Creating a Hybrid Drum/Electric Guitar Musical Instrument

In 2016, I built a drum with tunable guitar strings stretched across the rim and and an electric guitar pickup under the head. It was weird.

I used the drum in an improvised score for a dance piece choreographed by Sue Roginsky and Casey Auvant, which was part of a series of arts gatherings called On The Line. View this short documentary film about On The Line here.

I think the only recording I made of it was this experimenting I did on the first day I had it working. I developed it a little further, but it’s essence can be seen here. Combining the acoustic resonance of the head along with the pickups feeding back from a speaker, and some interesting effects made it a drone-y and fun musical world to improvise in.

Here I am playing with the drum/guitar instrument I recently built. It's still a work in progress. I'm using an Eventide Mixing Link, Boss RC-3 looping pedal...