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how does this instrument work?
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=35776		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  nyazzip [ Wed Mar 14, 2012 4:38 pm ]
Post subject:  how does this instrument work?
someone in another post about inlays mentioned this vietnamese instrument, the dan bau. check out the video. how is he making different notes? it almost appears to be all pinch harmonics or something. i don't get it, but i want one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37qw5vNyYzE

skip to 00:45 to get to it
Author:  Daniel Minard [ Wed Mar 14, 2012 4:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: how does this instrument work?
Thanks for posting the link. Very cool!
The player is using the heel of his hand to hit a harmonic, plucking with the pick & then varying the note with the vertical post. Amazing effect. Especially for a one stringed instrument.
Author:  theguitarwhisperer [ Wed Mar 14, 2012 5:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: how does this instrument work?
Apparently the vertical stick is a whammy bar.
Author:  Bill Hodge [ Wed Mar 14, 2012 6:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: how does this instrument work?
Here's an interesting rendition of Scarborough Fair on the same instrument with guitar accompaniment.
Author:  alan stassforth [ Wed Mar 14, 2012 7:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: how does this instrument work?
I want one.
Anybody know where to get plans?
laughing6-hehe
Author:  Mike OMelia [ Thu Mar 15, 2012 8:25 am ]
Post subject:  how does this instrument work?
I wonder if there are alternative tunings.
Author:  Billy T [ Thu Mar 15, 2012 8:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: how does this instrument work?
I gotz ta get one!! That would piss every body off so bad!!!

Sounds like a low tech Theremin! Space music!

I saw a Chinese coffee can with a skin taut over the top with a stick and string sounds a lot like this thing.

Mike O'Melia wrote:
I wonder if there are alternative tunings.
Infinite open tunings!! laughing6-hehe
Author:  DennisK [ Thu Mar 15, 2012 8:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: how does this instrument work?
Very cool instrument! But dude, it sounds like he's playing along with Casio keyboard auto-accompaniment laughing6-hehe The second video is great though.
Billy T wrote:
Sounds like a low tech Theremin! Space music!

Indeed, and looks like one too :)

I wonder how bad it sounds if you miss the pinch and twang the open string.
Author:  Mike OMelia [ Thu Mar 15, 2012 10:08 am ]
Post subject:  Re: how does this instrument work?
I dunno. Seemed overly theatrical for me. pfft Can you see Eddie Van Halen waving his hands around like that between riffs?

But the dude has pretty hair. ;)

Mike
Author:  Joe Hill [ Thu Mar 15, 2012 10:13 am ]
Post subject:  Re: how does this instrument work?
It looks like sliding the string attachment ball up or down on the bar changes the tuning. The tighter you grasp the bar the deeper the note. Dang Nyazzip, you really got my gears turning on this one. Thanks for this thread, it is way too kewl. While I was surfing the Dan Bau I found this video of the Dan Bau and some other unusual instruments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAp7g4Wn ... ure=colike

Thanks, Now I want one...lol [:Y:]
Author:  woodbutcher50 [ Thu Mar 15, 2012 11:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: how does this instrument work?
For the curiouser types, here's a tutorial I found by googling.

http://dantranh.com/danbau/playingdanbau.html

Mark
Author:  TimAllen [ Thu Mar 15, 2012 3:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: how does this instrument work?
I was in Viet Nam a couple of years ago tagging along with a touring music festival (http://www.swmusic.org/ascending_dragon ... _home.html). The dan bau was one of the instruments in the ensemble. I couldn't stop myself from buying one. In the process, I learned of few things of interest to people who like musical instruments.

The dan bau used to be a folk instrument, played acoustically, which made it very quiet. In recent decades, it is almost always amplified and played through a guitar amplifier. It is used this way in traditional and popular music, as well as in contemporary classical music.

The dan bau I have has a simple pickup made from a piece of steel with a coil apparently hand-wound around it. The instrument uses a bass viol tuner at one end, to which the string is attached under the soundboard.The string is threaded through a hole in the soundboard and goes over a fret-like brass saddle in a small bridge. The other end is looped around the pitch changing "whammy bar," which is made from buffalo horn with a turned wooden handle that slides over it. Like many contemporary dan bau's, mine folds in the middle for transport. To fold the dan bau you have to detach the string. Some of the pictures below don't include the string.

The top of the instrument appears to be spruce or some other conifer. The rest of the instrument is some mahogany-like wood, stained a sort of rosewood color. It is inlaid with mother of pearl and abalone shell depicting a traditional Vietnamese wedding procession, with a few flowers and stock shapes thrown in. The inlay is cut well, and inlaid in a workmanlike manner but using a lot of filler. Inlay work is somewhat less expensive in Viet Nam than the US. Without inlay, the dan bau would have been $40; the one I bought with extensive inlay was $70. If I'd shopped I could have bought it cheaper, but I didn't mind buying it from a folklore museum knowing that the extra mark-up would help support the museum.

If you go to the music festival link above and go to the "related links" page, you can find a lot more info about Vietnamese music.
Author:  Billy T [ Fri Mar 16, 2012 3:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re: how does this instrument work?
Huhm! A 12 string Dan Bau.....now we're talk'in Baby!!! :D
Author:  nyazzip [ Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re: how does this instrument work?
i'm still confused about the "whammy bar" anchor point....is there a hinge? or does the bar just flex? no metal? what keeps it from wearing out in short order?
thanks for the pics. i would probably buy one if i could first see one in person, but i don't really want to just spring on one sight unseen.
sounds like a cross between a pedal steel and a theremin, to me
Author:  TimAllen [ Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: how does this instrument work?
The whammy bar (can't think of a better name) just holds via a friction fit in a hole in the tail block. At the end, its shape is a tapering rectangle, starting from about 3/8 by 3/8 (all measurements in inches) and then, over the next 1 1/2 of its length, tapering to about 5/16 by 3/16. About the last 5/8" of the bar fits in the hole. The end of the bar has been shaped by sanding in such a way that it rocks back and forth a bit but not a lot--maybe 1/8. The bar, which is made of buffalo horn, flexes a little bit which gives you a little more play and kind of smooths out the transitions as you move back and forth.

My guess is that to work properly, this arrangement has to have exactly the right amount of play and stretch. The stretching only has to get your pitch up to a half-step below the next higher harmonic. Too much movement and its hard to play in tune, too little and it can't stretch enough to get the different notes. Probably setting this action requires some experience. As the bar and heel block wear, the slop would taken up by the bar penetrating more deeply into the tail block. The taper might need to be touched up now and then with sandpaper or whatever they shape it with. Eventually the tail block might need to be bored out and re-lined with wood.

It's not that hard to get some notes playing it, but to really play it obviously requires as much study and practice as any other musical instrument. I didn't get it to play it so much as an expression of my MIAS (Musical Instrument Acquisition Syndrome). As a MIAS object it has many advantages--it's novel, really rather lovely, more portable than metallophones, and requires no valve oil.
Author:  jfmckenna [ Fri Mar 16, 2012 3:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: how does this instrument work?
How do you make notes? Harmonics? doesn't look like he is fretting anything.
Author:  nyazzip [ Fri Mar 16, 2012 4:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: how does this instrument work?
so basically: 1 long hollow tube or box with solid end block;1 loose fitting rod; 1 tuner;1 string; and a pickup. maybe i will actually try one sometime then, it doesn't sound very costly to make! i wonder how 3" steel pipe would be as a body...
that buffalo must be darn strong to hold a taught string at that angle...guess i'd have to use metal
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