Check out this guide to DIY instrument kits. Discover how using a kit to make homemade instruments can become an exciting project for you or the entire family.
Use a Kit to Make Homemade Instruments
If you enjoy handcrafts, you may want to build your own instrument. Several companies make kits and offer good technical support. You don’t need to be a master carpenter, but some basic skills and basic tools are necessary. If you don’t already have the skills, you might want to ask someone who does to help you build your first instrument.
“The neat thing we see is whole families getting together to build an instrument,” says Jerry Brown of Musicmaker’s Kits in Stillwater, Minnesota. “It doesn’t require so much skill as it does time, motivation and interest. So it really can be a great way for the family to work together. Then, they have something really nice that can stay in the family.”
Companies often rank their kits in order of skill level and the number of hours required for the project. A simple hammered dulcimer takes about 10 to 20 hours, a mandolin — one of the more complex projects — can take in excess of 40 hours.
Reputable kit manufacturers have hotlines available for free technical support and also offer replacement parts, often for free, in case you really mess something up.
Kits can range from $85 for a teardrop dulcimer to more than $2,000 for top-of-the-line instruments. Although a handbuilt instrument can cost about half the price of a finished instrument, most kit builders do their projects for the satisfaction of creating something by hand, says Jay Hostetter of Stewart-MacDonald Guitar Shop Supply in Athens, Ohio.
For good discussions of which kits to buy and which to avoid, spend some time on one of the online music forums. Here are a few of the kit-makers that have been recommended:
Stewart-MacDonald
Athens, OH
www.stewmac.com
Musicmaker’s Kits Inc.
Stillwater, MN
www.musikit.com
Cripple Creek Dulcimer Kits
Manitou Springs, CO
www.dulcimer.net
Janet Davis Music Company
Bella Vista, AR
www.janetdavismusic.com
Rhythm Revolution
Links to many websites for drumming circles and drum makers.
www.drummingcircle.com/links.html
Drum Brothers
Handmade drums, or kits for do-it-yourself.
www.drumbrothers.com
Lyrics
Cowpie Bunkhouse:
Lots of country, plenty of Western.
www.roughstock.com/cowpie/
Lyrics World for Pop/Top 40 songs by decade:
www.ntl.mairlx.com.br/pfilho/summer.html
Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music:
Images of covers and sheet music.
www.levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/index.html
One of the most extensive lyric repositories and link libraries you’ll find:
www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/6338/lyric.htm
K.C. Compton is senior editor at MOTHER EARTH NEWS, and formerly was Editor in Chief of our sister publications, The Herb Companion and GRIT. A huge fan of the food chain, from molecules to meals on the table, K.C. is passionate about the idea that most of what we need to be healthy can be found in the garden.
Read more about becoming part of a music group: Making Homemade Music.
