2017 Wildwood Spring Rumbler #2

After I'd been "at work" for an hour, my kids came downstairs because of the noise emanating from my workshop. Last night they'd gotten to "demo" rumbler #1 and they loved it and now my youngest bounced and danced at the noise this morning -- to follow it up by running into to kitchen and declaring, "Mommy, Daddy's gone crazy!"

Sort-of, I guess! I had a few folks asking about these since I posted the first and so this is #2, made along the same lines as the first, but with a single higher-output pickup, one less spring, the springs at a little more tension, and a tone knob as well as a volume knob. It's also made from an old kids' bank and so it has a door you can slam (you an hear it in the clip when the whole thing goes wobblywobblybang). I also added a weird cheese-grater attachment to the side for percussive effects.

In the clip you can hear me going through weird paces but the unexpectedly cool bit is that, when I plugged it into a bass amp to freak out with the kids, I found that plucking the springs gets a very industrial, eerie sound in the bass register and that three of them were at least voiced in the same minor key. So now that's making me want to make a "spring harp" with tunable springs to do just that. But -- back to this instrument -- the body is thinner than the first one and so it's a bit more responsive but less up-front metallic. The pickup being in the middle of the springs also means it senses more low-end which can be good (or bad) depending on what you're doing.

It's a bit important to keep the springs as close to the pickup as they can be, so I solder the ends to keep them in the right positions.

I've bolted the lock in the open position so door-slamming isn't a hassle.

Here's the "SuperStrat" humbucker pickup.

The pots are full-sized Alpha 500k units and the jack is a Switchcraft one.