcore and just use some wire found lying about?

A diddly bow is one of the things on my list to do/make. In fact I need to make two, one for myself (and the kids) the other for my hip hopping blues crossover mate.
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wwrrss
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Post by wwrrss »

Me and my mate joe built a self playing diddly bow and got to fuck about with it in the World Museum in Liverpool.

(It was a motor controlled by an Arduino for you nerds.)
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warning, pictures are massive and a bit crap.
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Dave
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Post by Dave »

Wowsers Sean, that's immensely cool, especially impressed you build a giant dinosaur skelington to go with it!

RPS – the only wire I had to hand was old guitar strings! Probably a G and an A or E for a bass and treble action tuned to octaves.

Paul - Not sure what is the exact definition of a diddly bow in that, yes, they were often hammered right onto ones porch, but the accepted tradition also seems inclusive of free standing planks. I'll grab you a pic of the other end tonight and post. Maybe the video too, if time allows. My bow needs a slight upgrade actually – a less wobbly ‘nut’ and better tuners, also there are triangular bottles that would work better as a bridge than the round one on there.

I’ve got a knackered violin I’m going to turn into a diddly bow for the lulz.
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Dave
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Post by Dave »

BacchusPaul wrote:Could you show the other end, with the tuning pegs?
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