KVR Audio

kaden · Post by **kaden** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 2:56 am

So I get this Email this morning, the gist of which being: "if you are the person who made the Eccentric Genius Piezo-Electric Kalimba" please call Mickey Hart ASAP at XXX YYY ZZZZ.

Mickey "drums in the Grateful FREAKING Dead" Hart.

No shit.

So I called the number...5 minutes later ("we're trying to track him down in the building") I'm talking to the great man himself. Who grills me about the validity of my design approach. Relentlessly, and with an intimidating degree of precision.
Picture the the Shao-Lin Drum Master testing one of the street urchins hanging around outside the temple. I just about shit myself 4 separate times.

Anyway, I sold him on the idea of cymbal bronze tines, a high mass bridge and acoustically tuning of the components, so he ordered one.

I'm building a musical instrument for Mickey "drums for the Grateful FREAKING Dead" Hart. I mean, seriously, how cool is that?

Doncha love it when Luck happens?

K

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 2:58 am

cooooooooooooooooool

bluedad · Post by **bluedad** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 3:05 am

Beardedone · Post by **Beardedone** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 3:13 am

Nice one!

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 5:19 am

replies from the electric cia

does it have a whammy bar?

kaden · Post by **kaden** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 6:16 am

It's gonna be a solidbody, 11 tines tuned to a D diatonic. I have most of a Paiste 602 medium ride that I'll cut the tines from. Ridiculously overscaled brass bridge to help eke out a bit more sustain, and stereo 1" piezo elements under a brass bridge footplate. I'm trying to get as much mass as possible into for a whole bunch of different reasons. 1/4" TRS output and a single volume control.

I just finished shaping the body from a chunk of *very* nice flame maple.

This thing is gonna rock.

K

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 2:27 pm

you're like the spirit of every boy ever. didn't you ever grow up? :)

Krakatau · Post by **Krakatau** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 2:37 pm

Aren't you undirectly refering to the : "tales from topographic oceans " ?

YES...

( or no ..? )

kaden · Post by **kaden** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 4:22 pm

you're like the spirit of every boy ever. didn't you ever grow up?

Tried it, didn't like it. This is better.

Seriously, that's about the best compliment I have ever received ever... Ta very much.

Aren't you undirectly refering to the : "tales from topographic oceans " ?

Absolutely. Steve Howe's usage of the 360 Systems polyphonic Kalimba synthesizer set the benchmark for an entire generation.

K

kaden · Post by **kaden** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 1:03 am

Finished the piece... It's beetroot extract and tannin on maple, with a ridiculous amount of custom brasswork. D pentatonic, stereo out, weighs about 6 pounds (the mass is the secret for feedback suppression...)

K

dystonia_ek · Post by **dystonia_ek** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 2:51 am

That's one hell of a beautiful instrument.

Sicklecell666 · Post by **Sicklecell666** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 3:00 am

Holy Shit!!

I want one of these!!!

intel · Post by **intel** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 3:05 am

I know... I was looking over the site just yesterday and drooling over the trebuchet and ballista.

kaden · Post by **kaden** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 1:35 pm

Ta very much fellas...

Yanno, there's a woman in California who's bought 3 guillotines in the last 3 months, each one a little bigger and a little...er...more efficient. Inquiring minds wanna know.... Cigars? Bratwurst? Initiation Rituals??

Wiggy.

K

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 3:26 pm

stay contiguous, o awareness

Tales of the Electric Kalimba