HOW TO MAKE: ELECTRIC THUMB PIANO

HOW TO MAKE: ELECTRIC THUMB PIANOS

Jonathan Hodges [email protected]

www.RetroScientificResearch.blogspot.com


MATERIALS:

WOODEN CIGAR BOX

7 BICYCLE SPOKES

2 BOLTS WITH NUTS

GROUND BAR KIT

PIEZO ELECTRIC DISC

6-8” OF SPEAKER WIRE

1/4 OUPUT JACK

SOLDER

TAPE

HOT GLUE STICK

SAND PAPER

TOOLS:

DRILL

12” RULER

1/4” DRILL BIT

1” HOLE SAW

FLATHEAD SCREW DRIVER

PLIERS

SOLDERING IRON

WIRE STRIPPERS

HOT GLUE GUN

PEN OR PENCIL

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Jonathan Hodges

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STEP 1—DRILLING HOLES FOR THE BRIDGE OF YOUR THUMBPIANO

The ground bar kit is your thumb piano’s bridge. The bridge holds they keys and transfers their vibration into the cigar box.

First make a mark 1” from the end of the box.

Center the brass bar on the mark you made and make two additional marks through the holes in the bar.

Firmly grasp your cigar box with one hand and with your dominant hand drill the holes you have marked. ALWAYS WEAR GOGGLES WHEN USING POWER TOOLS!

Jonathan Hodges

[email protected]



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STEP 1—DRILLING HOLES FOR THE BRIDGE OF YOUR THUMBPIANO

Now your box should look like this. Sand around these holes to remove debris so you don't get splinters.

Jonathan Hodges

[email protected]


Slide the brass bar through the side of the bridge If you drilled your holes correctly everything should line up like this.


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STEP 2—DRILLING YOUR SOUND HOLE

The next step is drilling your sound hole. The sound hole allows the vibrations to escape the wooden box.

Measure and mark 2” away from the opposite side from where your bridge will be placed.

Firmly grasp the box with one hand while using your dominant hand to drill the hole. Make sure your hand holding the box is no Where near the hole saw. ALWAYS WEAR GOGGLES WHEN USING POWER TOOLS!!!

Jonathan Hodges

[email protected]


Sand away any splinters or debris.


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STEP 3– DRILLING THE HOLE FOR THE OUPUT JACK

This is your output jack. It will allow you to connect your thumb piano to an amplifier.

It would be nice to put the jack through the side of the box but most cigar boxes sides are too thick so you will have to mount it to the top of the box.

Measure and mark 0.5” from each side.

Jonathan Hodges

[email protected]


Again, grasp the box firmly with one hand and drill the hole with your dominant hand. After-wards sand away splinters and debris.


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STEP 4– ASSEMBLING YOUR THUMB PIANO

Now you can start assembling your thumb piano. Line the bridge up to the holes you drilled and insert the bolts.

Thread the nuts onto the bolts from the inside of the box. Tighten them as much as you can with your fingers.

Now use pliers to tighten the nuts. DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN NUTS. If your box begins making cracking sounds stop tightening your nuts.

Jonathan Hodges

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Next use a flat head screw driver to loosen all of the screws on your bridge. These screws hold your keys.


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STEP 4– ASSEMBLING YOUR THUMB PIANO

Insert each bicycle spoke into the bridge and tighten the screws to hold them in place.

The length of each key of your thumb piano de-termines its pitch. Experiment with different tun-ings.

Jonathan Hodges

[email protected]


Next you will be making an acoustic pick up for your thumb piano so you can plug it into: An amplifer/effects pedals/computer speakers/recording program/etc

Some of your keys may seem like they are too close to the box. Use the pliers to gently bend them away from the box. If the keys seem like they are too close to-gether for your comfort use the pliers to bend them away from each other.


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STEP 5– MAKING AN ACOUSTIC PICKUP AKA CONTACT MIC

This is a piezo electric disc. It is kind of like a microphone, but microphones can only record vibrations through air. Piezo electric discs pick up vibrations through any surface they are mounted to and turn them into a small electrical current.

First you have to understand audio jacks. A 1/4” instrument cable has a plug on the end that is separated into 2 sections, the tip and the sleeve. The audio signal travels through a wire that’s connect to the tip and the sleeve is connected to ground.

Jonathan Hodges

[email protected]


Take your wire and strip each end. Separate the white and black wire just a little bit. The white wire will be your signal wire and the black will be your ground wire.

Some audio jacks have more than one place to connect a wire because they are used for stereo signals and some are used to turn off speakers when a plug is insert-ed. Inspect your plug to see which connec-tions touch the sleeve and tip.

GROUND

SLEEVE SIGNAL

TIP


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Next you want to add a small amount of solder to each exposed piece of wire. This is called tinning the wire and helps you solder to things that already have solder on them. To help hold things in place use a small amount of tape to hold your wire to your work surface. Then apply hear with the side of the soldering iron tip. Slowly touch the solder to the wire till it is fully covered.

The piezo electric disc also has a signal and ground connection.

Jonathan Hodges

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PIEZO ELECTRIC DISCS ARE SENSITVE TO HEAT. There is a special soldering technique to solder to a piezo electric disc. First tape down the disc to your work station so it wont move around. Next touch the wire to your soldering iron. You should be able to begin to see the solder melting on the wire. When the wire/solder is in this state move the sol-dering iron and wire together to the solder point on the piezo electric disc. The melted solder on the wire will begin to met the solder on the disc (this only takes a couple seconds.) When the wire is fully connected to the disc remove the soldering iron and wait around 5 seconds for the solder to fully harden. Test your connections by giving them a gen-tle tug.

GROUND

BLACK WIRE

SLEEVE

SIGNAL

WHITE WIRE

TIP


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Next you will solder the jack. REMEMBER!!!!! TIP IS SIGNAL(WHITE WIRE) AND GROUND IS SLEEVE(BLACK WIRE). Tape the jack to your work-space. Insert the wires through the holes on the solder tabs of the jack. Then use your soldering iron to heat up the wire and jack while applying solder.

YOU HAVE NOW CREATED A CONTACT MIC! Plug it into an amp and give it a small tap to see if its working. If it is begin experimenting taping it to different surfaces and striking them to get new interesting sounds!

Jonathan Hodges

[email protected]


GROUND

BLACK WIRE

SLEEVE

Now tape your contact mic to the inside of your box underneath the bridge. If you want to make your mic permanent apply hot glue over the tape. Next insert the jack through its hole and tighten the nut firmly with pliers.

Now you have your very own electric thumb piano! Write a song and have some FUN!

Self Improvement

HOW TO MAKE: ELECTRIC THUMB PIANO