Gizmodo: violin

Portable Pianist Sounds Dirty, but Makes Sense with These Fingertip Keyboard Gloves

Jack Loftus — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:00:00 EDT

There's no definition for the word "worthless" in the Hammacher Schlemmer dictionary; these Fingertip Piano Gloves are "ingenious," a portable subway piano concerto waiting to happen. Each glove plays an entire octave in the key of C, and the final three notes in the scale are achieved by pressing down on the palm. The gloves connect to a wire that connects to a speaker, which allows the whole family to enjoy. They ship on October 17 for $70, but the epic symphonies your little one will make using these five-fingered feats of engineering will be priceless. Or not. Ever strangle someone in the key of C before? [Hammacher Schlemmer]

Modded Violin adds Steampunk-esque Styling, One Extra String

Kit Eaton — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:22:00 EDT

Steampunk modding, love it or hate it, has caught on and led to everything from LCD monitors to Nerf rifles getting the treatment. And now we have this steampunk-ish modded violin, that's seriously cut-down and gutted, and packs in tubes and wires and faux valves. Plus one extra string.

Made by modder Molly "Porkshanks" Friedrich, it was built for Nathan Johnstone of the band Abney Park, and debuted at a performance at Maker Faire the other day.

Molly seems to have ignored the fact that violins get their sound quality from the vibrations of their classic shape and structure, so we've no idea what it sounds like, particularly as it sports an extra string. But it does at least have LEDs inside those fake "valves" that flash when in time to its music. All we need now is Vanessa Mae to play it, wearing a suitably matching outfit, don't you think guys? [MAKE via Slashgear]

Chinese Build Piano, Violin Shaped Buildings to Stereotypical Chinese Kids' Horror

Jason Chen — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:30:33 EDT

There's not much detail on why this Huainan building was built in the shape of a violin and a piano, but our guess is it's to shame every little Chinese kid into taking up the two stereotypical instruments they play: the piano and the violin. Of course, their instruments aren't made of glass and aren't 100 feet tall, but these weigh just as much as the real ones do on those little kids' souls. We can still taste the tears. [Ce via Spluch]

Machine Gun Violin

Brian Lam — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:03:10 EDT

This is a machine gun violin concept by Wei Lieh Lee of the School of Visual Arts. Looks like someone resented their mandatory music lessons. [via the amazing Geekologie]