How to Make Musical Instruments with Recycled Materials

By Marc Bristol
Updated on October 27, 2022
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by Adobestock/Richard Marx

Learn how to make musical instruments with recycled materials using a metal washtub, the washboard, and playing spoons to make homegrown music.

One way to save money and have a good time all at once is by making your own music — and your own musical instruments — at home. Here are a few ideas for making homemade instruments that do just that without spending a lot of cash or even going down to the local music store!

The Gutbucket

Any homegrown music, whether hammered out on the piano, guitar, banjo, fiddle or whatever, becomes more interesting and more fun for everyone involved as more and more instruments are added to the festivities. Especially if those instruments contribute some tonal and rhythmic coloring of their own. And one of the most basic of all the additions you can make to any “pickin’ and grinnin'” group is the down-home washtub bass or “gutbucket.” Although the instrument’s strong suit is solid rhythmic accompaniment, it can produce true notes (much to the amazement of electric bass players!) and has a range of about an octave and a half.

Start this construction project by scrounging up a No. 1 or No. 2 washtub or similar large metal container. Don’t settle for one with its bottom rusted out because for this purpose that bottom has to be strong.

The neck for your gutbucket should be approximately 4-1/2 feet long and can be anything from a whittled-down hardwood sapling to an old rake handle or even a piece of steel conduit that is attached to the tub with a strap hinge. Closet hanger dowel (1-1/4 inch) — or an old oar — works real well. The stronger the neck of your instrument the better since lighter ones tend to absorb string vibration and dampen a gutbucket’s sound.

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