satyatar by sir salamander (DIY musical instrument) drone music

musical instrument built by myself. a painstaking process that took roughly a year to develop, design and execute. the instrument itself is in the shape of a sperm whale. on the sides and top there is a woodcut etching that was woodburned to give it depth. the satyatar (strings that speak truth) consists of a hollowed out gourd resonating chamber as well as a secondary wooden resonating chamber of poplar wood. the gourd section has a wooden top with a soundhole. the bridge that sits atop it and has four legs. the strings feed through one side with tension, and the feed through the other half freely. this creates a surface to rest the palm on. the bridge is made of brazilian bubinga as well as the nut. there are four strings on that section. two in a course both tuned to C as drones. then there is a G and a C primarily for melody. on the secondary section there is a kanun (arabic harp) section of 12 strings. next to it is a kalimba (african thumb piano) section of 7 tongues that vibrate when struck. The instrument has 6 contact mics on it and i am building a mixer/preamp for those soon. i hope you enjoy my creation and please feel free to subscribe, friend me, or send me a message if you have questions.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• DIY
• musical
• instrument
• home
• made
• middle
• eastern
• music
• psychedelic
• handmade
• gourd
• contact
• mic
• homebrew
• drone
• craft
• UFO
• whale
• jellyfish
• acoustic
• kalimba
• harp
• kanun
• thumb
• piano
• slide
• guitar

[profwaldo]

What a great instrument, nice craftsmanship and very creative !

I love the sound of it and the music you played throughout this video...very-Very Cool !!!

I just love stuff like this so I gotta' fav' this vid. Nice work man. :-)

Hey, if you have a minute come check out my "heavy metal" guitar.

[sirsalamander]

@profwaldo Thanks for the kind words and support. I just finished watching your video and was blown away by the inventive quality of it. I think it's great when people can look at an object that has a specific utility and turn it into something completely different. Great work!

[bad1marius]

wow...your improvisation was like a movie soundtrack...a very good soundtrack...amazing instrument you built there ! congrats!

[sirsalamander]

@bad1marius Thank you for the kind words, they are much appreciate. Excellent mbira skills by the way. Are you building those yourself with gourds? Also, consider utilizing contact microphones with the mbira/kalimba. The kalimba section of my instrument sounds great amplified, and using it with pedals is a lot of fun. Let me know if you want any more info on the subject and I can give you some tips.

[Zomboes]

lovely!

[sirsalamander]

@Zomboes why thank you, glad you enjoy it.

[TheMagebear]

Wow wantitwantitwantitwantitwantit­wantit... but without the calimba. Kanun = swarmandal? Does it sympathetically resonate? Have you reinvented the vina?

[freeman2545]

that thing is cool as shit...wish i could mess with it some

[profwaldo]

@sirsalamander I repeat, that is one really cool instrument !

Hey btw, thanks... right back atcha'. :-)

[TheRogueShadow1]

Beautiful craftsmanship, amazing instrument and wonderful sound.