good vibrations

This class is about how light, sound, and time have so many different properties, and what kind of daily applications there are. This unit is about sound, and the other properties it has. One example is the guitar. An acoustic guitar demonstrates reverberation, wavelength, frequency, and all while sounding good. We went to a violin maker to ask about acoustics and waves. One thing I'm really proud of is my physical project, which is an electric diddley bow. I struggled with written notes for the most part, but that's getting better. 

                                                        NO, diddley bow, 2023

This specific project is about creating an instrument that demonstrates all the concepts of sound we have gone over. So, we made a one-stringed instrument that shows each of the concepts we have learned. Here is an image of mine. My diddley bow creates sound by a wound string vibrating in front of a piece of metal called the pickup, which then takes those waves and sends them into an output, and carries a signal to an amplifier.

Basically, the diddley bow's string vibrates, which produces sound waves and causes differences in pressure waves. The magnets in a pickup catch the vibrations of the string, causing a disturbance and creating fluctuation, which is channeled into output through tone and volume knobs, which of course just toggle some aspects of the signal.

NO, diagram of the diddley bow, 2023

                                                NO, playing diddley bow with fretboard, 2023

math stuff

My string is a .70-gauge bass string.


String height- 1.6 in at nut 1.4 at the bridge.

harmonic marks are at:/
9.5 in, 13 in, 19 in, 25.8 in, 29 in.


My scale length is 38 in.


The loudest my diddley bow was acoustically reached about 70DB. About 10,000,000 times louder than the threshold of hearing. i wish i could see how loud it'd go through my amp, but I don't feel like that would be a good thing to do in a classroom. 


It is tuned to about d1, or about 37hz

The area of my trapezoid is 57in^2

The open note frequency of my string is 37hz.

2nd harmonic 74hz = 4.635135m

3rd harmonic 111hz= 3.09009m

4th harmonic148hz = 2.317568m

The trapezoid my bow makes has an area of 51^2in and the only two angles that have changed are 92 degrees to 88 degrees. The other two angles are 90 degrees.

conclusion


If I were to do this again, I'd make a more extended scale and more eye-pleasing diddley bow. mine looks pretty bad but it works and makes a sound. I was originally inspired to do this due to videos online and how cool they were, doing covers of Meshuggah on shovel guitars, using piano strings on pieces of wood, everything you could imagine. I love what I came up with and I'll probably use it for fun in the future.