Whisky Bottle Box Fiddle prototype

[itscodyw]

not a dag instrument, might make myself one

[mallory161]

Send me one ... I'll make you a new video ... put a bigger bass bar in, bigger corner blocks, thicken up the middle, thin out and circle the edges, and I'll have you a fine video of a nice toned cigar/whiskey box fiddle. Maybe you'll even get a sad sound/lonesome sound out of it ... and send over the whiskey from the box too ...

[MrPenfold84]

She's actually quite cute!!

[twa33gunerman]

what was that song you are playing it sounds beautful i would realy like to know the name thanks

[Stilichos]

Watching it again, it sounds really good, not at all a bad instrument,

[catsdinner1]

yo dude !!! nice sound off that !!! nice unique tin - y sound,,,, did you make the neck yourself

[DoctorFiddle]

@catsdinner1 Indeed I did. This instrument I designed and made a few for Civil War reenactors. I am a professional designer and luthier...own Don Rickert Design.

[owlmen]

beauty, showwwww.

[SlideHound]

sweetest thing that ever came out of my crappy laptop speakers

[Stilichos]

Good playing but the violin could be better....

[DoctorFiddle]

@Stilichos Do you really think that something other than half of a wine box could sound better? :-)

[tachuman]

Remarkable - good player! Nice tune!

[idkcat97]

Pretty sounding!!!

[fgleich]

such a sweet and soulful sound

[flooflox]

Darci certainly coaxed some soul out of that.

[TheFutilites]

Since some have asked: the tune is "The Bright Hollow Fog" played in the style of John Williams (not the movie composer John Williams...) as he played it on his self-titled album.

Nice to hear the tune is also effective on fiddle!

[yeegf]

The truth is, as long as the strings and bows are well positioned and tuned. And the violinist knows how to play. It sounds okay. What matters most is the sound produced that goes into the violin body and echoes out as resonated sound. Something like that.

[DoctorFiddle]

You bring up a very important point. If Darci Jones (the player in the video) were not an outstanding musician, this instrument would sound pretty bad, as it is too small, the apertures are not tuned in any way, etc. to overcome the laws of physics, many of them discovered early by von Helmholz and later by Carleen Hutchins and her collaborators. That being said, the instrument sounds far better than I, an instrument designer (the one who made this one as an experiment), would have predicted.

[danielkeeton]

yanks?

[elfenbrot]

realy good sound for a cigar box :D

[smdtmtl]

This is a surprisingly good sounding instrument. Seems to have a pretty darned consistent tone through all the strings. I spend a lot of time trying to get a good tone out of a conventional violin, and this points out to me that evenness might be a bigger part of a nice sounding instrument than tonal character as such...  Nice playing, nice player, nice instrument... Booker's bourbon comes in a three sided wood box. The bourbon's good.. I wonder if the fiddle would be...

[psychodelicdragon]

lets see that blog on building the box, have access to fully equiped cabinet shop.

thanks and beautiful song and player. :)

[mellowthebear]

nice :)

[nanarocxie]

wat song is this

[DoctorFiddle]

I honestly don't know. What we do with prototypes is hand them to Darci, she practices for about 5 minutes and then through some unconscious process pulls some tunes from her incredibly large repertoire. It is an Irish air, which very well could have been used in Titanic by Celtic Storm (the group that did a lot of the music)...I'll find out from Darci if I can, but she may not even know the title. If it were Scottish or Ulster, I would probably know the name. Give me a few days.

[DoctorFiddle]

Thanks for your interest. The box is one we made. Its dimensions are 1/2 of a plausible hinged box that a bottle would fit into. So "Whisky Box" (note Scottish spelling) is just a name for an experiment. We wanted to find out if a simple crude box could be the basis of a reasonable-sounding pochette. There has been so much interest in this experimental instrument that we may start selling either plans (maybe even publish the plans for free) or even complete instruments.

[evanhperry]

what brand did you use? the only ones i can think of are bookers, noahs mill, and rowans creek. bookers isnt a full box though.

[Addiction747]

I love you DrFiddle! Marry me? :p

[Goldwing777777]

What kind of whiskey comes in a box? ;)

[DoctorFiddle]

Many top-shelf single malts still do, but the bottles used to (as in over 100 years ago) come in protective boxes often. You've got to upgrade your whiskey (or whisky for Scotch) and you too can get a box if you look around :-). Alternately, I can explain in a blog listing how to make such a box out of pine or basswood. Do you happen to have a table saw with a box-joint dado blade and box-joint jig?

P.S. Most important: "Whisky Box" is JUST A WHIMSICAL NAME for an experimental instrument.

[KRISHNARAJIYENGAR]

wow! this is great! can we use the cylindrical whiskey boxes cut into half for the belly with a wooden neck and nylon strings? what do you feel? how much do these types cost?

[JumpStop1]

i didn't think it would have sounded that good.

[Crystilwyn]

I thought just looking at it, it couldn't sound nice. But then she started playing it and wow...

[CampersDeath]

growing up in the heart of the bluegrass state of Kentucky... I can be half way around the world & this song would remind me of home.

:)

[washtubbass]

that is an amazing home made violin! absolutly wonderfuL !

[severelyaddictedgal]

wow... look around the room people... all those string instruments. you love it don't you?

[JeremioDeuce]

wooow just woooow

[MerlinTheDraconic]

Yeah, it is an important issue. The strings still weren't in tune after the first tuning.

[DoctorFiddle]

I look forward to seeing and hearing some of your videos with you playing...or do you only work with oscilloscope?

[MerlinTheDraconic]

As a matter of fact, I *do* work with an oscilloscope. I even made up a concerto for it! It's called "Fractal Algorithm in 440 Hz". It's a pity that there's no orchestra accurate enough to play it. Of course, my oscilloscopist friends are all too eager to try it, but if we recorded it for YouTube, it would be dreadfully flat. Even a half-cent could ruin my work!

[DoctorFiddle]

I guess we just have to start using AutoTune on the video sound tracks ;-)

[nanarocxie]

can u please tell me wat song that is is it Titanic or something

[ingej32]

no it's not titanic

[sbbinahee]

Sweet sweet sound (and lady!)

[Xrop]

While it was tunes I thought: Doesn't sound that nice.

But then.. WOW my head just blew away. A lovley sad sound!

[manavk]

I agree - Great Sound

[21centuryShaman]

WOW! The sound is remarkable! I want to build one. what wood is that box made of? Oh, I got the g-string joke....

[cjacks24]

Shep couldn't have a more talented/pretty spokeswoman ;) This sounds so crips at times it could almost pass for a wind instrument, right?