One of the biggest and most complex instruments of our production. It is a four-octave, plucked-keyboard instrument, made 100% from recycled materials. If we would like to compare it to a “real instrument” it is similar to a harpsichord – both are plucked-keyboard instruments but the strings in the Klawiszon are plucked by… comb teeth. Building this instrument took us about 9 months, comprising 1200 working hours. Very often we worked from an early morning until 3 am. the following day. Blood, sweat and sometimes even tears – was it worth it? After putting in place the last screw, we think that definitely yes.
This is by far our biggest instrument (155x84x155cm), and at the same time, it contains the largest number of miniature elements. The smallest ones have dimensions of 2x5mm (there are 49 of them). The plucking mechanism that moves only one string is built out of 15 miniature elements. For instance, to one polished M2 nut (diameter 5.5mm), we glued 3 elements using two different adhesives - a high tensile strength adhesive and a pick-proof adhesive.
About the construction we could talk for hours…
We’ve made many of the elements ourselves using wooden strips or by cutting and bending sheet metal. These processes cost us 2 vises, which we simply overloaded.
How does it work? In our project we primarily focused on the simplicity. The simplest things are always the most effective ones, so the mechanism of the instrument is based mostly on the lever mechanism.
Some of the material we used to complete this project:
- apartment doors x2 (as the base of the instrument - top and bottom parts)
- front of the wardrobe (the lid)
- table legs x8
- a 19-liter mineral water bottles (second resonance chamber)
- threshold strips (keys)
- a sponge from the mattress
- hair combs x2
- 49 strings from bass and electric guitars
- A4 sized sheet of thick felt x3
- A4 sized sheet of thin felt
- sheet metal ca. 1x1,5 m
- wardrobe hinges x2
- wooden beams of different diameters x15
- metal angles x9
- threaded rod (M12) x3
- threaded rod (M3) x2
- threaded rod (M3) x3
- nuts (M12) x 150
- nuts (M2) x 50
- different types of nuts and washers x50
- over 200 wood and metal screws
- over 200 nails - with only 3 of them fulfilling their original function
- cable ties x49
- parquet varnish
- black spray paint x2
- liquid plastic
- pick-proof adhesive
- high tensile strength adhesive
- Our own imagination :)
To build the Klawiszon we used the most basic tools and the work was done in a studio apartment in a block of flats.
The premiere of the Klawiszon was postponed several times. Due to some problems that have occurred during the building process, the instrument was finally presented in the finals of the "Poland’s Got Talent" show.
The cost of the instrument: 0 Euro
The construction time: 9 months
The construction of the instrument – video:
Ghe construction of the instrument – photo gallery:
